The Utilty
Is Information Technology a utility service for companies? Steve Jones thinks it can, and should, be, but it can also be a lot more. It can be a strategic part of your enterprise.
TSQL Challenge 34-Search for two keywords within the maximum distance
This challenge is all about searching for two keywords in a string with a maximum distance of 'one word' between them.
Physical Join Operators in SQL Server - Hash Operator
In the concluding part of the Physical Operators series we look at the Hash operator.
Assumptions
For this Friday poll, Steve Jones asks about assumptions that cause you problems at work.
Dynamic creation of Insert, Update, Delete Stored procedures
Automates the creation of INSERT, UPDATE & DELETE stored procedure of a table
Building a Data Warehouse Blueprint for Success
One of the most integral components and critical success factors of any enterprise data warehousing initiative is the Solutions Architecture document, a high-level conceptual model of a data warehousing solution. Learn why this collaborative effort that addresses the needs of all major stakeholders, including both the business units and Information Technology (IT), is essential.
Developing Modifications that Survive Concurrency
You can create a database under the assumption that SQL looks after all the problems of concurrency. It will probably work fine under test conditions: then, in the production environment, it starts losing data in subtle ways that defy repetition. It is every Database Developer's nightmare. In an excerpt from his acclaimed book, Alex Kuznetsov explains why it happens, and how you can avoid such problems.
How well do you really know your colleagues?
Take your peers out of their comfort zone and do you know how well they'll perform?
SQL Server 2008 Table Valued Parameters Performance
An article from Scott Zurolo tests the terformance of SQL Server 2008 Table Valued Parameters against more traditional methods of updating many rows at once.
How to add NULL Defense to your SSIS packages using scripting
In this part of NULL Defense series, we will discuss how to create NULL Defense in Script Transformation.
Blogs
Who Are You Doing It For?
By Brian Kelley
But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed...
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...
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