Building high performance applications with SQL Server can be a challenge if you do not understand how the query processor works and how the server uses indexes. SQL Server expert Randy Dyess brings a look at how bookmark lookups are used when satisfying a query and how this can impact the performance of your query.   Read more...

In this article Randy Dyness shows you how to avoid temp tables whenever to maximize the performance of your queries.   Read more...

Using hints in a query is something that most DBAs don't ever seem to bother with, but when they do, NOLOCK seems to be their hint of choice. Wayne Fillis brings us a detailed examination of how this particular hint actually affects the performance of your system.   Read more...

Building high performance applications with SQL Server can be a challenge if you do not understand how the query processor works and how the server uses indexes. SQL Server expert Randy Dyess brings a look at how bookmark lookups are used when satisfying a query and how this can impact the performance of your query.   Read more...

New Author! Deadlocks aren't the most common problem but they happen they can really degrade performance. Shiv works through how to nail down what is causing the deadlock.   Read more...

Using hints in a query is something that most DBAs don't ever seem to bother with, but when they do, NOLOCK seems to be their hint of choice. Wayne Fillis brings us a detailed examination of how this particular hint actually affects the performance of your system.   Read more...

A series of tips on optimizing XML in your SQL Server databases.   Read more...

Using hints in a query is something that most DBAs don't ever seem to bother with, but when they do, NOLOCK seems to be their hint of choice. Wayne Fillis brings us a detailed examination of how this particular hint actually affects the performance of your system.   Read more...

New author Jambu Krishnamurthy brings us a look at table variables and how they differ from temporary tables in SQL Server 2000.   Read more...

Gathering performance data on your servers can be a cumbersome task without paying for an expensive tool. New author Jambu Krishnamurthy brings us a short tutorial on how you can gather this data from Perfmon and import it into SQL Server for reporting.   Read more...

How do your indexes perform under different fragmentation levels in SQL 2000? Joe Doherty brings us part 1 of his look at this topic with an examination of how your data is stored and a detailed analysis of DBCC SHOWCONTIG.   Read more...

Working with memory in SQL Server and tuning your server for optimum performance gets more complex all the time, especially with the availability of 64-bit platforms. New author Paul Mu brings us a short guide to using the /3GB and PAE switches along with their implications for your server.   Read more...

Dealing with text, image, and other large object data types can be confusing for many people, in all aspects of working with them. However one place that is important is performance. SQL Server MVP Simon Sabin brings us a few thoughts on improving performance with these columns and the Text in Row setting.   Read more...

Performance Tuning can be as much an art as a science when working with SQL Server, but there are many fine techniques that can help you get started. New author Michael Morin brings a great new technique helping you get started on determining where the heavy I/O users are in your database.   Read more...

Stored procedures are a great way to encapsulate code and reuse it in many places in your application. But when you have a performance issue, how do you know which part of the stored procedure is giving you problems? Steve Jones takes a look at a few techniques for diving into stored procedures and identifying problem areas.   Read more...

The second in a series from Adindam Banerjee on server performance and capacity planning. This time Arindam takes a look at the memory requirements for SQL Server.   Read more...

Performance tuning often seems like it can be more of an art than a science. However there are a number of fundamentals that can help you tune most of the queries that you will write or have issues with their performance. Don Peterson brings us a look at how he tuned a query in the real world to avoid a conversion that can cause a query to run slower.   Read more...

In this article Randy Dyness shows you how to avoid temp tables whenever to maximize the performance of your queries.   Read more...

Joe discusses why he prefers command line tools over GUI, then launches into a how-to about querying sysperfinfo to resolve performance issues. Couple nice sample queries included!   Read more...

Performance tuning is an ongoing battle in SQL Server, but having a little knowledge up front when designing an application can greatly reduce the efforts. Do you know which performs better: stored procedures or triggers? There aren't many places where the two are interchangeable, but knowing the impacts of each might change the way you build an application. Read about this analysis by Vijaya Kumar.   Read more...