R Glen Cooper

Glen Cooper (r.glen.cooper@gmail.com) is a SQL Server programmer. His current interest involves graph-theoretical solutions to optimization problems. Glen holds a PhD in Mathematics specializing in model theory and symbolic logic.
  • Interests: SQL Server, .NET, Mathematics

SQLServerCentral Article

Dijkstra's Algorithm

Introduction This article celebrates a classic algorithm [1] of Dijkstra (1930 – 2002) which finds a path of minimal cost between any pair of nodes in an undirected graph. His procedure is widely recognized as a fundamental tool for examining communication and transportation networks (eg. Google Maps) and is surprisingly simple. By his own admission, […]

5 (5)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2024-01-05

8,376 reads

SQLServerCentral Article

Horizontal Trees

Introduction The sp_HorizontalTree procedure introduced here may be used to audit tables with dependent columns. A column is dependent on another if the meaning of the first column depends on the meaning of the second. For example, in a table containing accounting information, the meaning of a Fiscal Quarter column depends on the Fiscal Year to […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2023-06-16

2,406 reads

SQLServerCentral Article

How To Avoid MERGE in SQL Server

Introduction This article shows how to script a basic merge between two tables, without using MERGE. This can be handy when you're merging a pair of tables with hundreds of columns, since the script doesn't know anything about them. This technique introduces and populates some auditing columns (IS_DELETED, IS_INSERTED, IS_UPDATED, TRANSACTION_DATE) for each record, and runs fast. […]

4.5 (6)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2023-02-20 (first published: )

18,705 reads

SQLServerCentral Article

Navigating Trees With CTE

Introduction This article shows how common table expressions (CTE) in SQL Server are naturally suited for navigating trees, such as finding its longest path, or diameter. Recall that a tree is an undirected graph where unique paths exist between any two nodes (i.e. vertices). Any node may be selected as its top node, with its […]

4.8 (5)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2021-04-19

8,029 reads

Blogs

Scooby Dooing Episode 9: The Case of the Artificially Intelligent Villain

By

Welcome back, my fellow sleuths, to my mystery-inspired blog series! I’m having a ton...

The Book of Redgate: Don’t be an a**hole

By

This was one of the original values: The facing page has this text: No...

Beyond Pipelines: How Fabric Reinvents Data Movement for the Modern Enterprise

By

For decades, enterprises have thought about data like plumbers think about water: you build...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Create an HTML Report on the Status of SQL Server Agent Jobs

By Nisarg Upadhyay

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Create an HTML Report on...

I Love Editorials

By Grant Fritchey

Comments posted to this topic are about the item I Love Editorials

Line number in error message doesn't match up with line number in code

By water490

Hi everyone I have a 1000 plus line query and I am getting an...

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

A Common Split

What happens when I run this code:

DECLARE @s VARCHAR(1000) = 'apple, pear, peach'
SELECT *
FROM STRING_SPLIT(@s, ', ')

See possible answers