Robert Sheldon The EXCEPT and INTERSECT Operators in SQL Server The UNION, EXCEPT and INTERSECT operators of SQL enable you to combine more than one SELECT statement to form a... 28 February 2011 14 min read
Feodor Georgiev Collecting Performance Data into a SQL Server Table Occasionally, when tracking down a performance problem, you have to have information over time on the values of particular sets... 20 January 2011 12 min read
Greg Larsen Which of Your Stored Procedures are Using the Most Resources? Dynamic Management Views and Functions aren't always easy to understand. However, they are the easiest way of finding out which... 11 January 2011 9 min read
Benjamin Nevarez Index Selection and the Query Optimizer While we all know that the Query Optimizer uses Indexes to produce better execution plans, we don't all know exactly... 25 November 2010 23 min read
Holger Schmeling SQL Server Statistics: Problems and Solutions SQL Server Statistics assist the query optimiser to calculate the best way of running the query. Holger describes every common... 27 October 2010 39 min read
Holger Schmeling Queries, Damned Queries and Statistics In a perfect world, we should just be able to write queries and leave the RDBMS to decide the perfect... 14 October 2010 43 min read
Nick Harrison Under the ORM Hood: Revealing the SQL Your application code may look neat and clean, and you are using a sound Object-relational Mapper, but when you put... 05 October 2010 13 min read
Kathi Kellenberger SSN Matching Speed Phreakery On Ask.SQLServerCentral.com, a group of people interested in experimenting with heavily optimised SQL techniques try them out on a problem,... 05 August 2010 18 min read
Laerte Junior Gathering Perfmon Data with Powershell When you have to routinely collect data from Performance Monitor Counters, it soon becomes easier and more convenient to use... 08 July 2010 14 min read
Kathi Kellenberger Set-based Speed Phreakery: The FIFO Stock Inventory SQL Problem The SQL Speed Freak Challenge is a no-holds-barred competition to find the fastest way in SQL Server to perform a... 25 May 2010 31 min read
Rod Colledge Reliable Storage Systems for SQL Server By validating the IO path before commissioning the production database system, and performing ongoing validation through page checksums and DBCC... 12 May 2010 12 min read
Rod Colledge High Performance Storage Systems for SQL Server Rod Colledge turns his pessimistic mindset to storage systems, and describes the best way to configure the storage systems of... 29 April 2010 14 min read
Chris Farrell The Fast Guide to Application Profiling In this sample chapter from his recently released book (co-Authored with Paul Glavich) Chris Farrell gives us a fast overview... 22 April 2010 35 min read
Jonathan Lewis Designing Efficient SQL: A Visual Approach Sometimes, it is a great idea to push away the keyboard when tackling the problems of an ill-performing, complex, query,... 25 February 2010 16 min read
Kathi Kellenberger Writing Efficient SQL: Set-Based Speed Phreakery Phil Factor's SQL Speed Phreak challenge is an event where coders battle to produce the fastest code to solve a... 04 February 2010 31 min read
Josef Richberg Simple Query tuning with STATISTICS IO and Execution plans A great deal can be gleaned from the use of the STATISTICS IO and the execution plan, when you are... 04 February 2010 21 min read
Grant Fritchey Controlling Execution Plans with Hints The Query Optimizer gets it right most of the time, but occasionally it chooses a plan that isn't the best... 12 November 2009 38 min read
Paul Glavich Understanding Performance Profiling Targets In this sample chapter from his upcoming book, Paul Glavich explains performance metrics and walks us through the steps needed... 04 November 2009 21 min read
Laerte Junior Reducing I/O with the ‘Missing Indexes’ DMVs Laerte recently experienced an I/O nightmare, which, as a happy accident, gave him an opportunity to test out the 'Missing... 09 October 2009 14 min read
Brad McGehee Mastering SQL Server Profiler – eBook Download Download Brad McGehee's "from the ground up" guide to SQL Server's most powerful performance diagnostic tool.… 07 October 2009 2 min read
