Sure, errors will cause gaps, deletions, anything that causes an incomplete transaction, implicit or explicit, can lead to gaps. If you need a perfectly flawless incrementally increasing number, with no...

Nope. Never mind. I was wrong (again). Showplan XML Statistics Profile does include the actual execution plan. Whew. I feel a little better now.

I have to get serious again for a moment and stop talking about beer...

I thought that Profiler in 2005/2008 Showplan XML would show the actual execution plans. It's not. It's...

It was an industry standard... about 15 years ago.

In addition to the problems outlined above, you may hit serious problems with rogue data. I had to deal with a system...

It's difficult to get the right set of conditions to see filtered indexes get chosen by the optimizer. Hints frequently don't help. It's VERY difficult to get filtered statistics to...

Wayne West (6/18/2009)

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One of the greatest things in Toastmasters are the "Uh" bells. One or two people are given 'ding' bells, the little silver dome-shaped bells stereotypically used in...

A create table statement takes a day or more? No, that's pretty abnormal and not expected behavior in 2008 (or 2005 or 2000 or 7... maybe in 6.5).

Ummmm... Let's see....

Already there, follow the link in the message.

You sure can run it 24x7. You do need to be judicious in the number of counters you collect and the frequency of the collection becuase it is possible to...

I haven't used either in a production environment yet. I've used both in tests.

It can happen. The query engine and the query optimizer are different in 2008 than they were in 2000.

First, the obvious stuff, you have up to date statistics on...

Simply studying questions is no way to prepare. We use a set of screening questions which are meant to weed people out. They're not the interview. The interview will involve...

SQL Agent can be used to create the schedule. As posted above, you just need to run a script to start a trace. I recommend output to a file.

You can join anything on anything through a TSQL statement. No requirements at all. You might get some... interesting... results, but there are no strict requirements.

However, if you're talking about...

I wouldn't even call it apples & grapefruit. I'd say it's apples & chairs that you're comparing. Good luck sitting on the former or eating the latter. MVP can be...