SQL Server 2012: Time Marches On
Greg Larsen explores the new SQL Server 2012 date and time functions and shows you how to exploit these functions in new application code.
An in-depth look at change detection in SQL Server - Part 01
Auditing, conflict resolution, tamper & concurrency protection are some of the most common requirements for any enterprise system – this 2-part series presents an in-depth look at the various change detection mechanisms available within SQL Server.
Expanding AlwaysOn Availability Groups with Replication Publishers
SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups provide a high-availability and disaster-recovery solution for you SQL Server 2012 environments. Replication has been around in SQL Server for quite some time and allows you to scale out your environment. Warwick Rudd explains how to join these technologies together.
Data Freedom and Regulation
There are a lot of regulations around data in the medical field. Most of the exceed HIPAA, but end up causing confusion and problems. Steve Jones thinks simplication is important if our technology systems are to support future regulations.
Moving Database Files in SQL Server
A short article that talks about the isues with moving SQL Server database files around on your storage subsystem.
Rethinking Your Design
This week Steve Jones notices some good advice from Brent Ozar and the fastest query in your database.
Move all SQL Server indexed views to a new filegroup
As databases grow, it often becomes necessary to add new I/O paths to accommodate the growing space. Even without growth that requires this scale, it can still be useful to utilize multiple I/O devices to spread out the load. One way that you can make optimal use of new drives is to add a filegroup to the database and move certain objects (say, all of your indexed views) to the new filegroup.
SQL Saturday #198 - Vancouver
SQL Saturday comes back to Vancouver, BC on Feb 16, 2013. Come join in if you can.
Hunting Developers
Steve Jones is up in the Redmond area at Microsoft's HQ looking for SQL Server developers. This editorial was originally published on April 17, 2008. It is being re-published as Steve is on holiday.
Windows Server 2012 Deduplication – Should you use it with SQL Server Backups?
Windows Server 2012 introduces native deduplication functionality. While this is a promising new Windows feature for other file types and characteristics, there are some potential pitfalls that you need to be aware of when it comes to deduplication specifically for SQL Server backup files.
Blogs
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but...
Monday Monitor Tips: Virtual Machine Usage and Cost
By Steve Jones
One of the things I’ve been requesting for a number of years is cost...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How We Handled a Vendor...
Cognitive Coverage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Cognitive Coverage
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers