External Article

Cycling the ERRORLOG file and Deleting Backup History Information

Every DBA needs a few tricks up his/her sleeves to help them better manage their SQL Server 2000 environment. In this article I will explore a couple of such tricks. I will first explore how to cycle the SQL Server error log, and why you might want to do this. Secondly I will discuss backup history information and why you would need to periodically remove some of the older history information.

SQLServerCentral Article

Server Consolidation

Are you thinking about consolidating your SQL Servers on to fewer machines? It is an interesting idea and one that is definitely more possible with SQL Server 2005 and 64-bit servers. Steve Jones takes a look at some of the pros and cons of moving to fewer servers.

External Article

Practical SQL Server 2005 CLR Assemblies

One advantage of CLR assemblies is the ability to consume web services from within the database. This wouldn’t be easy with T-SQL, and would also require a lot of work in an unmanaged extended stored procedure. With .NET, it’s almost as simple as accessing a local DLL. There are just a couple of extra command-line utilities we need to run to be able to access web services from within a SQL assembly:

SQLServerCentral Article

Differential Backup Prediction

SQL Server 2000 has a rock solid backup scheme , but do you really need to run full backups every day? What if you could decide on the fly if it was more efficient for a full or a differential backup? Darwin Hatheway brings us the basis for a scheme that can predict the size of a differential backup by examining how much of the database has changed.

External Article

Try/Catch Block in SQL Server 2005

Server 2005 now supports a more programmable error trapping convention in T-SQL code. This error handling is known as the TRY/CATCH block. The TRY/CATCH block allows T-SQL to handling errors like other programming languages, such as Microsoft Visual C# and C++. In addition to the TRY/CATCH block, Microsoft has expanded the set of available system functions in SQL Server 2005 for returning error codes and messages when an error occurs in your T-SQL code. This article will explore the new TRY/CATCH block and explain the new system functions for returning error codes and messages.

Blogs

Cost Visibility: Tracking and Analysing Your Cloud Spend

By

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in cloud operations is maintaining clear visibility...

Whiling away an afternoon, thinking

By

I come to Heathrow often. Today is likely somewhere close to 60 trips to...

Black Box vs. Gray Box vs. White Box Testing

By

If your organization is spending money, then meaningful results are a must. Pen testing...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Fun with JSON II

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fun with JSON II

Changing Data Types

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Changing Data Types

Answering Questions On Dropped Columns

By Cláudio Silva

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Answering Questions On Dropped Columns

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Fun with JSON II

I have some data in a table:

CREATE TABLE #test_data
(
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(100),
    birth_date DATE
);

-- Step 2: Insert rows  
INSERT INTO #test_data
VALUES
(1, 'Olivia', '2025-01-05'),
(2, 'Emma', '2025-03-02'),
(3, 'Liam', '2025-11-15'),
(4, 'Noah', '2025-12-22');
If I run this query, how many rows are returned?
SELECT t1.[key] AS row,
       t2.*
FROM OPENJSON(
     (
         SELECT t.* FROM #test_data AS t FOR JSON PATH
     )
             ) t1
    CROSS APPLY OPENJSON(t1.value) t2;

See possible answers