look up DBCC CHECKIDENT with the RESEED option.

Avoid XML like the plague.

If you are using BCP there is command line parameter that lets you specify the batch size for each transaction. I tend to set it...

The are effectively a point-in-time template, so although you define a user-defined datatype for a non-nullable integer with a default of 1 this only applies when you create the column...

Was Betamax a failure?

Technically far superior to VHS and much more compact and yet due to market forces it was eclipsed by VHS.

Similarly the last European Ford Escort sold by...

If you have a development server I would test your system thoroughly on that.

I took the opportunity to run a DBCC DBREINDEX when I upgraded some databases to SQL2005.

SQL2005 is...

I take it that you have a separate distributor in your replication set up?

When you switch to compatibility level 90 you may notice that it takes a while as SQL...

The article could almost have a title of "how not to manage a project".

The sucesss of a project depends on managing user expectations and keeping them informed as to...

There are somethings I really like about management studio

• The ability to change the connection for the query window
• The way it exposes additional properties on remote servers that simply aren't available...

The other thing you will notice with SSMS is that it is S.....L....O.....W.

It speeds up a bit with SP2a on it but SQL Query Analyser is still much faster.

Your description is a bit vague.

When I delete large numbers of records from a table then rather than fill up the log file with one massive DELETE I do something...

SELECT * FROM mydatabase.myname.Tmp_FORUM_TOPICS WHERE TOPIC_ID IS NULL

This will find the offending data rows.

You can then determine whether to delete those rows or reassign TOPIC_ID. After doing this you...

The thing with a DATETIME or SMALLDATETIME field is that you have built in data validation for that reason I would prefer to store dates in date fields.

If you are...

Don't forget that when you do schema changes to underlying tables your should do sp_refreshview on the dependent views.

It is worth mentioning the WITH CHECK option. If you have...

Doesn't the Windows XCOPY cope with the open file?

The alternative would be

NET STOP YourService

XCOPY drive.spec\*.MDB drive:spec

NET START yourService.

Down time should be pretty short.

There doesn't seem to be an ANSI standard equivalent of BIT or TINYINT.

BIT fields I can live without because I like to have a specific "Don't know" value rather than...