SQLServerCentral Article

Dynamic Management Objects

These are not the DMO bits you are thinking of from SQL Server 2000. SQL Server 2005 introduces a new way of digging into the inner workings of the server with both Dynamic Management Views and Dynamic Management Functions. Longtime SQL Server guru Christoffer Hedgate looks at these new ways of understanding your server.

External Article

Counting Parents and Children with Count Distinct

The aggregate functions in SQL Server (min, max, sum, count, average, etc.) are great tools for reporting and business analysis. But sometimes, you need to tweak them just a little bit to get exactly the results you need. For example, if your manager came to you and asked for a report on how many sales have been made to your clients and how large they were, would you know how to get the data you need efficiently? Mark ran into something like this recently and here's the approach he took to solve the problem.

Technical Article

SQL Server 2005 DB Snapshot: Imperfect Yet Useful?

Database Snapshot (DB Snapshot for short) is a new tool offered by SQL Server 2005. Database snapshots can be used to protect against user errors, by creating a "snapshot" of your data that you can refer to later if you need to recover data or database objects that were accidentally (or even intentionally) updated or dropped. While the feature is quite useful, it doesn’t provide a 100% guarantee against user errors.

Technical Article

Encrypting Without Secrets

Do you have a Web site or other system that deals in secrets of any sort? It seems like every time I give a security talk, people ask how to deal with the sticky problem of storing secrets. Connection strings with passwords are an obvious problem. You're better off simply using integrated security to get rid of those secrets, at least with SQL Server™, or an Oracle database. But what about credit card numbers and other financial or personal information? Can encryption help?

Blogs

Monday Monitor Tips: Intelligent Alert Thresholds

By

At the recent Redgate Summit in Chicago, I demo’d (lightly) the ML based Alert...

A New Word: los vidados

By

los vidados – n. the half-remembered acquaintances you knew years ago, who you might...

In-Person CISA Training – April 13-16, 2026

By

I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

String_agg not working as needed

By DaveBriCam

I'm trying to get this string_agg to put all the 'comments' into one result...

Vectors in SQL Server 2025

By Daniel Calbimonte

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Vectors in SQL Server 2025

Odd Sequences

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Odd Sequences

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Odd Sequences

What values are returned from this code?

CREATE SEQUENCE NumericSequence
    AS NUMERIC(5,1)
    START WITH 1.0
    INCREMENT BY 0.1;
GO
SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR NumericSequence
GO
SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR NumericSequence
GO

See possible answers