Technical Article

Statistics Used by the Query Optimizer in Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 collects statistical information about indexes and column data stored in the database. These statistics are used by the SQL Server query optimizer to choose the most efficient plan for retrieving or updating data. This paper describes what data is collected, where it is stored, and which commands create, update, and delete statistics. By default, SQL Server 2008 also creates and updates statistics automatically, when such an operation is considered to be useful. This paper also outlines how these defaults can be changed on different levels (column, table, and database).

External Article

Creating a table with horizontal partitioning in SQL Server

During the planning phase I found out about the new partitioning feature in SQL Server 2005 and later editions of SQL Server. It is a vast topic with several associated operations and configurations involved. In this tip I will share what I learned about partitioning, show an example to implement horizontal table partitioning along with a comprehensive list of related benefits and considerations.

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An Unusual Identity

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item An Unusual Identity

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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