Sometimes a request from a user who doesn't appreciate the limitations of the technology can jolt you into discovering that an application feature that was, until recently, difficult to achieve is suddenly relatively easy. Dino was asked to allow the user to take photographs and associate them with an item of work. After he'd recovered from the shock, he decided that it was achievable, and now describes how he went on and did it.
2016-10-06
4,818 reads
Aaron Bertrand runs some tests to challenge an assertion that CHARINDEX is always faster at pattern matching than LEFT and LIKE.
2016-10-05
3,387 reads
When we administer a SQL Database, we always have to work with files. This new article shows how to handle them using PowerShell.
2016-10-04
3,166 reads
Greg Larson explains that SQL Server provides a couple of different ways to delete backup and restore history. If you want to remove backup and restore information for all databases based on a date you can use the sp_delete_backuphistory system stored procedure. Or you can use the system stored procedure named sp_delete_database_backuphistory if you want to remove all backup and restore history for a specific database.
2016-10-04
5,098 reads
Data types are an important part of how tables and variables work. Did you know that constants have databases too?
2016-10-03
1,691 reads
The ALL, SOME and ANY predicates aren't much used in SQL Server, but they are there. You can use the Exists() predicate instead but the logic is more contorted and difficult to read at a glance. Set-oriented predicates can greatly simplify the answering of many real-life business questions, so it is worth getting familiar with them. Joe Celko explains.
2016-10-03
8,250 reads
Having a solid knowledge of the window functions if vital to high performance T-SQL Code. The key to these functions is how the OVER clause is used. This article will dive into how to use the OVER clause.
2016-09-30 (first published: 2015-10-14)
182,777 reads
Although SQL Server for Linux removes the concern that adopting SQL Server forces you to also adopt the Windows platform, it could also provide a useful alternative platform, and a more obvious alternative to Oracle. There are, however, several obvious concerns as to how such a product could ever achieve parity with the existing Windows-based product. Microsoft have made an interesting move with several ramifications, as Robert Sheldon explains.
2016-09-30
6,963 reads
There are times when you want some users to see part of a column value but not the whole thing, but you want other users to see the complete column value without any masking. The new SQL Server 2016 Dynamic Data Masking feature will allow you to define these different kinds of masking rules - Greg Larson explains.
2016-09-29
5,212 reads
DBCC CHECKDB is a built-in SQL Server command that allows you to check database integrity and consistency in one simple command, but running it on large databases can be a nightmare. In this article, Ahmad Yaseen explains how you can enhance the command to run faster in SQL Server 2016.
2016-09-28
3,423 reads
By James Serra
Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications, which is...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hidden Security Risks of...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Empty Aggregate
I have this table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerOrder] ( [OrderID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NULL, [total] [money] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOWhat is returned from this code? (answers are for the sum and then the count)
SELECT SUM(total) AS sum,
COUNT(total) AS count
FROM dbo.CustomerOrder;
See possible answers