Kevin3NF

Kevin Hill is a career SQL Server DBA living in Dallas, TX. His specialities include HA/DR, Best Practice configuration, Performance tuning and teaching new and accidental DBAs
  • Interests: Cycling, family, sci-fi, DBA stuff

Blog Post

Top 10 Careers in Data

Would you re-order these? Machine Learning Engineer $$$$$ Develop and deploy AI models Optimize machine learning algorithms for efficiency Work with big data frameworks to process large datasets Data...

2025-02-28 (first published: )

343 reads

Blog Post

3rd Party Applications Have Issues

As a SQL DBA, what do you do when a vendor application has performance problems that are code related? Server settings don’t generally seem to be an issue. Queries...

2024-05-20 (first published: )

222 reads

Blog Post

Degrees and Trade Schools

Can we normalize a couple of things? 1 – Trade Schools. Back in the 80’s trade classes in high school and post high school were frowned upon, or looked...

2024-05-08

50 reads

Blog Post

Set-Based vs Row-Based Database Code

In SQL Server, the terms “set-based” and “row-based” refer to different approaches or styles of writing SQL code to manipulate data. These styles have implications for performance, readability, and...

2023-12-18 (first published: )

624 reads

Blog Post

Database Concerns – A Poll!

What are you most concerned about in your database platforms? Please pick from the list below, and expand on your choice in the comments if you like:   Thanks...

2023-11-08 (first published: )

240 reads

Blog Post

IRL #8: SQL Server Down

Problem: My PocketDBA® client called in with a non-responsive SQL Server. Application errors, timeout, alerts firing. SQL Server box is up, and the services are running. Background: This is...

2023-09-06

56 reads

Blog Post

SQL Server is not a Car

Lets compare them anyway, just for fun. Both have an engine Both have a monitoring device (Dashboard/Activity Monitor) Both need power (Gas/Electricity) Both need to be told what do...

2023-09-05

64 reads

Blogs

T-SQL Tuesday #203: Risk and Reward

By

This is timely, as I’m currently on a boat in the Adriatic taking a...

dataMinds Connect 2026 – Slides & Scripts

By

You can find the slides and SQL scripts for my session “Spice up your...

How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later)

By

How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later) Updated...

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Forums

Using CHOOSE()

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Using CHOOSE()

Re-Seeding a Broken Log Shipping Secondary (Without Touching the Primary)

By LukaMK

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Re-Seeding a Broken Log Shipping...

The DBA is Dead! Long Live the !

By Grant Fritchey

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The DBA is Dead! Long...

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Question of the Day

Using CHOOSE()

We have this code that sets some status values and then queries them using the CHOOSE() function in SQL Server 2025.

CREATE TABLE Status
(
    StatusID INT,
    StatusDescription VARCHAR(20)
);
GO
INSERT dbo.Status
(
    StatusID,
    StatusDescription
)
VALUES
(0, 'Uncategorized'),
(1, 'Active'),
(2, 'Inactive'),
(3, 'Temp');

GO
SELECT CHOOSE(StatusID, 'Unknown', 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Temporary')
FROM Status;
When the SELECT runs, what is returned?

See possible answers