St. Louis SQL Server Users Group Feedback

You know I share what feedback I get from conferences. I don’t usually get feedback from users groups (well, I...

Dreaming

It’s easy to get so busy with life you forget to dream, at least for me. Most of us have...

Come and get your Data Education!

We all have been to various training courses throughout our professional career.  Many follow a similar standard curriculum or course...

Import Data from AS400 to SQL Server

The process to import data from AS400  uses a SQL Server  Linked server. The Linked Server points to an ODBC...

Probe Residual on Hash Match

I have to say, I only recently noticed this on a tool tip:

and this in the property sheet:

The bad news...

PowerShell for the Easily Frustrated N00b, or, “A Simple and Useful Command”

The stupid, stupid Windows search (Start Menu > Search) doesn’t work on one of my computers (running WinXP Pro).  Yes, I made...

Analytic Functions – FIRST_VALUE / LAST_VALUE

This post is part of the series discussing the new Analytic functions in SQL Server “Denali”, CTP3.

Analytic Functions in SQL...

SELECT COUNT(*) vs COUNT(1) vs COUNT(ColumnName)

What is the difference between COUNT(*), COUNT(1) and COUNT(ColumnName)? A mystery that will never be known… ok that was a...

How pure is your data?

It was a normal Monday. I was going over some HA designs and planning the joys of setting up log...

Normalize your Linked Server Names

This is a technique I’m sure many people are already using in their environments.  Instead of using the actual name...