Beta Developers Wanted
Mattias Fagerlund, a longtime author and contributor here is developing a new product to help developers migrate between versions of their databases. He's searching for a few Beta developers to assist.
SQL MAIL Using POP3 and SMTP
SQL Server has a great build in messaging system with SQLMail. Unfortunately it requires Outlook and Exchange to work properly. Some people don't like this or do not run Exchange and have issues getting it to work. Gregory Larsen takes a look at how you can use SMTP to send email from SQL Server.
Updating Data in Linked Servers, Information Schema Views, and More
E
very day a developer somewhere needs to write code to iterate through SQL Server™ system objects, query and update tables in linked servers, handle optimistic concurrency, and retrieve column and stored procedure metadata. In this month's column, I will address these and other T-SQL development scenarios based on some of the questions I most frequently receive from readers.
Two Minute SQL Server Stumpers
How prepared are you for your next interview? How prepared are you to give one? SQLServerCentral.com has compiled a number of questions from our ever popular Question of the Day into a book. Read about the project and show your support today by picking up a copy.
Writing Secure Transact-SQL
There are plenty of good sources of information about how to deploy SQL Server in a secure fashion. However, these resources are often targeted at database administrators tasked with securing already developed applications. In addition, there is a rich body of information that discusses writing secure .NET and ASP.NET code, including .NET code that accesses SQL Server. However, many of these resources focus on the data access code that runs on the application servers rather than the Transact-SQL (T-SQL) code that executes within SQL Server. Developing T-SQL code that runs securely on SQL Server is the primary focus of this column.
Bowling Challenge - The Results
Andy started a contest this summer to see who could develop a T-SQL method of keeping a bowling score. He's finally gotten around to the results after the damage from the hurricanes was cleaned up. See who won and see the code that does the trick.
Stored Procedures and Caching
One of the biggest performance gains built into SQL Server is the stored procedure. In this article by Brian Kelley, he shows you how to fully utilize, debug and monitor the caching of such objects.
Get all from Table A that isn't in Table B
A common requirement when building a data warehouse is to be able to get all rows from a staging table where the business key is not in the dimension table. For example, I may want to get all rows from my STG_DATE table where the DateID is not in DIM_DATE.DateID.
Tracking Down Newly Created Databases
SQL Server was designed to make the DBA job easier, distribution of security, automated procedures, etc. But in some areas it either does not go far enough, or a feature is used for an unintended purpose. One of those areas comes into play when allowing many people to create databases. Author Eli Leiba brings us a tecehnique he uses to close the gap and track down those newly created databases.
For Loop Container Samples
One of the new tasks in SQL Server 2005 is the For Loop Container. In this article we will demonstrate a few simple examples of how this works. Firstly it is worth mentioning that the For Loop Container follows the same logic as most other loop mechanism you may have come across, in that it will continue to iterate whilst the loop test (EvalExpression) is true. There is a known issue with the EvalExpression description in the task UI being wrong at present. (SQL Server 2005 Beta 2).
Blogs
TRY_PARSE Limitations: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I got a notification from a question I’d posted at SQL Server Central: Getting...
SQL Server sa Account Security: Rename, Disable & Best Practices
By SQLPals
SQL Server sa Account Security: Rename, Disable & Best Practices In...
Stanford Emerging Technology Review 2026 Report is out
By Brian Kelley
Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing are two areas of emerging technology that receive most...
Forums
Are You Working More Hours?
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Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments Level 6 – Managing Changesets Over Time
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A Limited Startup
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Question of the Day
A Limited Startup
I add this parameter to SQL Server 2025 in the Configuration Manager:
-mDynamicsWhat does this do? See possible answers