Half a Million
We crossed the 500,000 member mark last week and we're looking to give away some prizes!
How to be a Good DBA - Strategy and Tactics
New Author! And long time reader - Jeffrey was site member #712, almost 3 years and 130,000 members ago! This article describes the skills needed to progress from junior to intermediate to senior DBA.
How to Build Dynamic Stored Procedures
Robert is our expert on dynamic sql. This week he offers some good hints for planning the contruction of a proc that will use dynamic sql. He also adds some suggestions on how to format the code so that when you return to it later, you can figure out what you were doing!
Index Creation Guidelines
Index Creation Guidelines for SQL Server can be pretty sparse. Usually there are a couple, clustered index for ranges, nonclustered, etc. Leo Peysakhovich has taken some time to write down his guidelines based on his experience for creating indexes and the rational for doing so. He's also taken a few minutes to look at which indexes NOT to create, something that might be worth knowing..
Intro to Database Mail in SQL 2005
Mail processing in SQL Server 2005 has changed substantially, including a new name, DBMail! Corey Bunch birngs is an introduction to this new subsystem, including HTML formatting.
Introduction to SQL-DMO
This article by Andy warren shows you how to get started with DMO using either VB or VBScript. The article includes sample code that will backup all databases on a server and will update the statistics on all databases as well.
Moving Logins - A Gotcha!
This article by Andy Warren talks about using sp_addlogin to move logins from one server to another. It also points out a problem you may run into if you have a SQL 7 server that was upgraded from 6.5
Nesting Stored Procedures
We're pleased to announce that Robert will be writing for us each month - generally on stored procedures, but occasionally on a different topic. This article discusses how nesting stored procedures works and how to use @@NextLevel. Good reading! If there is a stored procedure topic you'd like to see covered, add a comment to the article or email us at articles@sqlservercentral.com
Pivot table for Microsoft SQL Server
One of the seeminly more popular enhancements in SQL Server 2005 to T-SQL is the PIVOT operator. There have been quite a few articles, but new author Peter Larsson decomposes in detail how you can perform this operation with previous versions.
Blogs
A New Word: on tenderhooks
By Steve Jones
on tenderhooks – adj. feeling the primal satisfaction of being needed by someone, which...
Ramblings about data communities and your contributions, no excuses
By DataOnWheels
I have been active in the data community throughout my career. I have met...
SQL Server Journey till 2025 (brief)
By Vinay Thakur
Quick Summary for Microsoft SQL Server till 2025, I am fortunate to be part...
Forums
how do i map the "current" object entry in for each to one variable
hi, in an ssis for each loop over an object variable called MyListVariable, i...
Simulating Mercury’s Orbital Motion Using Pure T-SQL (NASA 2025 Dataset)
SQL Server is typically viewed as a transactional or analytical database engine. However, it...
Azure SQL Database | CREATE EVENT SESSION [Blocking_Capture] ON DATABASE
Hello, Is there a way in Azure SQL Database to change the 'Blocking Process...
Question of the Day
String Similarity I
On SQL Server 2025, when I run this, what is returned?
SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE_SIMILARITY('SQL Server', 'MySQL') See possible answers