An Alternative to SELECT COUNT(*) for Better Performance

Sometimes rapid code development doesn't always produce the most efficient code.  Take the age old line of code SELECT COUNT(*)...

Merging SQL Server and Softball Just for Fun

With opening day of Major League Baseball season finally here, I thought I’d take the time to cover two of...

Use Powershell to Pick Up what Database Mirroring Leaves Behind

Database mirroring has been around since SQL Server 2005, and it's turned out to be an excellent step up from...

T-SQL Tuesday #40 - Proportional Fill within a Filegroup

T-SQL Tuesday #40 is underway, and this month's host is Jennifer McCown (blog|twitter).  The topic is about File and Filegroup...

Dealing with a Fragmented Heap

Just for the record, this happens to be one of my favorite interview questions to ask candidates.

At some point in...

The Performance Impact to Prefix Stored Procedures with sp_

Last week I ran across a blog post by Axel Achten (B|T) that outlined a few reasons why you should...

T-SQL Tuesday - Use Powershell to Restore a Database on a Different Server

T-SQL Tuesday - This month's party is hosted by Wayne Sheffield (blog|twitter), and the topic is about Powershell and how to use...

What is DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS Telling Me About My Data?

Per Books Online, DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS displays current query optimization statistics for a table or indexed view.  Basically it shows you...

How to Remove (Undo) Table Partitioning

I have seen plenty of articles and blog posts out there for how to setup and implement table partitioning, but...

sp_PerformanceCounters - Get a Health Check of SQL Server's Performance

During your career as a DBA, you'll run across articles by SQL experts or other DBAs that just give you...