Mechanism To Dynamically Build Pivot Table
Script to build PIVOT queries with an arbitrary number of columns
2018-10-25 (first published: 2018-10-15)
1,001 reads
Yet another way to defrag indexes
A script we use in our company, that rebuilds online=on by default, but takes care of special exceptions.
2016-07-28 (first published: 2014-06-06)
2,361 reads
2013-06-06 (first published: 2009-03-16)
2,641 reads
Generate a random password
If you ever need a quick way to generate random passwords, this is a pretty useful way to do so.
2013-05-15 (first published: 2008-09-24)
3,355 reads
My favorite way to access Excel files
Using opendatasource to retrieve data from Excel files as if querying a table.
2011-03-22 (first published: 2009-01-27)
11,856 reads
A quick way to find recently entered datetime entries in tables
Sometimes you need to scan a large number of datetime columns for most recent access.
2010-06-09 (first published: 2010-05-04)
1,858 reads
Deleting old files (with/without archive bit)
A hopefully useful script to delete old files, not just backups, and make use of the archive bit.
2009-01-02 (first published: 2008-12-09)
2,494 reads
Finding all data types in user tables
A quick way to get a snapshot of what data types are being used in all user tables.
2008-12-04 (first published: 2008-10-02)
1,099 reads
2008-11-06 (first published: 2008-09-12)
1,001 reads
Getting schemas for your tables
A short script you can incorporate into any 2005/2008 code to get the full schema.table.
2008-09-29
658 reads
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Question of the Day
The Decoded Value
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code:
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000))); SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded)See possible answers