Most of the time, you do not have to worry about implicit conversion in SQL expressions, or when assigning a value to a column. Just occasionally, though, you'll find that data gets truncated, queries run slowly, or comparisons just seem plain wrong. Robert Sheldon explains why you sometimes need to be very careful if you mix data types when manipulating values.
2011-01-12
4,537 reads
It is always more efficient to maintain referential integrity by using constraints rather than triggers. Sometimes it isn't obvious how to do this. Until a recent idea by Alex Kuznetsov, the history table presented problems for checking data that were difficult to solve with constraints. Joe Celko explains.
2011-01-11
3,294 reads
This article demonstrates the relative merits of natural and surrogate keys and benchmarks their performance in different scenarios.
2011-01-10
4,502 reads
It’s important to profile your database queries to see what happens in response to Entity Framework queries and other data access activities, says Julie Lerman, who gives you the details on several profiling options to improve you coding.
2011-01-07
3,027 reads
components. These same configuration settings can be leveraged in Script Task, but you also have the option of triggering and tracking events in a considerably more customizable manner. This article explores features that provide this flexibility.
2011-01-06
3,819 reads
I need to monitor all the SQL Agents to find out if a job failed in the last 24 hours. Could this be done with policy based management? If so, can you show me how to create the policy?
2011-01-05
4,291 reads
This article examines practical methods of managing and monitoring large tables which make use of the IDENTITY property.
2011-01-04
3,913 reads
Many times developers want to put logic into their code or SSIS/DTS package to check the SQL Server authentication mode. How can this be done programmatically?
2011-01-03
5,211 reads
As a database developer or tester sometimes you need to have production like data in your environment for your development or testing, but you cannot have the production data because of security and privacy issues. So how you can generate test data or replicate similar data as in production for your development or test environment?
2010-12-31
5,955 reads
When using the BETWEEN operator on multiple columns, you are likely using a 2D range query. Such queries perform very poorly in SQL Server. This article examines rewriting these queries for improved performance.
2010-12-30
3,442 reads
By Brian Kelley
There's a great article from MIT Technology Review about resetting on the hype of...
By Steve Jones
etherness – n. the wistful feeling of looking around a gathering of loved ones,...
By Steve Jones
A customer was asking about tracking logins and logouts in Redgate Monitor. We don’t...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Microsoft SQL Year in...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Your Value from a Conference
What does this code return in SQL Server 2025+? (assume the database has an appropriate collation)
SELECT UNISTR('Hello 4E16754C') AS 'A Classic';
A: 
B: 
See possible answers