How to Read Excel Cells from SQL Server Integration Services
We can get data in all sorts of formats in the real world. In this new article from Dinesh Asanka, learn how to use scripting to import data from individual Excel cells.
Regular Service
Steve Jones feels that we ought to get regular service packs from Microsoft to support SQL Server. Not everyone agrees. Do you?
Consolidating SQL Server Error Logs from Multiple Instances Using SSIS
SQL Server hides a lot of very useful information in its error log files. Unfortunately, the process of hunting through all these logs, file-by-file, server-by-server, can cause a problem. Rodney Landrum offers a solution which will allow you to pull error log records from multiple servers into a central database, for analysis and reporting with T-SQL.
Concrete Code
When building a new database or system, are you designing concrete code? Should you be? Steve Jones comments on matching your needs with your architecture.
SQL Server Luxembourg User Group Meeting
Our next meeting will be held on Friday 30th April in downtown Luxembourg.
SSIS for Multiple Environments
In this article, Zach Mattson shows us how you can set up SSIS to handle multiple application environments and easily move packages from development to QA to production.
SQLCLR function to return free space for all drives on a server
When looking for impending problems due to lack of disk space it's necessary to know how much space is available on each drive. There have been other tips written about how to do this, but in this tip I show you a way this can be done using SQLCLR.
Financial Data in the Cloud?
Phil Factor believes that there will have to be further compromises between the pioneers of The Cloud and the regulators, before companies feel safe in entrusting their financial data to such an abstract service, seemingly 'remote from sand and iron'.
Optimising Server-Side Paging - Part I
This article by Paul White presents an optimisation for paging through a wide data set.
PASS Virtual Chapters Late April Presentations
To finish up the month of April we’ve got sessions from AppDev and DBA and I’m even including one from PASS on ‘Intro to Speaking At PASS’.
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
DB Design Methods
I've read a few posts regarding what we use to design DB models and...
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...
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