Articles

Technical Article

VARCHAR (MAX), NVARCHAR (MAX) and NTEXT Data Types

Despite NTEXT and TEXT being deprecated in SQL Server for some time they are still both used in production systems. In this article, I will briefly demonstrate the difference between a VARCHAR (MAX), NVARCHAR (MAX) and the NTEXT data types, and the impact on performance from using NTEXT/TEXT.

(2)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2013-01-21

6,201 reads

Technical Article

Free eBook: SQL Server Execution Plans

Every Database Administrator, developer, report writer, and anyone else who writes T-SQL to access SQL Server data, must understand how to read and interpret execution plans. This book leads you right from the basics of capturing plans, through how to interrupt them in their various forms, graphical or XML, and then how to use the information you find there to diagnose the most common causes of poor query performance, and so optimize your SQL queries, and improve your indexing strategy.

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2013-01-17

7,238 reads

External Article

Creating SSIS Package Templates for Reusability

We often need to create similar SSIS packages which contain some common components such as connection managers, data flow components, log providers, event handlers, etc... So do we really need to create a package from scratch each time and add all these commonly used components in each package again and again. Is it possible to create a SSIS package with a basic structure/workflow and common components which can be used as template to create subsequent packages?

2013-01-15

3,372 reads

Blogs

Programmatic Tool Calling with the Claude SDK

By

Programmatic Tool Calling with the Claude SDK Every morning somebody on the team runs the...

A New Word: Mauerbauertraurigkeit

By

mauerbauertraurigkeit – n. inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends whose company...

Methodology for dealing with bad data in production

By

Pinal Dave wrote up his methodology for what to do when you discover bad...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

VACATION!

By Grant Fritchey

Comments posted to this topic are about the item VACATION!

Why SQL Server Database Attach fails and how to repair it

By Nisarg Upadhyay

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Why SQL Server Database Attach...

Fixing P1 Queries

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fixing P1 Queries

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

BIT_COUNT() IV

In SQL Server 2025, I run this code:

select bit_count('A')
What is returned?

See possible answers