SQL Server Cursor Example

In my T-SQL code I always use set based operations. I have been told these types of operations are what SQL Server is designed to process and it should be quicker than serial processing. I know cursors exist but I am not sure how to use them. Can you provide some cursor examples? Can you give any guidance on when to use cursors?

DEADLOCK_PRIORITY

When it detects a deadlock, SQL Server will, by default, pick the process the has the lowest cost to rollback. This can present a potential issue if the process is a business critical process. The DEADLOCK_PRIORITY allows us to have a bit of control over whether or not a process is chosen as the victim.

Diagnosing Why SYSUTCDATETIME is Faster than SYSDATETIME

On my machine, code that calls SYSDATETIME() 10 million times in a loop takes about 11.6 seconds to execute, while with SYSUTCDATETIME() it takes 4.3 seconds. Why is SYSUTCDATETIME() so much faster than SYSDATETIME()?

Using VALUES to construct an in-line table.

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T-SQL Tuesday #114 Puzzle Party – Roundup

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Find Occurrences of Three and Four-Part Names on a SQL Server Instance

Hunt down this stuff before stuff starts to break!

ISNULL vs COALESCE

Find identical duplicate indexes

The purpose of this query is to find identical duplicate non-clustered indexes i.e. indexes on same table with same columns in same order. If you have a need to...
The...

How to delete a lot of data from a SQL Server database

How to delete data efficiently When we delete data from a table in SQL Server, we can often find that the delete is slower than even the original insert,...
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Testing Maximum Rows in Table Value Constructors

Solomon Rutzky dives into how big a table value constructor can be in terms of rows: On 2019-05-08, a helpful individual, Michael B, commented on my answer saying that the...