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SQLServerCentral Article

XML Workshop I - Generating XML output using FOR XML with AUTO and RAW

Quickly becoming the SQL Server XML expert, Jacob Sebastion brings us a great new article that expands upon his very popular series on XML in SQL Server. This time he examines the FOR XML PATH option, which provides additional formatting capabilities.

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2008-05-22 (first published: )

20,742 reads

External Article

Execution Plan Basics

Every day, out in the various discussion boards devoted to Microsoft SQL Server, the same types of questions come up again and again: Why is this query running slow? Is my index getting used? Why isn't my index getting used? In order to arrive at the answer you have to ask the same return question in each case: have you looked at the execution plan? We are very pleased to be allowed to publish the first chapter of Grant Fritchey's excellent new book on execution plans.

2008-05-22

4,960 reads

SQLServerCentral Article

SSIS Is Not Just for SQL Server

SQL Server Integration Services is an incredibly rich and complex development environment that can handle almost any data movement task. Even those that do not involve SQL Server. Longtime author Tim Mitchell brings us a use that has nothing to do with SQL Server, but can be very handy for many of us.

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2008-05-21 (first published: )

11,840 reads

External Article

Using xp_ReadErrorLog in SQL Server 2005

I would like to share some interesting parameters I found for the undocumented extended stored procedure xp_ReadErrorLog. In doing some testing with this extended stored procedure I found four very interesting parameters. Adding to some of the articles already on the web that discuss undocumented stored procedures, in this article I will explain my testing, use and some examples of the procedure.

2008-05-21

3,165 reads

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SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression Algorithm

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The Large Encoded Value

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Question of the Day

The Large Encoded Value

I want to use the new BASE64_ENCODE() function in SQL Server 2025, but return a string that isn't large type. What is the longest varbinary string I can pass in and still get a varchar(8000) returned?

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