Should I use NOT IN, OUTER APPLY, LEFT OUTER JOIN, EXCEPT, or NOT EXISTS?
I dig into the left anti semi join, comparing NOT IN, NOT EXISTS, OUTER APPLY, EXCEPT, and OUTER JOIN methods.
I dig into the left anti semi join, comparing NOT IN, NOT EXISTS, OUTER APPLY, EXCEPT, and OUTER JOIN methods.
Microsoft released new cumulative updates for SQL Server. SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Cumulative Update # 10 KB Article: KB #2783135 16 fixes are listed at the time of publication Build number...
Microsoft has released Cumulative Update #5 for SQL Server 2012 RTM. Note this is *not* a cumulative update for Service Pack 1. So if your build # is >= 11.0.3000, you should not be...
Some important informations on updates for SQL Server 2012.
I discuss several aspects of DBCC CHECKDB and offer suggestions to minimize the impact this crucial operation can have.
Waited to deploy SQL Server 2012 until Service Pack 1 was released? Then held off because Service Pack 1 did not include important updates from Cumulative Update #3 and Cumulative Update #4? You're running...
Today Microsoft has released a new cumulative update for SQL Server 2008 SP3. KB article: KB #2771833 There are 9 fixes listed at the time of writing The build number is 10.00.5828.00 Relevant for...
Last week I mentioned in passing that Service Pack 1 is now available, while I was blogging from the PASS Summit keynote. I wanted to put up an official post instead of having it...
Last week I attended the PASS Summit in Seattle. I blogged from both keynotes (Keynote #1 and Keynote #2), as well as the WIT Luncheon – which SQL Sentry sponsored. I had a fantastic...
SQLSentry is very proud to sponsor the 10th annual Women in Technology Luncheon at the PASS Summit. Probably 700 people in here – pretty crowded house. This luncheon is growing year over year and...
Douglas McDowell talks about day 1, the video montage featuring folks here from all over the world, and the fiscal year. The important point I took from this is that PASS is a not-for-profit...
Bill Graziano takes the stage at 8:15. He talks about how 3,894 attendees (and 5,611 total registrants) represent 57 countries at the 14th summit. There are over 127,000 members worldwide. Note that you can...
I had an incredibly interesting experience getting to Seattle this week. I flew out of Providence through Philadelphia. Apparently there was some smoke in one of the towers at PHL, so our flight was...
Extended Events becomes much more usable in Management Studio.
A lot of work went into improving estimates shown by an execution plan in Plan Explorer.
Tip : Auditing when Triggers are Disabled or Enabled for SQL Server
STATISTICS IO might not always tell the whole truth about data being read to process a query.
I follow up on an earlier post about trimming time from datetime, this time examining the performance characteristics of various methods without data access.
Today was SQLSaturday #146, put on by Mike Walsh, Jack Corbett, and a host of other volunteers and organizers. Scott and I missed the speaker dinner last night, but we headed up from Rhode...
Microsoft released new cumulative updates for SQL Server; they announced them on their blog several hours ago. SQL Server 2012 RTM Cumulative Update # 4 KB Article: KB #2758687 25 fixes are listed at the...
Tip : Script to create dynamic PIVOT queries in SQL Server
I show several reasons why you should stop using the sp_ prefix on stored procedures in SQL Server, including a performance hit.
This week there was a security release for all supported versions of SQL Server. Each version has 32-bit and 64-bit patches, and each version has GDR (General Distribution Release) and QFE (Quick-Fix Engineering) patches....
See if there is anything to gain by checking first if a particular column should be updated.
Hit-highlighting is a feature that many people wish Full-Text Search would support natively. See possible solutions.
Today Microsoft has released a new cumulative update for SQL Server 2008. Cumulative Update #7 for SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 Knowledge Base Article: KB #2738350 At the time of writing, there are...
This morning the SQL Server team announced the release of Service Pack 1 CTP4 for SQL Server 2012. Back in July I talked about CTP3 and how the release contained BI features only; no...
I talk about the default cursor options in SQL Server and why you may want to override them.
Tip : Revisit your use of the SQL Server REMOTE join hint
Well, East Greenwich, RI. Another successful event, this one put on by John Miner, Brandon Leach, Steve Simon, Scott Abrants and a host of other folks. Several #SQLFamily friends in attendance as well: Grant...
Your data type choices can sometimes have more impact than you think.
Tip : Build a quota system for SQL Server user defined tables
Yesterday I presented at SQLSaturday #162. My slide deck and samples are here: Slide Deck & Samples: Bertrand – T-SQL Bad Habits & Best Practices I also wanted to answer a question...
There was a little bug in the cumulative update installer in early CU builds of SQL Server 2012 RTM.
There are lots of ways to remove time from a date, but most of them are extremely inefficient.
Today the SQL Server Release Services Team has released the third Cumulative Update for SQL Server 2012. The KB article is at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2723749. The build number is: 11.0.2332.0. There are 35 fixes publicly documented at the...
Tip : Recover access to a SQL Server instance
Microsoft has released cumulative updates for SQL Server 2008 R2. SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Cumulative Update #8 KB article is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2723743 Build number is 10.50.2822.0 There are 20 fixes published as of 2012-08-31...
This post explores the performance characteristics of several solutions to the median problem.
Playing around today, I discovered that I was locked out of my local named instance using the Dedicated Administrator Connection. This post shows why and explains how you can avoid getting shut out of your own instance.
Sometimes it can make sense to check for potential errors and prevent them, instead of letting them happen.
Some interesting discussions always evolve around the topic of splitting strings; here I show splitting on the database side may not be necessary in the first place.
I describe a way to use ALTER SCHEMA … TRANSFER to refresh data with minimal disruption.
See how you can dynamically drive sort column and sort order.
There were a lot of comments following my post last week about string splitting, and I have tried to address those here.
Microsoft has released a cumulative update for SQL Server 2008 R2 SP2, which was only released last week. KB article is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2720425 Build number is 10.50.4260.0 There are 35 fixes published as of 2012-08-01...
This week I came across a case where DRY should be thrown out the window. There are other cases as well (for example, scalar functions), but this one was an interesting one involving Bitwise logic.
Tip : Removing the SQL Server Management Data Warehouse
Today Microsoft has released Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2008 R2. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30437 The build number is 10.50.4000.0 and it includes fixes from 2008 R2 SP1 Cumulative Updates 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5....
I explore some common approaches people use to split strings, complete with performance analysis.