b

The difference is that a CTE can be used multiple times, and can be used in later CTEs in the same query, while a sub-query (derived table) can't do either...

I've never seen that not work.

When you open the jobs up in Management Studio and go to Notifications, does it still say "On Completion" or does it say "On Failure"?

You can set the connecting string for a database connection as a variable by setting in an expression.

I build my own tool for this purpose.

I have a database called DBA that has tools in it for DBAs. One of the tools has these objects:

USE [DBA]

GO

CREATE TABLE...

If it's less than 100 rows, use a table variable. If it's more, use a temp table. That's the simple version.

Really, it's not quite that simple, and the...

Keep in mind that tracking the last time something was updated is only good for knowing if the row has been refreshed recently. It doesn't tell you how often...

I once saw a performance improvement with and OLTP database on RAID-5 when the files were split in two and some of the most commonly used indexes were moved into...

Mainly, I use lots of testing.

I'm curious, I must admit, about the connection between the title and the actual post. What do missing records have to do with performance tuning? Same for non-responsive...

All possible steps for a database being down?

I don't have time enough left in this lifetime to write all of those.

1. Does the server still exist (fire, tornado, flood destruction)?

2....

I think I must be missing the point. Why would you run something for a weekly notification, but run it every hour?

There is probably a good reason to do...

I looked at the code on the other site, and there isn't enough there to do a real work-over on it, but there are a few things that stand out.

First,...

Jeff Moden (9/30/2008)

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Heh... I find it very difficult to believe an article on performance where the author says "At first, we prepare a test table with 1 million records:" and...

Generally speaking, UDFs work just about the same in 2005 as they did in 2000. I have several that I didn't change a line of code in, and they...