Jonathan Lewis Oracle to SQL Server: Crossing the Great Divide, Part 2 A well-known Oracle expert records faithfully his struggles with the unfamiliar : SQL Server. He now sets himself the task... 26 May 2010 19 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
Buck Woody Mission Critical: SQL Server General Configuration You know how to set up a SQL Server instance, but it is great to have a list of all... 24 May 2010 4 min read
Robert Sheldon SQL Server APPLY Basics One of the most interesting additions to SQL Server syntax in SQL Server 2005 was the APPLY operator. It allows... 24 May 2010 12 min read
Fabiano Amorim Operator of the Week – Spools, Eager Spool For the fifth part of Fabiano's mission to describe the major Showplan Operators used by SQL Server's Query Optimiser, he... 20 May 2010 12 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
Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the Week – BookMark/Key Lookup Fabiano continues in his mission to describe the major Showplan Operators used by SQL Server's Query Optimiser. This week he... 07 May 2010 7 min read
Robert Sheldon SQL Server Common Table Expression (CTE) Basics The SQL Server common table expression was introduced into standard T-SQL to simplify queries for which a derived table just... 29 April 2010 11 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
Phil Factor Exploring SQL Server table metadata with SSMS and TSQL Phil shows how to start squeezing powerful magic from SSMS for doing a detailed exploration of the metadata of your... 29 April 2010 21 min read
Jonathan Lewis Oracle to SQL Server: Crossing the Great Divide, Part 1 When a SQL expert moves from Oracle to SQL Server, he can spot obvious strengths and weaknesses in the product... 28 April 2010 23 min read
Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the Week – Compute Scalar The third part of Fabiano's mission to describe the major Showplan Operators used by SQL Server's Query Optimiser continues with... 28 April 2010 6 min read
Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the Week – Concatenation Fabiano continues in his mission to describe, one week at a time, all the major Showplan Operators used by SQL... 22 April 2010 3 min read
Greg Larsen Deploying Reports using the ReportingServices2005 Class and the RS Utility Much of the routine administration of Reporting Services (SSRS), such as the routine deployment of RDL reports, can be automated... 16 April 2010 17 min read
Rodney Landrum Consolidating SQL Server Error Logs from Multiple Instances Using SSIS SQL Server hides a lot of very useful information in its error log files. Unfortunately, the process of hunting through... 14 April 2010 15 min read
Fabiano Amorim Showplan Operator of the week – Assert As part of his mission to explain the Query Optimiser in practical terms, Fabiano attempts the feat of describing, one... 14 April 2010 7 min read
Buck Woody Mission Critical: Engine Pre-Installation Even with a task you're entirely familiar with, it is always great to have a checklist to make sure it... 31 March 2010 3 min read
Alex Kuznetsov Basic Defensive Database Programming Techniques We can all recognise good-quality database code: It doesn't break with every change in the server's configuration, or on upgrade.... 31 March 2010 36 min read
Joe Celko Celko’s SQL Stumper: Eggs in one Basket Joe Celko reveals the winner of his Easter Stumper: the puzzle of designing an apparently simple database to deal with... 29 March 2010 13 min read
Buck Woody Mission Critical: Database Design There is nothing like a checklist to make sure you've completed all the tasks in designing a database, and there... 18 March 2010 3 min read