Greg Larsen shares a number of different TSQL methods to provide paging functionality, for when your application requires that you display only one page of data at a time.  Read more...

What should you do if your first, most intuitive solution to a problem ends up scanning the data more than is necessary, resulting in poor performance? Have you missed a new SQL Server feature that can remove inefficiency from your technique? Alternatively, do you need a little help, and some lateral thinking, to open the path to a different approach? Sometimes, the answer is "both".  Read more...

This article describes a technique of using FULL JOINs to compare two datasets within a numerical tolerance.  Read more...

When converting Oracle PL/SQL to T-SQL, there are a number of ways to do this, but this article shows us how this can be done with regular expressions in Management Studio.  Read more...

Beginning to learn and comprehend SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) MDX queries can be difficult after one has spent years writing queries in T-SQL. When trying to write SQL Server MDX queries, it's worth considering "How would I write this query in T-SQL?"   Read more...

What's this, a conditional WHERE clause that doesn't use dynamic SQL?  Read more...

An old trick nowadays but one which is still underused here on SSC is the cascading CROSS APPLY – where output from one CROSS APPLY is used as input for another.  Read more...

When you write T-SQL code what kind of coding style do you use? Do you have a consistent way to comment and format your code? Does your organization provide standards for how you must code your T-SQL? Join Greg Larsen as he discusses some of the coding styles you should consider when writing your T-SQL scripts and stored procedures.  Read more...

Overview of 2 very important clauses added to SELECT statement in SQL2012 to allow paging on result sets.  Read more...

He admits it wasn't his idea but his head sure wishes it was. SQL Server MVP Jeff Moden explains a wonderful, super simple, very high performance formula that will calculate ISO Week Numbers. If you're "stuck" with SQL Server 2005 or less, you're going to like this a whole lot!  Read more...

The SQL MERGE statement can make your DML querying more efficient but you need to take care or you may get burned  Read more...

Pivoting SQL Server tables is always awkward, even with the PIVOT and UNPIVOT operators. If you want to get the job done without GROUP BY or PIVOT, here is a way to do it using only REPLACE.  Read more...

This article brings you a technique and framework to use in your stored procedures that can allow you to re-throw and log errors.  Read more...

When compared with HASHBYTES, CHECKSUM, has a number of drawbacks. Hence, a question that comes up is: Is Checksum really required? In this article, I attempt to answer that question.  Read more...

Learn how to search for a value throughout all database tables.  Read more...

For enterprise systems, purging data is a reality. Today, we will see some strategies that I recently implemented to make this process work efficiently.  Read more...

How to delete millions of rows with virtually no contention.  Read more...

How to use a passed string variable for an IN type predicate in your queries as a way to more efficiently handle an array of strings.  Read more...

Need to understand new data? This article explains why - and how you can profile it efficiently  Read more...

Auditing, conflict resolution, tamper & concurrency protection are some of the most common requirements for any enterprise system – this 2-part series presents an in-depth look at the various change detection mechanisms available within SQL Server.  Read more...