CTP has been made available earlier this week for SQL Server 2008 SP3 on Download Center. Read this MSDN blog post to get highlights of what has been updated.

Download Links :

SQL Server 2008 SP3 CTP : http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=226850

SQL Server 2008 SP3 Express CTP : http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=226851

SQL… Read more

sp_help returns information about database objects and types.

@object_name argument is optional for sp_help. When executed without any argument it returns summary information for objects of all types in the database. These includes all user tables, system tables, stored procedures, functions, extended stored procedure, Assembly Stored Procedures, etc…

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You can browse available SQL Instances on network by choosing "<Browse for More..>" from Server Name drop-down list in "Connect to Server" dialog box in Management Studio:

As you can see from the screen shot, all of my instances are visible on the network. If I… Read more

sys.dm_db_persisted_sku_features lists all features which are utilized by the database. Features specific to Enterprise/Developer edition are:

- Compression,
- Partitioning,
- TDE and CDC

These features are available only on Enterprise/Developer editions of SQL Server. You cannot attach or restore databases utilizing these features to a "lower" edition, such as…

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PERCENT_RANK() returns the position of a row within the result set. In contrast to RANK() function, PERCENT_RANK() ranks rows between 0 and 1, both inclusive.

Computation formula used by PERCENT_RANK():

     (RANK() – 1) / (Number of Rows – 1)

     where, RANK() is the rank of the row within… Read more

CUME_DIST() calculates relative position of a value relative to a group of values. The value returned by CUME_DIST() is > 0 and <= 1, which represents percentage of number of rows with value less than (for ascending order) or equal to current row.

For example, consider below data:

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