SQL Server MVP Jeff Moden shows us a new very high performance method to convert an "Adjacency List" to “Nested Sets” on a million node hierarchy in less than a minute and 100,000 nodes in just seconds. Not surprisingly, the "steroids" come in a bottle labeled "Tally Table".
2014-09-19 (first published: 2012-11-13)
42,962 reads
It's a well known fact that Scalar UDFs are the stuff of performance nightmares in T-SQL. But are they really as bad as they say? SQL Server MVP Jeff Moden shows us that they might not really be as big a problem as you might think and what you can do when they actually are.
2014-06-24 (first published: 2012-08-01)
27,736 reads
A simple problem that can become complex in T-SQL. How do you find the rows that match 2 conditions, but not a third, in an efficient manner. MVP Jeff Moden gives us a solution.
2014-06-06 (first published: 2012-03-29)
41,682 reads
SQL Server MVP Jeff Moden walks us through the classic problem of finding all the "Active" rows for the previous month using start and end dates. This is excellent for those new to T-SQL.
2014-01-30
8,754 reads
Get correct answers to your SQL forum questions faster by making it easier to load your sample data and read your code.
2013-12-10 (first published: 2007-11-27)
218,798 reads
Another in the series of articles to help you "fill in the cracks" in your T-SQL knowledge. MVP Jeff Moden shows us a super simple, high performance method to solve this timeless problem.
2013-07-19 (first published: 2011-01-20)
26,730 reads
The Tally Table has proven to be a simple and elegant method for avoiding many varieties of RBAR. Unfortunately, one of its more common uses, that of a CSV splitter, has a well-known and serious performance problem. MVP Jeff Moden shows us what that problem is and how to correct it. (UPDATED with additional info and attachments on 5/12/2011).
2012-12-28 (first published: 2011-05-02)
141,337 reads
In this sequel to his first "Hierarchies on Steroids" article, SQL Server MVP Jeff Moden shows us how to build a pre-aggregated table that will answer most of the questions that you could ask of a typical hierarchy. Any bets on whether Santa is packin’ a Tally Table in his bag or not?
2012-11-15
20,138 reads
Another in our series of articles to help you fill in the cracks in your knowledge with SQL Spackle. MVP Jeff Moden shows us how IsNumeric works and how you should use it.
2012-09-14 (first published: 2010-12-01)
44,306 reads
Replacing multiple spaces with a single space is an old problem that people use loops, functions, and/or Tally tables for. Here's a set based method from MVP Jeff Moden.
2012-08-17 (first published: 2009-11-16)
65,002 reads
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
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On SQL Server 2025, what happens when I run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG( 'City':'Denver') GOSee possible answers