We've had a lot of coverage of dynamic sql (including another great one from Robert Marda later this week) but this one is a little different. Done in a question/answer format, Andy tries to explain to junior developers why dynamic sql is to be avoided, how to do so, what to do when you can't.   Read more...

Do you use the maintenance plans or hate them? Wish they would do more? Curious about how they work under the hood? Cmon, you gotta read this one! Trust us, it's not another "how-to" article! Well, maybe just a little bit!   Read more...

This article shows you how to identify SQL Server performance problems and explains how the SERIALIZABLE transaction isolation level effected the performance of an OLTP application.  Read more...

We've had a lot of coverage of dynamic sql (including another great one from Robert Marda later this week) but this one is a little different. Done in a question/answer format, Andy tries to explain to junior developers why dynamic sql is to be avoided, how to do so, what to do when you can't.   Read more...

Do you use the maintenance plans or hate them? Wish they would do more? Curious about how they work under the hood? Cmon, you gotta read this one! Trust us, it's not another "how-to" article! Well, maybe just a little bit!   Read more...

Architectural choices for data access affect performance, scalability, maintainability, and usability. This article focuses on the performance aspects of these choices by comparing relative performance of various data access techniques, including Microsoft® ADO.NET Command, DataReader, DataSet, and XML Reader in common application scenarios with a Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database.  Read more...

Last week Andy started a discussion of the various ways you can reduce the number of round trips to the server. This week he continues by looking at a method he used recently to do client side caching of data to eliminate the round trip altogether. Gotta read it!   Read more...

In three previous articles Andy has done a very basic introduction to the ADO connection, command, and recordset objects. In this wrap up article he talks about how to use the power of ADO client side filtering and disconnected recordsets, then adds some code which shows how to combine all the objects. ADO is not simple, but Andy has done a good job in limiting his dicussion to the things you REALLY need to know about ADO to get started.   Read more...