This article shows you how to use the new function fn_get_sql() and the 3 new columns of master.dbo.sysprocesses. These changes were introduced in SQL Server 2000 SP3/SP3A. In this article, you will find a general purpose stored procedure called ShowCodeLine. It makes use of these new features, to inspect a given spid, and display the currently executing line/query
New Author! Ramesh talks a little about database theory, using the ERD, and how you can put it to work.
Have you ever tried to open the current error log in Enterprise Manager only to have it seize up and hang? Has that annoyed you? It certainly annoyed Steve Jones and he decided to do something about it. A little techinque for helping to manage the size of those logs and prevent the "not responding" message from appearing in Task Manager.
This articles proposes storing the source code for stored procedures on disk rather than in the database itself, the intent to give developers the ability to easily change them or potentially to allow third party encryption of source code. (Note from SSC: If you choose to implement a technique like this, please be sure you understand the implications of exec'ing strings)
New Author! This is a fairly article that looks at how to do bulk data loading at a very (very) low level. You'll need to be able to read code to make use of this.
New author! Nick discusses why 'XML is One Answer', outlining some of what he believes are key points about using XML with SQL Server. This is a follow up (and sort of counter point) to another great article we had here on the site a couple weeks ago by Don Peterson. Good stuff!
This may well be more than you want to know about Unicode (and no, it's not a SQL article), but it's a pretty useful discussion to have.
Regular columnist Robert Marda discusses a few ideas on stored procedure documentation. How much documentation do you need and is "documentation" different than code comments?
Chris proposes a tool that would allow you to graphically see the space utilized by objects in a SQL database. Good idea?
Another adventure in the real world. Steve Jones tracks down a problem with locks on a live system. Read along and see how he works through the issues.
By Steve Jones
AI is a big deal in 2026, and at Redgate, we’re experimenting with how...
By Steve Jones
Another of our values: The facing page has this quote: “We admire people who...
By Ed Elliott
Running tSQLt unit tests is great from Visual Studio but my development workflow...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item No Defaults Passwords Ever
Hi, We have low latency high volume system. I have a table having 3...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Long Name
I run this code to create a table:
When I check the length, I get these results:
A table name is limited to 128 characters. How does this work?