What Your SP Can Return
Return values from stored procedures (not output params, true return values) probably aren't used as often as they should be. Robert gives you some good examples of how to use them.
DBMS vs File Management System
This is a high level article that compares the use of a DBMS with file management systems. Interesting to think about products that use the file system successfully - not everything needs SQL...or does it?
Worst Practice - Bad Connection Strings and Bad Info in Sysprocesses
Andy returns to the Worst Practice series this week with a short article looking at how connection strings in applications affect what you see in sysprocesses. Perhaps less controversial (in our opinion) that some of the other worst practices, this is something easy to fix and definitely worth fixing! Read the article and post a comment - explore other points of view! Readers posting a comment will be entered in a drawing for a copy of the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit.
SQLCentric
This is an update to v1.2 of the product which does monitoring of your SQL servers. Looks like it checks service status, jobs, disk space, some other things. (Not Reviewed)
SQL Server Security: Why Security Is Important
Regular columnist Brian Kelley reviews the real world impact that inadequate security can have by reviewing some recent incidents in the sql/security world. Very much worth reading, especially if you have credit card data.
Lots of Tables and a Little DMO
Andy discusses a recent thread where a reader has very slow login tables with 2000 tables. After writing some DMO code (very handy by the way) and creating some objects, he can't track it down. Have any ideas?
MZTools - Addin for VB6
Freeware! This add-in gives you some great extra features when working in VB6. It has a tab index setter, options to add a chunk of error handling code, a simple code analyzer that gives you some metrics, and my favorite - an option to identify unused code and variables. If you're still using VB6 it's worth trying.
Automated Trace File Collection
This article shows how to create a trace and capture it into a table using a combination of SQL and VBScript. Direct and to the point, you can read this and try it easily.
Where Do I Want To Go Today? - Upsert
Where should SQL Server go in the future? What enhancements are needed? Steve Jones starts to explore his wish list for future versions of SQL Server.
Finding and Deleting Duplicate Data
Bad data is almost a given, but true duplicate data can really cause you some headaches. How do you remove all the duplicates and still leave a 'keeper' record? If you think procedural code it's not too hard, but can you do a set based solution? Chris shows you show!
Blogs
Claude AI Convinced Me Not to Build an iPad App
By Steve Jones
I coach volleyball and I do a lot of stat stuff on paper. I...
A New Word: Dolorblindness
By Steve Jones
dolorblindness – n. the frustration that you’ll never be able to understand another person’s...
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
Forums
Data Warehouse Toolkit meets Star Schema: The Complete Reference
Is there a good syllabus for reading these two together? (Yes, it's called the...
GPX distance and time analysis in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item GPX distance and time analysis...
The DBA is Dead; Long Live the DBA
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The DBA is Dead; Long...
Question of the Day
Changing the AG Listener
In SQL Server 2025, if I want to remove an IP from a listener, what do I do?
See possible answers