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Technical Article

What a Data Warehouse is Not

Recently, I was at a conference, and I heard the following discussion about what a data warehouse was. One person suggested that a data warehouse was really all the old legacy systems connected by software that could access the data. By calling such a contraption a data warehouse, the organization could avoid having to do the hard and complex work of integration. There are so many problems with this federated approach to a data warehouse that they are almost not worth repeating here. But (once again!) here goes.

2009-11-09

6,637 reads

Technical Article

Using T-SQL CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY

That said, even though my personal focus is pretty much OO, I still miss stuff. SQL Server 2005 came out with the CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY operators and I have just started learning how to use APPLY in the last month or so. When I think I have it figured out, I am fortunate enough that some of you are interested in reading about my understanding of the technology.

2009-11-06

7,434 reads

External Article

SQL Server Unique Constraints for Large Text Columns

We are storing large text and URLs that are over 900 bytes in some of our tables and have a requirement to enforce uniqueness in those columns. But SQL Server has a limitation that index size can't be over 900 bytes. How do I enforce uniqueness in these columns and is it possible to achieve this in SQL Server 2005 and above? What are my different options to solve this problem? I heard that we can use CHECKSUM to create a hash, but is it possible to avoid collisions in the hash value as we are storing millions of rows?

2009-11-05

3,006 reads

External Article

SQL Server Reporting Services Disaster Recovery Case Study

There are many ways to perform disaster recovery with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Based upon customer experience and internal testing, this technical note provides guidance around best practices to design and manage robust end-to-end disaster recovery (DR). This DR method will involve both automatic and manual failover in the form of content switches, SQL Server failover clustering, and database mirroring. This case study focuses on the lessons learned from CareGroup Healthcare System.

2009-11-02

2,310 reads

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T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: The || Operator

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...

Your Value from a Conference

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Your Value from a Conference

UNISTR Basics

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item UNISTR Basics

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Question of the Day

UNISTR Basics

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