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SQL Server User-Defined Functions

User-Defined Functions (UDFs) are an essential part of the database developers' armoury. They are extraordinarily versatile, but just because you can even use scalar UDFs in WHERE clauses, computed columns and check constraints doesn't mean that you should. Multi-statement UDFs come at a cost and it is good to understand all the restrictions and potential drawbacks. Phil Factor gives an overview of User-defined functions: their virtues, vices and their syntax.

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Simple SQL: Attribute Splitting

If the design of a relational database is wrong, no amount of clever DML SQL will make it work well. Dr. Codd’s Information Principle is that you have, inside the entity tables, the columns that model the attributes of that entity. The columns contain scalar values. Tables that model relationships can have attributes, but they must have references to entities in the schema. You split those attributes at your peril. Joe Celko explains the basics.

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Question of the Day

The Distance Metric

In the new VECTOR_DISTANCE() function in SQL Server 2025, the first parameter is the distance_metric. What is this?

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