Before SQL Server had SQL window functions, SQL Server developers had to use all manner of tricks and algorithms to come up with ways to rapidly process large amounts of data. Do we need these techniques now that we can express a SQL task in terms of window functions? Kathi revisits a famous SQL challenge to find out.  Read more...

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

Create a professional looking HTML table from T-SQL, not SSRS.  Read more...

How to render PDF documents using SQL CLR. Also a good introduction on creating SQL CLR functions.  Read more...

Detecting file differences on two different web servers using T-SQL.  Read more...

What's the overhead for writing unit tests? Ed Elliot breaks it down, looking at the ways in which unit tests both take more time and save time.  Read more...

NULLs in SQL are a mixed blessing. The Three-Valued Logic of SQL has its uses but can cause difficulties to anyone who assumes that NULL has a 'value'. It can make reports go horribly wrong in a number of alarming ways, as Robert Sheldon explains.  Read more...

Make your comment blocks much more useful, in a surprising number of ways  Read more...

Learn how to generate lists of column values from multiple rows by grouping and using a recursive CTE. This is a very flexible and easy implementation, compared to using cursors or PIVOT operators.  Read more...

A second part to the series by Mickey Stuewe on writing better T-SQL looks at some of the issues of using views in a complex query.  Read more...

Alex Kuznetsov, in an article taken from his book 'Defensive Database Programming with SQL Server', shows how DRY principles can be put in practice with constraints, stored procedures, triggers, UDFs and indexes.  Read more...

Learn how to approach performance tuning in this piece from SQL Server MCM and MVP, Gail Shaw.  Read more...

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

One of the best ways in which you can build better applications is by learning to write better T-SQL. Mickey Stuewe begins a new series showing how you might start to think about writing queries.  Read more...

We've all heard that definitive statement: "Avoid using cursors." But, in my opinion, what really should be conveyed is: "Avoid using row-by-row operations when possible."  Read more...

Percentiles give meaning to measurements by telling you the percentage of the population being measured who get higher or lower values. They are now easier to calculate in SQL, and are useful for reporting; but are the new analytic functions faster and more efficient than the older methods? Dwain Camps demonstrates, and investigates their relative performance.   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...

Learn how to use the TOP clause in conjunction with the UPDATE, INSERT and DELETE statements.  Read more...

Did you know that scalar-valued, user-defined functions can be used in DEFAULT/CHECK CONSTRAINTs and computed columns? Learn about it...  Read more...

Dallas Snider explains how to use T-SQL to generate a random password that meets an organization's password requirements.  Read more...