Thanks for the question, Andy!

However ... " (for once!)" - I resent that! 😉

I laughed when I read (in the generic maximum capacity specifications link): "the recommended maximum is 253...

robert.diley (5/14/2014)

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I do have a text in front of me: Fritchey, Grant (2012) SQL Server Execution Plans, 2nd ed.

From p. 88:

"we can discuss the Hash Match join operator.

It occurs when...

Hmmm, I did get it right but I didn't really like the question. Or rather, the answer options; the question itself is great.

I'd say that both "drop the DB" and...

Fun story, nice question - shame about the sloppy execution.

I found myself in that position where I have to second-guess the question author. I knew it was either tinyint or...

TomThomson (5/4/2014)

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If you use that code to try to create the trigger, the trigger will do nothing - the code is syntactically incorrect because the create trigger statement is not...

Great question, Mounika. Thanks!

The design choice to make DDL triggers fire after the event has many consequences. This question points out one (and one that can be very easy to...

gbritton1 (5/1/2014)

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Before I answered this question, I read

It reads, in part:

The hash join has two inputs: the build input and probe input. The query optimizer assigns these roles so that...

I know this is nitpicking, but "change the database compatibility level to 110" is not really a correct answer. The question mentions upgrading, and the uograde process will not change...

I never had to do this, but I still managed to zoom in on the right answer. Probably something I read or heard somewhere, sometime.

For people who prefer a link...

That works for positive numbers > 0. If numbers can also be negative or 0, you can use this formula:

CASE

WHEN MIN(ABS(Value)) = 0 THEN 0

ELSE EXP(SUM(LOG(ABS(NULLIF(Value,0)))))...

Just for the record - GO is not a statement, it is a batch separator. It will be intercepted and handled by the client. Send a "GO" to SQL Server,...

db4breakfast (4/6/2014)

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Hi Hugo,

I just want to double check my understanding about NULL. Please explain more why NULL does not mean "Unknown". I thought that NULL mark represents missing or unknown...

pmadhavapeddi22 (4/3/2014)

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But i really dont understand one thing, tablesample is expecting 4 rows to return, but the result set is totally different, that too on different execution, the purpose of...

TomThomson (4/3/2014)

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I think maybe I'm reverting to terminology that has changed since I learnt it, I have a feeling that when I first saw the term "heap" it meant "unindexed...

TomThomson (4/3/2014)

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This has been possible since at least SQL 7.0, probably...