2004-03-08
11,002 reads
Articles
Generate Next Numbers with SQL Server
Dinesh ran into a situation where a client had very specific requirements for generating keys. Take a look at the solution, can you better alternatives? Sometimes you just can't talk the client into changing!
2004-03-05
15,242 reads
How to Make Sure You Have Good Passwords
As Robin points out there is no built in way to make sure users have strong passwords when using SQL authentication. There are a couple changes you can make (with appropriate warnings!) that will allow you to do this. Read on to find out why and how.
2004-03-02
6,675 reads
Monitoring Failed Job Steps
New Author! We've run a couple articles on similar topics, this one takes a slightly different approach. It's a short article and has two scripts included.
2004-03-01
9,106 reads
Microsoft Action Pack Subscription
One of the biggest hurdles people new to the IT field face is getting access to all the software they need so they can learn. This new program from Microsoft offers a TON of software for under $400. Caveats apply (don't they always?) but it's worth the 5 minutes to read what it takes.
2004-03-01
862 reads
Review of Lumigent Entegra
We've been trying to catch up on reviews lately, Hai was kind enough to give Entegra a try and report back on it. The basic concept is that it lets you do extensive auditing without having to add triggers. If you're trying to find an auditing solution, this is worth considering.
2004-02-27
6,092 reads
Regular Expression Library
This isn't a SQL site nor can you easily do regular expressions from SQL. That said, sometimes regular expressions are EXACTLY what you need to solve a problem. The downside? They're tricky! This is a great resource to pass on to your development team.
2004-02-26
653 reads
Typed Data Objects
This is a tool to generate C# code based on a sql script. Source code is also available for download. It's free! One caveat is that the site is in Italian.
2004-02-26
597 reads
Optimizing Your Application - Part 2
This article is for developers (and is in C#), looks at how you can avoid requerying by storing data in a hashtable. Mainly code, but you may get a good idea or two from it.
2004-02-25
6,973 reads
What is the difference between SET and SELECT?
Both SET and SELECT can be used to assign values to variables. But when to or when not to use SET or SELECT? Or does it matter? This articles shows you how SET and SELECT are different in various scenarios, along with examples. You will also find a test script that you can run, to identify the performance differences between SET and SELECT
2004-02-25
344 reads
Blogs
KDA: Echoes of Deception - Case 7
By Zikato
A fugitive cyber-criminal, a wingsuit, and 24 million flight records. Somewhere between Doha and...
Do This Before You Contact Your SQL Server Consultant
Say you need outside help. You’ve exhausted all the things that you could do...
Microsoft MVP 2026: Ten Years on the Data Platform
I’m honored to announce that I’ve been renewed as a Microsoft MVP for the...
Forums
Do we have a forum for SQL Server 2025?
Not seeing a 2025 forum, it looks to me the site will not going...
Developer edition cannot be connected from other computers
I installed a new SQL server 2025 Enterprise developer edition for our development environment....
How Clustering can be Used as a Preprocessing Technique for Classification in Azure Machine Learning
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How Clustering can be Used...
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT() III
In SQL Server 2025, I run this code:
select bit_count(-1)What is returned? See possible answers