Being More Productive
This Friday's poll looks at your productivity. Is there some technology that has really helped you do your job better?
Does Upgrading to SQL Server 2008 Fit Your Business?
While SQL Server 2008 offers several new benefits for organizations, the trick is figuring out if those performance and availability advantages are truly worth the upgrade.
Full Transaction log
One of the common questions often asked online is how to respond to a full transaction log. New author Krishna Potlakayala brings us a few techniques for dealing with this.
Guest Editorial: Short Transactions
It is ingrained in many developers and DBAs to keep transactions in SQL Server "as short as possible". Why does this mindset exist? Does it imply a deep-seated lack of confidence in the scalability of SQL Server's locking and concurrency models?
Accessing results in a random order: Towards the automated Thank-you letter
Phil shows how 'CROSS APPLY' can be useful for writing thank-you letters or thinking of excuses as to why your project has failed....
Avoid Transact-SQL's Column Alias Limitations
A column alias seems like a great tool for referencing complex expressions, but SQL Server doesn't work that way. Learn a simple workaround.
Handling Service Broker Errors
The previous installment of the 'SQL Server 2005 Express Edition' series discussed using transactions to protect the integrity and consistency of Service Broker-based communication. Depending on the type of issue encountered by our code, the outcome might be different from expected. This article demonstrates a more robust approach to error handling and applies it to our target.
How to create indexes on computed columns in SQL Server
There are certain requirements for creating indexes on computed columns and this tip shows you want needs to be done.
Secure Programming
Writing secure programs is hard. Steve Jones has a few comments on what some of the issues are with training developers.
Secure Programming
Writing secure programs is hard. Steve Jones has a few comments on what some of the issues are with training developers.
Blogs
The Book of Redgate: Spread across the world
By Steve Jones
This was Redgate in 2010, spread across the globe. First the EU/US Here’s Asia...
Merry Christmas
By John
Today is Christmas and while I do not expect anybody to actual be reading...
Self-Hosting a Photo Server the Whole Family Can Use
By Bert Wagner
Until recently, my family's 90,000+ photos have been hidden away in the depths of...
Forums
UNISTR Escape
Comments posted to this topic are about the item UNISTR Escape
Celebrating Tomorrow
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Celebrating Tomorrow
SQL Art: I Made a Christmas Card In SSMS
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art: I Made a...
Question of the Day
UNISTR Escape
In SQL Server 2025, I run this command:
SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C\3068 and good night', '*') as "A Classic";
What is returned? (assume the database has an appropriate collation)
A: 
B: 
C: 
See possible answers