SQLServerCentral Editorial

Responsibility to Learn

“I would educate myself, and that I would never stop educating myself. It was my responsibility to keep learning.” Who said that? Albert Einstein? Da Vinci? Stephen Hawking? None of the above. That statement came from the Demon of the rock band KISS, Gene Simmons. If a rock & roll legend knows that it’s on […]

External Article

Is It Time To Stop Using IsNumeric()?

The old system function IsNumeric() often causes exasperation to a developer who is unfamiliar with the quirks of Transact SQL. It seems to think a comma or a number with a 'D' in the midde of it is a number. Phil Factor explains that though IsNumeric has its bugs, it real vice is that it doesn't tell you which of the numeric datatypes the string parameter can be coerced into, and because it doesn't check for overflow. Phil comes to the rescue with a couple of useful alternatives, one of which works whatever version of SQL Server you have, and which tell you what datatype the string can be converted to.

External Article

Database Code Analysis

Database code analysis will reduce the number of 'code smells' that creep into your database builds. It will alert the team to mistakes or omissions, such as missing indexes, that are likely to cause performance problems in production. It will allow the Governance and Operations team visibility into production readiness of the code, warning them of security loopholes and vulnerabilities. William Brewer describes the two technical approaches to database code analysis, static and dynamic, and suggests some tools that can help you get started.

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Opinions and Votes

When we look to improve software, we are often expressing our opinion on which items need to be handled first. It's helpful to keep in mind that it's an opinion being expressed, and not a vote, no matter how much it is solicited by a company.

Technical Article

How to Read a Transaction Log Backup

The transaction log backup is stored in SQL Server proprietary format, just like the transaction log itself. Even though the transaction log backup is in a special format, Microsoft has provided us with the fn_dump_dblog() function to read transaction log backups. This function is undocumented, so you should use care when using this function in a production environment.

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Question of the Day

Hyperscale Replicas I

What types of secondary replicas are available for the Azure SQL Database Hyperscale edition?

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