TSQL Challenge 58 - Playing Chess in TSQL – Part 1
Your job is to read the input string and generate a result set that represents the position of pieces in a chess board.
What's holding you back?
If you’re not where you want to be in your career, then what do you think is holding you back?
Creating a Reporting Services Histogram Chart for Statistical Distribution Analysis
Typically transactional data is quite detailed and analyzing an entire dataset on a graph is not feasible. Generally such data is analyzed using some form of aggregation or frequency distribution. One of the specialized charts generally used in Reporting Services for statistical distribution is Histogram Charts. In this tip we look at how Histogram Charts can be used for statistical distribution analysis and how to create and configure this type of chart in SSRS.
Index Management
This article demonstrates an Index Management strategy to tackle day to day performance issues due to improper indexes.
Part 1: The Database Administrator's Primary Responsibility
SQL Server Essentials Part 1: A look at the key responsibility of a DBA and why it is so vital.
The Desire for Control
This Friday Steve Jones asks you if you want more knobs for SQL Server or less? It's a debate that balances the need for the DBA to know more with the resources Microsoft spends to build better tuning into the product.
3 SQL Join Concepts to Help You Choose the Right Join
What do SQL joins and the "teach a man to fish" Chinese proverb have in common? SQL joins, like regular expressions, are one of those commonplace programming tasks in which true success is entirely dependent upon your ability to conceptualize the outcome. Fail to do so and you'll likely wind up spending a few hours in a frustrating round of trial and error. Like regular expressions, the proliferation of online examples has actually contributed to the frustration, providing the equivalent of a day's worth of fish rather than the proverbial fishing pool.
Setting up linked servers with an out-of-process OLEDB provider
There is an inprocess setting for linked servers. Have you ever used it? Gianluca Sartori gives a look at what the implications are for this.
Support for 15,000 Partitions in SQL Server 2008 SP2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1
In SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2, the number of partitions on tables and indexes is limited to 1,000. This paper discusses how SQL Server 2008 SP2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 address this limitation by providing an option to increase the limit to 15,000 partitions. It describes how support for 15,000 partitions can be enabled and disabled on a database. It also talks about performance characteristics, certain limitations associated with this support, known issues, and their workarounds. This support is targeted to enterprise customers and ISVs with large-scale decision support or data warehouse requirements.
Blogs
A Spread of Vacation
By Steve Jones
I’m off on vacation today. Which is a little weird as I just got...
How AgentDBA Identifies Backup Failures
By Arun Sirpal
Every DBA has a box like this. Sitting untouched for months. Nobody’s proud of...
Tip: Expanding a SQL statement
In all recent versions of the database you can call DBMS_UTILITY.EXPAND_SQL_TEXT to get the...
Forums
From SQL Server On-Premises to Claude Desktop: How I built a Full MCP Pipeline
Comments posted to this topic are about the item From SQL Server On-Premises to...
Independence Day 2026
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Independence Day 2026
Independence Day 2026
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Independence Day 2026
Question of the Day
Independence Day 2026
In the original Independence Day movie (1996), what type of computer did Jeff Goldblum use to connect to the alien mainframe? Take a guess, don't look it up or ask AI.
See possible answers