Cade Bryant


Technical Article

An alternative to self-joins

Oftentimes there is a need to retrieve different types of the same object (e.g. contacts).  For example, in a Contacts database, you might have a Contact table containing many different types of contacts (employees, customers, suppliers, etc).  Typically, a user might need to see a report of all different types of contacts for an order […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-07-18

827 reads

Technical Article

Search all objects in all DBs for code fragments

This procedure allows you to search through all objects in all databases on your server for words/phrases in your object code.  Very handy for cases in which, for example, a column name on a table has been changed and you need to search your entire server for any sprocs/views/etc. that might reference it.Syntax: [EXEC] sp_FindCodeStr […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-06-10

269 reads

Technical Article

Improving performance on joins to large tables.

In your tenure as a DBA/developer, you've probably been asked to write dozens of stored procedures similar to this:CREATE PROCEDURE ContactInfo@ContactID intASSELECT c.Name, a.Address, p.PhoneFROM Contact cLEFT JOIN ContactAddress aON c.ContactID = a.ContactIDLEFT JOIN ContactPhone pON c.ContactID = p.ContactIDWHERE c.ContactID = @ContactIDBut there is a more efficient way to write such a query.....particularly if you […]

(1)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-06-03

1,420 reads

Technical Article

Show all User-Defined Datatypes for all Databases

This procedure displays all user-defined datatypes in all databases on a server.  Another example of the power of dynamic T-SQL, this procedure dynamically generates SELECT statements for the systypes tables in each database and UNIONs them together so that they display in one recordset.

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-05-30

167 reads

Technical Article

Dynamically Generating HTML Tags from T-SQL

Here's a real-life challenge I was faced with at work: my company (a talent agency) needed me to create a report listing all of our actors that we represent - and for each actor, a comma-delimited string of each production that they've starred in.  Simple enough, right......except that, within the comma-delimited list of productions, they […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-04-11

796 reads

Technical Article

View Input Buffers for all SPIDS

This procedure, sp_AllInputBuffers, uses dynamic T-SQL to generate and execute the DBCC INPUTBUFFER statement for each server process (except yours).  Perfect for performance troubleshooting situations, when you want to see what commands are being executed against your server.  Also, a great example of the power of dynamic T-SQL.For the @exec parameter, pass 1 or leave […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-04-04

663 reads

Technical Article

"RESTORE..... WITH MOVE" all databases on a server

If, like me, you are constantly restoring/moving several databases between multiple environments (development to staging, production to training, etc.), you know how tedious it can get to use EM, or to manually type out all those RESTORE...WITH MOVE statements in QA.Even having a saved script isn't the ideal thing, as you still need to go […]

(1)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-02-10

1,800 reads

Technical Article

Correction to "drop/recreate objects" script.

Regarding the recent script I submitted (dropping/recreating all procedures/views) - I made an important oversight. I neglected to add a CASE statement in order to make sure that the appropriate type of object was being referenced in the DROP statement.Below is the corrected script:

(1)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-02-06

215 reads

Technical Article

Drop and re-create all stored procedures or views

There are times when you may need to drop and re-create all stored procedures and/or views in your database.  For example, in cases where procedures or views are causing blocked locks or other performance problems, a recent article (http://www.sswug.org/see.asp?s=1166&id=13448) suggested dropping/re-creating procedures and views after a service pack has been installed.  The installation of a […]

(3)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-02-05

1,268 reads

Technical Article

The case against using single-line comments

This isn't a "script" per se - but rather an observation about a common issue in writing scripts.I want to alert SQL programmers to the issues surrounding the use of single-line comments.  I try to avoid these whenever possible, and use block comments instead (except, of course, when commenting out the keyword GO).The reason is […]

(3)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2003-01-21

279 reads

Blogs

The Book of Redgate: Mistakes

By

This is kind of a funny page to look at. The next page has...

ADF Pipeline Debugging Fails with BadRequest – The Sequel

By

A while ago I blogged about a use case where a pipeline fails during...

Why I stopped using MCP for AI coding stuff

By

Something has shifted quietly in 2026. The developers I know/respect—the ones actually shipping, not...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Dynamic Unpivot

By pietlinden

I have a table I didn't design that has tons of repeating groups in...

Writing as an Art and a Job

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Writing as an Art and...

String Similarity II

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item String Similarity II

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

String Similarity II

What is the range for the result from the EDIT_DISTANCE_SIMILARITY() function in SQL Server 2025?

See possible answers