In this article we are going to look two new enhancements: the Insert snippet menu option and the surround with option.  Read more...

Building a Stock Price Correlation Matrix Using TVPs, a CROSS JOIN and the PIVOT Function  Read more...

Despite the neglect of the basic ODBC drivers over the years, they still afford a neat way of reading from, and writing to, CSV files; and to be able to do so in SQL as if they were tables is somewhat magical. Just to prove it is possible, Phil Factor creates a CSV version of AdventureWorks as a linked server.  Read more...

Chuck Hoffman shows a technique using sets for selecting records from hierarchies such as Manager / Employee structures.  Read more...

Chuck Hoffman exposes the mysteries of getting CASE statements to work in dynamic ORDER BY statements.  Read more...

Part two of this fantastic series from Jeff Moden looks at generating date data, something which can be handy for any number of testing purposes.  Read more...

The introduction of the new analytic functions in the RTM version of SQL Server 2012, such as LAG, LEAD, FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE, with the improved over clause, greatly facilitate the analysis on ordered data sets, such as time-series data. Read on to learn more.  Read more...

In this article, we are going to create a linked server to the MySQL Database. Once finished that task, we will select, insert, update and delete some data using SQL Server.   Read more...

It is simple to parse HTML directly to SQL, manipulate, and render back to HTML using SQLDOM  Read more...

This article describes the sequence new feature used in SQL Server 2012  Read more...

Are multiple binary switches becoming hard to manage? The TestBits function can help with that.  Read more...

A simple problem that can become complex in T-SQL. How do you find the rows that match 2 conditions, but not a third, in an efficient manner. MVP Jeff Moden gives us a solution.  Read more...

Should I be formatting dates on the database side? What tools can I use in SQL Server to format and parse dates? This article helps you decide which one best suits your needs.  Read more...

SQL Server includes a subset of four ranking functions that can be used to rank the rows of your result set over a partition. This article presents those functions and examples of their use.  Read more...

When rounded detail quantities are created by an allocation, often the total must foot back exactly to the allocated amount.  Read more...

How do you delete millions of rows with minimal impact to the business? This article gives you a way to accomplish the removal of old data.  Read more...

The Partition clause in the Row_Number() Over() function is a quick tool for eliminating duplicate rows.  Read more...

Distributed queries on linked servers are not the greatest idea from a performance standpoint, but they can be quite useful.  Read more...

Learn how to avoid complex date calculations and increase performance using calendar tables in this article from Todd Fifield.  Read more...

Alex Kuznetsov has done some pioneering work on the testing of stored procedures over four years, and has learned a great deal in the process. In this article, he spells out the lessons learned from a wealth of experience in Unit Testing T-SQL.  Read more...