Scary Questions
I spent most of my time at TechEd two weeks ago, volunteering to answer attendee's questions at Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 booth.
2008-06-25
353 reads
Editorials
Dataphor
Over the years, there have been several attempts to turn conventional RDBMSs into object relational databases, by inserting an intermediate layer. The driving force behind this was the generally-held assumption that the relational model could not handle complex data types.
2008-06-24
282 reads
Rules, Defaults and the SQL Standard
I see, with some relief that the threatened removal of Rules and Defaults in SQL Server 2008 hasn’t happened. There has been a stay of execution. Even though they are documented, they still come with a dire warning that they are deprecated and will be removed in future versions. They have fallen foul of the SQL Standards committee, and we are now supposed to use check constraints instead.
2008-06-23
175 reads
The Back Door DBA
Steve Jones is taking well-earned break. In his guest editorial slot, Brad McGehee discusses three simple techniques to help DBAs manage their time more effectively.
2008-06-23
555 reads
2008-06-20
194 reads
In The Zone
Are you in the Zone at work? Can you find those times when you are amazingly productive? Tim Mitchell asks a question in this guest editorial.
2008-06-19
100 reads
Double Check
Steve Jones looks at the positive side of someone else doing your work when you're on vacation. There's an interesting benefit for the company.
2008-06-18
137 reads
The Green Stuff
Money. It's part of the reason why we all work, though hopefully not all of it. Steve Jones comments a bit on financial matters.
2008-06-17
127 reads
Do You Want to Be Right?
Steve Jones talks about being right versus being effective in your IT work.
2008-06-16
184 reads
The Database Weekly Update for June 16, 2008
Steve Jones looks back at the news of the past, including a look at RC0, the latest release of SQL Server 2008.
2008-06-16
56 reads
Blogs
Finding the Last Last Name in SQL: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I wrote a piece on the new SUBSTRING in SQL Server 2025 and got...
SQL Server Reliability: Clearing the Fuzzy Thinking
By Kevin3NF
The terminology around reliability is a mess If you’ve ever said, “We’re covered, it’s...
SQL Server 2025 GAs Today
By Steve Jones
If you aren’t watching the Ignite keynotes today, then you might have missed the...
Forums
Email change does not work
I changed my email address in Edit Profile page, but it has no effect...
The case for "Understanding our business" training
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The case for "Understanding our...
Specifying the Collation
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Specifying the Collation
Question of the Day
Specifying the Collation
I am dealing with issues on my SQL Server 2022 instance related to collation. I have an instance collation of Latin1_General_CS_AS_KS_WS, but a database collation of Latin1_General_CI_AS. I want to force a few queries to run with a specified collation by using code like this:
DECLARE @c VARCHAR(20) = 'Latin1_General_CI_AS'
SELECT p.PersonType,
p.Title,
p.LastName,
c.CustomerID,
c.AccountNumber
FROM Person.Person AS p
INNER JOIN Sales.Customer AS c
ON c.PersonID = p.BusinessEntityID
COLLATE @c
Will this solve my problem? See possible answers