Connect Digest : 2011-12-20
Make SSMS start faster A couple of years ago, I blogged about some ways to make Management Studio start faster. With the latest builds of SQL Server 2012, it seems to be slower than...
Make SSMS start faster A couple of years ago, I blogged about some ways to make Management Studio start faster. With the latest builds of SQL Server 2012, it seems to be slower than...
Microsoft has just released cumulative updates for both SQL Server 2008 R2 branches – RTM and Service Pack 1. SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Cumulative Update #4 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2633146/ Build number is 10.50.2796...
This month's T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Allen White (@SQLRunr) and is about sharing your T-SQL tips and tricks. Since I know many people will share their T-SQL magic and wizardry, I thought...
Where is my graphical ShowPlan? Many of you on SQL Server 2008 R2 are experiencing a major annoyance with SSMS since installing service pack 1 – when clicking a plan from grid results, you...
Very early this morning, Microsoft released two new cumulative updates for the SQL Server 2008 platform. Cumulative Update #7 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 If SELECT @@VERSION is between 10.00.4000 and 10.00.4322...
Books Online articles referencing built-in CLR functions (such as FORMAT()) have a remark similar to the following: FORMAT relies on the presence of .the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime (CLR). A lot of people...
Last week when RC0 was released, the updated installer for "Juneau" (SQL Server Data Tools) was not available. Depending on how you tried to get it, you either ended up on a blank search...
If you're going to install Distributed Replay Controller I've posted about this on twitter a few times, but I thought I should put it down somewhere permanent as well. When you install RC0, and...
As with every new major milestone, one of the first things I do is check out what has changed under the covers. Since RC0 was released yesterday, I've been poking around at some of...
Today on the twitter hash tag #sqlhelp, @leenux_tux asked: How can I figure out the percentage of fields that don't have data ? After further clarification, it turns out he is after what proportion...
This month's T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Brad Schulz (blog) and the topic is one that should attract a lot of submissions: Procedures and Functions. Last week, I talked about the case against...
See several examples supporting the idea that you should use catalog views, not INFORMATION_SCHEMA, in SQL Server.
For those of you using the SQL Server 2008 R2 version of Management Studio, and have applied Service Pack 1, you have probably noticed that clicking on a ShowPlan in grid results no longer...
A year ago today, I made quite easily the best decision of my career, and joined the folks at SQL Sentry. I explained a lot of this process in a blog post last year,...
On Friday, we published a new version of our free query plan analysis tool, SQL Sentry Plan Explorer. We've added a couple of important features: SQL Server 2012 support With a whole slew of...
At the PASS Summit, one of the most anticipated announcements was the release date, and marketing label, for SQL Server code-named "Denali" – the release date is "first half of 2012" (which probably means...
See why you might be getting unexpected syntax errors when using builtins within table-valued function calls.
See a quick metadata script that finds all tables, across all user databases, without a primary key.
Learn why you shouldn't use BETWEEN for date range queries, even with the date data type.
The first cumulative update for SQL Server 2008 SP3 is available. Build number: 10.00.5766 KB Article: KB #2617146 19 fixes Please note: this update is not for SQL Server 2008 R2 or for SQL...
Today Microsoft has released Cumulative Updates for SQL Server 2008 R2. Cumulative Update #10 for SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM Build number: 10.50.1807 KB article: KB #2591746 13 fixes Cumulative Update #3 for SQL...
This is a rough morning. Got in at 2:00 AM, then had no water in my hotel this morning. I doubt I will ever voluntarily stay at the Seattle Hilton again. Still, I'm very...
VP Finance, Bill Graziano comes on stage in a great kilt (but white socks!). No Tina Turner this year. 1,000 people from 53 countries watched the keynote yesterday. He recognizes Tim Radney (@tradney) and...
At PASS I am giving a presentation on Denali SQL Server 2012 – What's New in Engine and Tools. In previous blog posts I've compiled a list of resources and, now that CTP3 is...
Before the lights came down, I had already hit what will probably be the highlight of my morning: having a brief conversation with Dr. David DeWitt. Rushabh Mehta, President, PASS Rushabh Mehta comes on...
