Thank you for your reply.

Scott...

No,...

You can.  That's the two choices for a code column: use a view to encode/decode and/or use a separate lookup table.  A lookup table is technically a better design, but...

1. There is no way that I'd ever create column names with spaces in them.  It relegates you to always have to use brackets around every column name that...

In the distribution db, query view dbo.syssubscriptions

Hi Scott. Thanks for your reply. I understood most of what you said. I'd kindly like to ask for some clarification on some parts. But here is what I...

In general I agree, although in a truly normalized design the number of tables can get truly overwhelming (like SAP!).

Certain simple things do not need tables.  Instead, you can use...

There are two main approaches:

(1) use a generic number for all codes, typically generated automatically by an identity column

So, type code = 1 might be 'Issue', = 2 might be...

Be careful!  The problems with a generic lookup table, structured like this:

( table_id smallint NOT NULL, data_code varchar(50) NOT NULL, description varchar(1000) NULL )

are:

(1) the data_code (key) must be made...

This link gives a few reasons for choosing shorter varchar lengths.

In terms of storage, CHAR(n) columns are always n characters long.

VARCHAR(n) columns are anything between 2 and (n...

I use a start up procedure to send me an email whenever the SQL instance starts up.  If someone failed it over, it will start up on another node.  Of...

A large table, even a very large table, should not necessarily be slow.

You need to review the clustering key(s) on those tables.  The clustered index key selection is the single...

Disk speeds on systems vary greatly.  But you can always cancel the restore after (almost) 4 more hours.  Cancelling a restore shouldn't take long at all, so you can wait...

No.   236GB is not bad for a 2.4TB db.  Once the log has been preformatted, you'll be back to the regular restore of the data.

The only way to make the...

How large is the log file?  SQL must restore the log file too, and, worse, it must preformat the entire log file before it restores to it.  In essence, the...