Working the Door

Steve Jones talks about one of the highlights of his year: working the door at the PASS Community Summit.

Procedural, Semi-Procedural and Declarative Programming in SQL

A lot of the time, the key to making SQL databases perform well is to take a break from the keyboard and rethink the way of approaching the problem; and rethinking in terms of a set-based declarative approach. Joe takes a simple discussion abut a problem with a UDF to illustrate the point that ingrained procedural reflexes can often prevent us from seeing simpler set-based techniques.

SSRS – KPIs without Analysis Services

During a recent project I was asked if it was possible to simulate Key Performance Indicator (KPI) images in SQL...

Converting Access Queries with iff() and DLookup() to SQL Server

This article gives a description of the iff() and DLookup() functions in Access 2007, and a method to converting them to SQL.

Database Activity Monitoring Part 1 - An Introduction

We are inundated with new technologies and products designed to help make our organisations safe from hackers and other malcontents. One technology that has gained ground over the past few years is database activity monitoring. It makes sense to protect valuable databases, and by adding an intelligent monitor capable of sniffing out threats an additional level of protection can be gained.

But what is database activity monitoring and why should you care?

TSQL Challenge 25 - Appointments and Recurring Schedules

The task is to look at the appointments and the recurrence of schedules to come up with a list of meetings for a given period.

Using Database Transactions across multiple SSIS Tasks

If you experiment at all with transactions that are built into SSIS you will discover that they are highly flawed. ...

SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Enhancements Part - I

SQL Server 2008 has a number of enhancements over 2005 that make it a more capable platform. New author Arshad Ali brings us an overview and some code about a few T-SQL changes.

Implementing User-Defined Hierarchies in SQL Server Analysis Services

To be able to drill into multidimensional cube data at several levels, you must implement all of the hierarchies on the database dimensions. Then you'll create the attribute relationships necessary to optimize performance. Analysis Services hierarchies offer plenty of possibilities for displaying the data that your business requires. Rob Sheldon continues his series on SQL Server Analysis Services 2008.

Mnesia: A Distributed DBMS Rooted in Concurrency

Find out what makes Mnesia, the Erlang-based database management system, perfect for distribution across a network of computers.