Since installing Juneau, I've had various issues accomplishing even the simplest of tasks. I would get errors saying that the SqlCeManager could not be initialized or "object reference not set to an instance of...
After reading the headline, you're probably quite excited – but sadly, no, Denali does not introduce the ability to govern I/O. But there are some cool additions here that you will be able to...
Today Microsoft released Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2008. The build number is 10.00.5500. The announcement blog post from SQL Server Release Services team: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2011/10/06/sql-server-2008-sp3-is-now-available.aspx List of fixes: KB #2546951 : List of...
On older versions of SQL Server, it was tedious work tying DBCC INPUTBUFFER output to active requests. See one way we used to do this.
I wanted to lay out my rough schedule at PASS Summit 2011, so you'll know where to find me. And this is as much for me as it is for you – this is...
This month's T-SQL Tuesday is a week early due to the upcoming PASS Summit. It is being hosted by Stuart Ainsworth (blog | @codegumbo) and the topic is a general one: JOINs. I had...
At SQLBits this week, a colleague of Chris Testa-O'Neill (twitter) asked me a question about Policy-Based Management. Specifically, he wanted to know how to determine, programmatically, which execution modes are applicable to each facet...
Last week I went to Liverpool, UK – birthplace of The Beatles – to speak and to represent SQL Sentry at SQL Bits 9. I have to hand it to these guys – James,...
In SQL Server 2012, we have a new date-related built-in function called EOMONTH – it comes straight to us from VBA, so many Excel and Access users will know exactly what it does. For...
Where is SYSDATE()? I've talked about this one before, but due to a recent conversation about building a datetime value from separate date/time columns or variables, it may be worth bringing up again. When...
In some circles I'm known as "the Connect guy" because I've filed a heck of a lot of suggestions and bugs that I've envisioned or encountered, and I'm often willing to file an issue...
Read about some date/time shorthand you should avoid.
Last night, the SQL Server Release Services Team published Cumulative Update #6 for SQL Server 2008 SP2: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2582285 There are 13 fixes listed, and the build # is 10.00.4321. NOTE: This cumulative update is...
This evening Microsoft released cumulative update #16 for SQL Server 2008 SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2582282/ There are only seven fixes listed, and the build # is 10.00.2850. NOTE: This update is NOT for SQL Server 2008...
See why you should use sp_executesql instead of EXEC() for running dynamic SQL strings.
See an example that defies a generalization about performance of getting the largest value in a column.
UPDATE 2016-10-07 – This demo kit has been overhauled: https://sentryone.com/blog/aaronbertrand/plan-explorer-3-0-demo-kit
SQLSaturday #84 : Kalamazoo, MI : September 17th I will be giving two sessions at SQLSaturday #84 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. One is on "What's New in SQL Server Denali" and the other, "T-SQL :...
Yesterday Microsoft made available Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Service Pack 3 for SQL Server 2008. This allows you to test the service pack in your test or QA environments before deploying the eventual...
This question came up on twitter, and I thought a quick blog post would be better than a series of 140-character snippets. Management Studio does not do the best job at highlighting missing indexes....
Last night Microsoft released a new cumulative update package (CU #9) for SQL Server 2008 R2. The build # is 10.50.1804 and it contains 26 fixes – some of which, like the new CU...
Last night Microsoft has released Cumulative Update #2 for SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1. The build # is 10.50.2772 and it contains 14 fixes, a few of which are wrong-results bugs or...
Yes, Adam is right: we've all written crap code (the topic of this month's T-SQL Tuesday Wednesday. Usually we have an excuse: tight deadline, short shelf life of the code, or didn't know any...
As its name implies, the FORMAT() function was added to Denali in CTP3 to make formatting easier. For the purists, all formatting should be done at the presentation layer. For the rest of us,...
This week I reported a few bugs – one with sp_helptext, one with Activity Monitor in Management Studio, and one in the new sys.dm_server_services DMV. #683234 : sp_helptext treats non-system objects as system objects...