TSQL Challenge 35 - Find the total number of 'Full Attendees' in 24HOP
This challenge has a (fake) reference to the 24 Hours of PASS event and your task is to count the number of attendees who watched the complete presentation of each speaker.
SQL Server CRUD-Generation from System Views
If you are not keen on repetitive typing, you can still rapidly produce production-quality documented code by planning ahead and using Extended properties, and system views. Phil Factor explains, with some Scary SQL
Missing Indexes in SQL Server 2005
Determining which columns to index in a table used to be a very time consuming process that was as much art as science. New author Ranga Narasimhan brings us an article that shows how SQL Server 2005 makes this much easier.
ROWE
ROWE stands for a Results Oriented Work Environment. This Friday Steve Jones asks if you'd like to work in one.
For SQL Server 2005/2008, Consider SecurityAdmin = SysAdmin
In a recent thread here on SQL Server Central, it was pointed out that a member of the securityadmin fixed...
Oracle to SQL Server, Crossing the Great Divide, Part 3
We soon learn, in SQL Server, that heaps are a bad thing, without necessarily understanding how or why. Jonathan Lewis is an Oracle expert who doesn't like to take such strictures for granted, especially when they don't apply to Oracle. Jonathan discovers much about how SQL Server places data, and concludes from his experiments that heaps perform badly in SQL Server because you cannot specify a fill factor for them.
Self-Service vs. Managed BI
Is self service BI a good idea? Some people think so, others don't. Steve Jones talks about one of the issues and why it might actually not be a problem.
Configuring Alerts for Policy-Based Management
How can I receive notifications when the policies I have implemented have been violated so I don't have to manually look at each server?
Becoming Highly Productive
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren. You can get more productive, but are you being productive at the tasks that you should be working on? See what Andy Warren has to say.
SQL CLR Data Types and Performance
Using SqlTypes can have a significant impact on the performance of your SQL CLR implementations. Is it for the better? Read this article to find out.
Blogs
Presenting Twice in May 2026
By alevyinroc
I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
SQL Server Journey Part 2: Modern Era (2017 – 2026) – AI/Cloud First
By Vinay Thakur
Following up on my Part 1 baseline, the journey from 2017 onward changed how...
Forums
Auto Update Statistics not triggering on filtered indexes
I've got a table with 186,703,969 rows, about 300GB of data. There are several...
What is the difference between SQL Server and SQL Database?
I created a SQL Database in Azure Portal but I've just noticed it also...
An Unusual Identity
Comments posted to this topic are about the item An Unusual Identity
Question of the Day
An Unusual Identity
What values are returned when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest2
(
id NUMERIC(10,0) IDENTITY(10,10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.IdentityTest2
(
somevalue
)
VALUES
( 'Steve')
, ('Bill')
GO
SELECT top 10
id
FROM dbo.IdentityTest2 See possible answers