TSQL Challenge 54 - Find the longest matching area code
Your job is to write a query that identifies the longest matching country/area code from each phone number based on the information stored in an area-code reference table.
Clean unused space when a variable-length column is dropped from a SQL Server table or indexed view
Whenever rows or columns are deleted from a table, SQL Server reuses space to accommodate new data. However, this is not the case when a variable length column is deleted. The space used by this type of column is not reclaimed automatically. Variable length columns can be of data types varchar, nvarchar, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary, varbinary(max), text, ntext, image, sql_variant, and xml. In this tip, I have tried to put forth a solution to reclaim this space and this should work for SQL 2005 and later versions.
SQL Transparent Hierarchical Processing of Relational, XML and IMS Data
The SQL-92 standard introduced the LEFT Outer Join operation which offers a powerful alternative to standard relational processing to perform full hierarchical processing naturally and inherently. This enables SQL to transparently integrate relational data with XML, IMS and other forms of legacy hierarchical data. This can also allow the so far overlooked integration of IMS and legacy data with the Internet and XML, and visa versa.
The DBA of the Future
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren that talks about what DBAs might need to know in the future.
Read and Write Binary Files in SQL Server with CLR
You are a database developer looking for a common approach for handling read and write access to binary files. You may be a DBA wanting to read various information from binary files and collect it into tables. The code sample presented in this tip will get you started with binary file content handling in SQL Server.
PAAS
Platform as a service, a new way of looking at applications. It's analogous to SAAS and IAAS, which can improve the efficiency of the software purchase or the hardware acquisition process. Steve Jones notes that this is something he'd like to see for database platforms.
SQLServerCentral Best Practices Clinic: Part 2
In part 2 of our best practices clinic, Brad McGehee looks at a couple of the items that were misconfigured on the SQLServerCentral database instances.
Manage and Monitor Identity Ranges in SQL Server Transactional Replication
This article demonstrates how to prevent primary key violation issues in transactional replication.
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Blogs
Webinar: Navigating the Database Landscape in 2026
By Steve Jones
For a number of years, we’ve produced the State of the Database Landscape report,...
Claude AI Convinced Me Not to Build an iPad App
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I coach volleyball and I do a lot of stat stuff on paper. I...
A New Word: Dolorblindness
By Steve Jones
dolorblindness – n. the frustration that you’ll never be able to understand another person’s...
Forums
The Power of Data and Privacy
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What's the Date?
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Two New Shortcuts for Fabric Lakehouse Developers: The Fabric Modern Data Platform
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Question of the Day
What's the Date?
In SQL Server 2025, there is a new function that returns the current date without the time. What is it?
See possible answers