1 index.

SQL Server won't use multiple indexes usually. It just makes more work for it. Should be one index, and you'll need to pick the leading edge (first...

The company I work for has software from a vendor who still thinks that SQL injection is best-prevented by "sanitizing the input strings", instead of by parameterization. So, you...

"Runnable" isn't about locks. It's about resource-availability. CPU, et al. It's waiting for a scheduler to be available to pick it up and actually get it running....

Makes sense.

Definitely dig into the various running total methods I mentioned. Any of them will speed this up considerably.

It looks like you're trying to do a running total. Is that correct?

If so, there are definitely more efficient ways to do one. I prefer using CLR for...

Article and script (for the data) sent (by e-mail).

Since it's an adjacency hierarchy (ID and ParentID hierarchy), you'll have to crawl it recursively by some means or another. A recursive CTE is just as good as any...

Sounds about right. The stat update will cause a recompile, and either the recompile itself, or a new execution plan it arrives at from the updated stats doesn't result...

LIKE without a wildcard is just an equality test.

I'm using SQL 2008 R2, and this works just fine:

SET ANSI_PADDING OFF;

IF OBJECT_ID(N'tempdb..#T') IS NOT NULL

DROP TABLE #T;

CREATE TABLE #T (

C1 VARCHAR(10));

INSERT...

The key to something like this is, what will the data be used for, by whom, and what would they prefer as far as rules for matching sources to time?

Something...

I became a DBA because I used to be in sales and marketing. (Isn't that the career-path everyone takes?)

I got a sales job at a small direct-mail marketing company...

Do you intend to join SKU to both SKU and UPC? I would think the second join would be to a UPC column, not to the same SKU column....

Generically, a "staging" database is one that's used as a part-way step for loading data from one format into another format. For example, I've used staging databases to load...

Your best best is bulk-import the files into an XML datatype column, and then parse them out with XQuery.

If you aren't familiar with querying XML data, this will not be...

I've had to use .NET scripting in SSIS to go beyond the built-in FTP capabilities. Like checking if a file is there before downloading it. I've also used...