Gregory Larsen

Currently a SQL Server DBA. I've been working with SQL Server since 1999. I'm an old-time mainframe DBA. My DBA career started in 1985. Currently studying to obtaining MCDBA.

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Stairway to T-SQL DML

Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 11: How to Delete Rows from a Table

You may have data in a database that was inserted into a table by mistake, or you may have data in your tables that is no longer of value. In either case, when you have unwanted data in a table you need a way to remove it. The DELETE statement can be used to eliminate data in a table that is no longer needed. In this article you will see the different ways to use the DELETE statement to identify and remove unwanted data from your SQL Server tables.

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2012-09-19

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Stairway to T-SQL DML

Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 9: Adding Records to a table using INSERT Statement

Not all applications are limited to only retrieving data from a database. Your application might need to insert, update or delete data as well. In this article, I will be discussing various ways to insert data into a table using an INSERT statement.

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2012-09-05

10,890 reads

Stairway to T-SQL DML

Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 8: Using the ROLLUP, CUBE and GROUPING SET operator in a GROUP BY Clause

In this article I will be expanding on my discussion of the GROUP BY clause by exploring the ROLLUP, CUBE and GROUPING SETS operators. These additional GROUP BY operators make it is easy to have SQL Server create subtotals, grand totals, a superset of subtotals, as well as multiple aggregate groupings in a single SELECT statement.

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2012-08-22

18,152 reads

Stairway to T-SQL DML

Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 2: History of Structured Query Language (SQL)

Let’s step back in time and discuss the history of Structured Query Language, or what most SQL Server professionals just shorten to SQL. Fasten your seatbelts, crank up the time machine and travel back in time to follow the history of SQL and Microsoft SQL Server from its early years to where they are today.

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2011-10-21

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Stairway to T-SQL DML

Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 1: The Basic SELECT Statement

There are lots of different aspects of managing data in a SQL Server database. Before you can get into the complex management issues associated with managing application data you need to start with the basic of retrieving data from a table. To return data from a SQL Server table you use a SELECT statement. In this level I will be cover the components of the basic SELECT statement and how you can use it to retrieve data from a single SQL Server table.

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2011-10-07

29,809 reads

SQLServerCentral Article

SQL MAIL Using POP3 and SMTP

SQL Server has a great build in messaging system with SQLMail. Unfortunately it requires Outlook and Exchange to work properly. Some people don't like this or do not run Exchange and have issues getting it to work. Gregory Larsen takes a look at how you can use SMTP to send email from SQL Server.

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2004-11-23

21,115 reads

SQLServerCentral Article

Sequential Numbering

Needing to number rows with a sequential id is a pretty common request. Sometimes it's because the user hasn't made the transition to 'set based' thinking, sometimes it really is a valid request (more or less!). Greg provides several different techniques to help you achieve sequential numbering.

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2003-12-05

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The Decoded Value

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Question of the Day

The Decoded Value

In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code: 

DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!';
DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX);

SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000)));
SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded)

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