Advice on using COUNT( )
In this article new columnist Christoffer Hedgate offers his advice on what performs better, COUNT(*) or COUNT(column).
2002-09-23
17,646 reads
Performance Tuning
Performance Adding Hints
During the process of performance tuning queries and stored procedures there comes a time when you will notice that the execution plan selected by SQL Server is not the best plan. On occasion, everything you try doesnt cause SQL Server to choose the best way to execute your code. These are the times when hints can improve performance.
2002-09-10
9,481 reads
Using Bitwise Operators to Boost Performance
Bitwise operators can be challenging to manage at first. However, with practice and patience, and under the right conditions, these operators can provide remarkable performance improvements in production environments. This article will compare two methods of accomplishing the same output, one with a normalized model and the other with bitwise operators.
2002-09-05
12,118 reads
Relational Database Without Relations
The strength and holy grail of relational databases lies in the very name: relations. Microsoft has put a good deal of intelligence and cunning into query optimizations, caching, indexing and execution plans to make the process of finding related records even smoother and faster. This small article, however, will try to shatter the very sacred notion of relational databases.
2002-07-29
8,399 reads
Understanding Execution Plans Part 1
The purpose of this article is to give you a working knowledge of how to view and understand query execution plans for SQL Server. This is part 1 in a series of articles that will walk you through understanding execution plans to help you improve your queries.
2002-07-26
24,306 reads
Using Interface-Based Programming Techniques in SQL Server
Programmers can most commonly relate to interface-based programming in their programming language. This is harder to accomplish in SQL Server though. In this article by Chris Cubley, he shows you how to build interfaced-based SQL.
2002-07-19
7,438 reads
How 11GB of SQL Server Data Mysteriously Disappeared
What would you do if your SQL Server database mysteriously lost 11GB of data? Find out what happened to me. This story has a happy ending.
2002-07-03
1,149 reads
How Dynamic SQL Can Be Static SQL Part 2
This article shows you how to use the CASE function to design single query solutions that have changing results depending on the values you assign to variables. These techniques are extremely useful as alternatives to dynamic SQL.
2002-05-14
10,848 reads
Review of SQL Server 2000 Performance Tuning
This book from Microsoft Press has a lot of good information that will help you do capacity planning and performance tuning. Is it worth buying though? Andy just finishing reading it and writing the review, see what he thinks!
2002-05-03
8,360 reads
Making Dynamic Queries Static
Building and executing dynamic sql in a stored procedure - is it the only way to solve problems like supporting a simple search function? Leon offers a couple alternatives that let you continue to provide the functionality in a stored procedure without using dynamic sql. Interesting ideas worth exploring!
2002-05-02
13,121 reads
Blogs
Why sys.fn_dblog Is Undocumented And Why It's Still There
By SQLPals
Why sys.fn_dblog Is Undocumented And Why It's Still There Why sys.fn_dblog...
T-SQL Tuesday #202 SQL Server Outage You’ll Never Forget: A Roundup
When I put together the invitation for T-SQL Tuesday #202, I wasn't sure what...
A Last Minute Trip to the EU
By Steve Jones
My life has some crazy travel stretches for sure. Between speaking, office visits, customer...
Forums
Implementing Type 4 Slowly Changing Dimensions in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Implementing Type 4 Slowly Changing...
The Disabled Index
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Disabled Index
Server-Level Table sizes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Server-Level Table sizes
Question of the Day
The Disabled Index
I run this code on SQL Server 2022.
CREATE TABLE Drink
(
drinkid INT NOT NULL
CONSTRAINT DrinkPK PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED,
drinkname VARCHAR(20),
rating NUMERIC(2, 1)
)
GO
INSERT INTO Drink
(
drinkid,
drinkname,
rating
)
VALUES
(1, 'Margarita', 4.5),
(2, 'Mojito', 4.3),
(3, 'Old Fashioned', 4.7),
(4, 'Martini', 4.4),
(5, 'Cosmopolitan', 4.2)
GO
ALTER INDEX drinkpk ON dbo.drink DISABLE
GO
SELECT * FROM dbo.Drink
GO
What is the result? See possible answers