Damon Armstrong demonstrates an efficient way to capture and manage SQL exceptions in your .NET application, by adding a SQL logger to your data access layer.… Read more
Author and SQL Server development manager, Kirk Haselden, talks about SSIS, gruelling interviews on an empty stomach, and his role at Microsoft.… Read more
Nigel Rivett demonstrates how to execute all SSIS packages in a given folder using either an SSIS control package, a stored procedure or a DOS batch file.… Read more
To celebrate the seventh anniversary of Robyn Page's classic workbench, Phil brings it right up to date. What starts as a gentle introduction to the use of dates in SQL Server ends up with some unusual tricks in creating calendars and calculating Mardi Gras. … Read more
Extensive coverage of the query-time behaviour of SQL Server Full-text search, demonstrating how searches are expanded by the parser before hitting the full-text index.… Read more
How do you keep your skills current? How will you prepare yourself for what you will be doing 5 years from now? In this article, part III of the series, I discuss books and the role they can play in keeping the developer up to date.… Read more
A seemingly never-ending battle in online database forums involves the question of whether or not database application development should involve the use of stored procedures.… Read more
Last month saw the release of the SQL Bundle 5. Here, some key members of the Red Gate development team offer insight into some of the major new features, and the technical challenges they faced in implementing them.… Read more
When faced with two viable solutions to a badly compromised database design, one using clustered indexes and the other compound primary keys, Grant Fritchey took the only sensible route: he gathered hard performance data...… Read more
SQL Full-text Search (SQL FTS) is an optional component of SQL Server 7 and later, which allows fast and efficient querying when you have large amounts of unstructured data. … Read more
In Part I of this series, I discussed the role and value of conferences in the career development of SQL Server and .NET developers. In this article, I move on to discuss online technical forums, focusing on what to do before you post on a newsgroup or forum in order to derive maximum benefit from them, and avoid trying the patience and goodwill of the forum community.… Read more
A number of years ago, I wrote a blog entry entitled "Who is Responsible for your Career?". It was perhaps the second most popular post I ever wrote (judging by reads and referrals), and it generated a large number of comments and other blog entries, both pro and con. … Read more
Your application may require an index based on a lengthy string, or even worse, a concatenation of two strings, or of a string and one or two integers. In a small table, you might not notice the impact. But suppose the table of interest contains 50 million rows? Then you will notice the impact both in terms of storage requirements and search performance.… Read more
Dr. Michael Rys is the program manager for the SQL Server Engine Team at Microsoft, represents Microsoft on the W3C XQuery Working Group and has a seat on the SQL Standardization committee.… Read more
Like a Phoenix, the dynamic SQL versus canned procedures and user functions argument has resurfaced on the SQL newsgroups. Many of the proponents of the dynamic argument are web or Access developers, or developers of some other front end. Arthur takes another look at the argument.… Read more
Peter runs a consulting firm that develops data-driven enterprise solutions, he is also a programming instructor for Wintellect and a frequent speaker on SQL Server and other subjects.… Read more
Scott is the director of IT for a premier web hosting company called ORCS Web, and has spent a lot of time working on SQL Server 2005 issues related to that business.… Read more