A database must be able to maintain and enforce the business rules and relationships in data in order to maintain the data model. It does this through referential constraints. They aren't complex, but are powerful, especially with the means to attach DRI actions to them. Joe Celko explains all, and pines for the ANSI CREATE ASSERTION statement.  Read more...

PowerShell V2 introduces the "try-catch-finally" statements, similar to those you already use when you write .NET code. "Try-catch-finally" encloses a block of script that is likely to produce errors under specific circumstances and therefore helps you to keep your code organized. This article is a short usage guide for this error handling construct.   Read more...

PASS President Tom Larock doesn't make long term plans. Steve Jones doesn't make long term plans. Do you?  Read more...

This article describes methods of creating dynamic queries without the use of dynamic SQL to efficiently access large tables.  Read more...

Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren, looking at learning.   Read more...

Use SSIS to pull data from multiple instances. Combine with powershell to run multiple instances simultaneously.  Read more...

A list of builds for SQL Server 2014, through CU5 for RTM.  Read more...

Performance tuning and optimization definitely have their place in minimizing SQL Server Licensing costs – by helping keep CPU utilization low. But it’s important to remember that the fastest and most efficient query possible is the one that you never execute against your SQL Server. That might sound trite, but it’s at the heart of caching – which is key to helping organizations save significant money on SQL Server licensing costs while simultaneously enabling better application performance and increased scalability.  Read more...

This week Steve Jones talks about the query store after an article was released describing it.  Read more...

This article describes a way to identify the user who truncated the table & how you can recover the data.  Read more...

When SQL Server 2014 was released, it included Hekaton, Microsoft’s much talked about memory-optimized engine that brings In-Memory OLTP into play. With memory-optimized tables 30 times faster than disk-based tables, higher performance is promised – but at what cost? Jonathan Watts looks at the features that have improved, and those that need careful consideration.  Read more...

Steve Jones talks about careers, and where you might take your career over time.  Read more...

In many occupations, workers invest in their own tools. However we rarely do that in technology.   Read more...

Learn how you can easily spread your backup across multiple files.  Read more...

Daniel Calbimonte has written a code comparison for MariaDB vs. SQL Server as it pertains to how to comment, how to create functions and procedures with parameters, how to store query results in a text file, how to show the top n rows in a query, how to use loops, and more.  Read more...

Watch this short video on creating a striped backup for your database.  Read more...

Learn how to create a striped backup in this short piece.  Read more...

In this next level of the Stairway to Integration Services, we look at the SSIS catalog environments and how they help you manage your package parameters.  Read more...

Every day, out in the various online forums devoted to SQL Server, and on Twitter, the same types of questions come up repeatedly: Why is this query running slowly? Why is SQL Server ignoring my index? Why does this query run quickly sometimes and slowly at others? My response is the same in each case: have you looked at the execution plan?  Read more...

Containers promise to make applications more portable and efficient. The technology, originally based on Linux's cgroups, provides a way of running several applications as modular, platform-agnostic packages in isolation on the same server. Docker's open-source approach to containers has dominated the market, and Microsoft is producing its own equivalent Windows system. What next? Will Containers replace VMS? Robert Sheldon investigates.  Read more...