COALESCE() accepts a series of values and a value to use in the event that all items in the list are null; then, it returns the first not-null value. This tip describes two creative uses of the COALESCE() function in SQL Server.
2007-06-01
5,777 reads
Full scan statistics update can be slow and expensive on a large system, and a single update statistics job for a whole database can easily exceed an overnight maintenance window. This article looks at jobs that could update statistics on the system in parallel.
2007-05-31
2,046 reads
Robyn Page delves into all the things you need to know, rather than want to know, about SQL Server replication.
2007-05-30
5,363 reads
Learn how to upload multiple XML files to an SQL Server 2005 database XML data type column.
2007-05-29
3,285 reads
You can use arithmetic operators in date/time calculations in SQL Server, but sometimes the date/time functions provided by Microsoft are the better option. Follow a few scenarios that demonstrate when arithmetic operators are safe and when they are risky.
2007-05-28
7,463 reads
If you would like to learn how to build and customize your very own Windows service to retrieve posts from multiple RSS feeds, and then store those posts in a SQL Server database, let John Papa guide you through his tutorial.
2007-05-25
2,081 reads
This tip explores a DMX extension introduced in SQL Server 2005 SP2 that can be used to render lift reports directly in Reporting Services.
2007-05-24
3,491 reads
Support conditional formatting for enterprise reports from the Analysis Services layer of the integrated Microsoft business intelligence solution.
2007-05-23
1,891 reads
Francis Norton shows how to use regular expressions to fulfil some real world data validation requirements, demonstrating techniques ranging from simple number format checks, to complex string validation that requires use of regex's powerful "lookahead" feature.
2007-05-22
3,865 reads
Chess makes a fantastic game for programming examples. You will find hundreds of examples on the internet. Some dedicated to OO patterns, others to algorithms and so forth. Unfortunately, most of these examples do not use a database or if they do, treat the database as nothing more than a storage repository. In this series of articles we will use SQL Server and T-SQL to implement the game of chess with an emphasis on thinking in sets.
2007-05-21
5,228 reads
By Andy Warren
Somehow two years have elapsed since my last update; hopefully it won’t be that...
By Steve Jones
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a...
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
I have table: t1 in schema1 with 19 billion records. I have another table...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Minimally Viable Security
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Encoding NULL
What is returned from this code in SQL Server 2025?
SELECT BASE64_ENCODE(NULL)See possible answers