For what it's worth, you're welcome to use appropriate variations on the code below for your database backups. The backup file names contain timestamps:

EXECUTE master.dbo.xp_create_subdir N'Z:\Database Backups\Differential Backups\model'

DECLARE @DateString VARCHAR(16);

SET...

Gail, thanks again for your responses.

In my 12 years of working with SQL Server, both as a software engineer and as a DBA, I have never before or since had...

L' Eomot Inversé and Gail,

Thank you both for your detailed responses. They've been very educational.

________

L' Eomot Inversé,

In answer to your question:

"Did you try using a FORCESEEK table hint specifying...

L' Eomot Inversé, Gail,

I understand what you're saying but please follow me on this.

Maybe there are only a few records with one of the values in them so there...

Gail,

If the original poster creates an index on just the column with the 4 values, will this not force the Optimizer to use that index?

"SELECT <column names> FROM <table name>...

sunny.tjk,

Why don't you try both solution ideas:

1. One large, low cardinality index

2. Four filtered indexes

and let us know which performs the best.

I'd like to know.

This post is not in disagreement with any prior posts, just offering a perspective based upon my own experiences.

The choice between the Full and Simple database recovery models usually comes...

This information may be dated, but I remember reading somewhere that every connection to an instance of SQL Server requires 32K of RAM.

1,000,000 connections x 32,000 Bytes = 32,000,000,000 Bytes...

sunny.tjk (10/18/2012)

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I indexed a char datatype column but my query is still doing a table scan. So, indexes can be applied only on columns with integer values? This...

Wow! Awesome script. Thanks for sharing it.

I have seen a cache plan bloat problem like this before.

It was caused by hundreds of stored procedures implemented with passed in arguments converted to local variables, the developer's theory...

I have had some odd things happen related to the creation and execution of maintenance plans. In general, I try to avoid creating and using them unless they perform file...

GilaMonster (10/10/2012)

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....When the index key column is changed, then the update is split into delete/insert pair. If the update does not affect the index key column, then the update is...

I'm no expert on this subject but I'm wondering if SQL Server has simply delivered an inappropriate error message.

Regarding the 2 extra columns you mentioned on the subscriber side: Are...

If you're reorganizing or rebuilding your indexes in a SQL Agent Job, you can examine...