SQL Server Security: Server Roles
As yo probably know, Brian covers security topics for us and does a great job. This week he looks at the fixed roles and points out a few things you may not have thought about.
Stored Procedure vs Triggers
Performance tuning is an ongoing battle in SQL Server, but having a little knowledge up front when designing an application can greatly reduce the efforts. Do you know which performs better: stored procedures or triggers? There aren't many places where the two are interchangeable, but knowing the impacts of each might change the way you build an application. Read about this analysis by Vijaya Kumar.
Tame Those Strings! Part 7 - Proper Casing Strings
Need to proper case names? Want a quick way to reformat a series of words? This article examines a SQL approach to quickly proper casing all words in a field.
Temp Tables in SQL Server
This is an entry level look at how temp tables work in SQL along with some tips about how to use them effectively.
The Best Kept Secret About SQL Query Analyzer
It has been nearly 5 years since SQL Server 2000 was released and almost seven since Query Analyzer was introduced in SQL Server 7. Surely every trick, tip, technique, or secret has been published by now? Perhaps, but this might be a new one from Yakov Shlafman. Check out what he thinks is the best kept secret.
The GO Command and the Semicolon Terminator
There are probably not many SQL Server DBAs that use the semicolon as a statement separator. In SQL Server 2005, this is required in certain places and new author Kenneth Powers brings us a look at where and why you need to use this syntax.
Tracing Deadlocks
New Author! Deadlocks aren't the most common problem but they happen they can really degrade performance. Shiv works through how to nail down what is causing the deadlock.
Transactions in SQL Server 2005 Integration Services
SQL Server 2005 no longer has DTS. Instead, the next evolution of ETL tools from Microsoft is Integration Services, with many enhancements and capabilities, far beyond what was available in SQL Server 2000 DTS. New author Jamie Thomson brings us a look at the transaction capabilities of SQLIS in Yukon.
Troubleshooting Cannot Generate SSPI Context Errors
As a DBA you do not need to know how to setup an Active Directory domain or a DNS server, but you still need to know how Kerberos, Service Principle Names, and hostnames are used to perform integrated authentication to a SQL Server. This article by new columnist Chad Miller shows you some of the more integral parts of troubleshooting running Windows Authentication security in a SQL Server environmnet.
Tutorial: Adding Conditional Formatting into Reporting Services
Last time, we discussed how to create your first report in Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. The report we created was a status report on SQL Server Agent jobs. The report we created was from the template and was very crude looking because of that. In this short article, we are going to look at improving that report and answer a common newsgroup question I see. This week, we are going to set the rows of the report to alternate colors.
Blogs
Learn Better: Pause to Review More
By Brian Kelley
If you want to learn better, pause more in your learning to intentionally review.
Azure SQL Managed Instance Next-Gen: Bring on the IOPS
By John
If you’ve used Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose, you know the drill: to...
SQL, MDX, DAX – the languages of data
By DataOnWheels
Ramblings of a retired data architect Let me start by saying that I have...
Forums
Two foreign keys to the same table. Can't cascade deletes.
Not sure if this is really a relational theory question but it seems about...
Connecting Power BI to SSAS and effective user not working
Hi everyone, Below is a consolidated summary of what we validated Architecture & data...
High Availability setup - has anyone seen this method?
Hi all, I recently moved to a new employer who have their HA setup...
Question of the Day
Encoding URLs
I have this data in a SQL Server 2025 table:
CREATE TABLE Response ( ResponseID INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT ResponsePK PRIMARY KEY , ResponseVal VARBINARY(5000) ) GOIf I want to get a value from this table that I can add to a URL in a browser, which of these code items produces a result I can use? See possible answers