WHERE s.column >'' will be marginally more efficient than WHERE s.column<>''

Nulls are sometime necessary, for example if I have a DrivingConvictions table in a car insurance database I might have

DriverID

OffenceCode

PenaltyPoints

IllegalSubstanceReading

If...

This is on my list of "stupid things no-one in their right mind would try" and I apologise to any DBA for revealing how you do this.

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver 'ExcelSource',

...

BASIC = bodgers and simpletons incomprehensible cobblers.

Yes, though some of the newer SQL2008 options won't appear in the object browser tree.

With clustering you have 2 or more physical SQL Servers accessing a shared disk but appearing as one. In the event of one server being unavailable the cluster will...

At a guess you are using NVARCHAR and NCHAR rather than VARCHAR and CHAR fields.

the N... data type fields take twice the space of the VARCHAR/CHAR equivalents.

There is an added...

JJ B (10/25/2010)

---

Hugo wrote:

I can think of a giant advantage--at least to my programs.

.....

I used to listen to the DBAs who advocated against surrogate keys for "link" tables....

If it is going to change then it isn't generally speaking a good candidate for a primary key.

The thing with Surrogate Keys is that they create uniqueness, they don't enforce...

I can't see anything that says that the figure returned will be reliable. Fast yes, blindingly so. Reliable.....not so sure.

If you are getting locking/blocking activity on a table and are not bothered by dirty reads then using the READUNCOMMITTED hint in the join may alleviate this.

If you are doing...

Have you considered writing a view and exposing that to Business Objects instead of letting it use the base tables?

How many tables are used in the joins for the query?

I was on a consultancy job where we were the co-ordinator of all the clients' vendors. It was agreed with the data centre manager and the client that my...

I'd hate to work in a single sex environment. I've found that someone (not necessarily a woman) who needs leeway for family matters tends to give back more than...

Doesn't Informatica have a scripting option that makes use of its engine? I know Ab Initio does.

Failing that follow this blog http://bytes.com/topic/sql-server/answers/534929-managing-ms-sql-linux

I'm not sure is a solution such as Ab Initio counts as NoSQL but if so its industrial strength in a way that would make I.K.Brunel's work look a bit...