Converting Rows to Columns (PIVOT) and Columns to Rows (UNPIVOT) in SQL Server
Learn how to convert row values into column values (PIVOT) and column values into row values (UNPIVOT) in SQL Server.
Reusing T-SQL Code
Alex Kuznetsov, in an article taken from his book 'Defensive Database Programming with SQL Server', shows how DRY principles can be put in practice with constraints, stored procedures, triggers, UDFs and indexes.
Archive Every Day
There are challenges with the large scale archiving of data. Steve Jones talks about rethinking this as a daily process rather than a periodic one.
Protecting Yourself from SQL Injection in SQL Server - Part 2
Aaron Bertrand has some advice on how to protect yourself from SQL Injection, looking at some specific common scenarios.
SQL Monitor Custom Metric: WriteLog wait time
This metric shows Writelog wait time in ms, per elapsed second. Writelog wait types occur when the log cache is being flushed to disk. If this happens all the time, it may suggest disk bottlenecks where the transaction log is stored.
When Should We Be Cleaning Data?
Part of our job as a data professional often deals with the movement and cleaning of data. However, should we be trying to reduce the work we do? Move the burden to the application? Steve Jones has a few comments.
How to Get SQL Server Dates and Times Horribly Wrong
One of the times that you need things to go right is when you are doing analysis and reporting. This is generally based on time and date. A sure-fire way of getting managers upset is to get the figures horribly wrong by messing up the way that you handle datetime values in SQL Server. In the interests of peace, harmony and a long career in BI, Robert Sheldon outlines some of the worst mistakes you can make when using SQL Server dates.
Demystifying the use of CASE in an ORDER BY statement
Chuck Hoffman exposes the mysteries of getting CASE statements to work in dynamic ORDER BY statements.
System Stored Procedures for SQL Azure Linked Servers
Microsoft released the preview version of Azure SQL Database V12 in December of 2014. As a database administrator, you might wonder about the schema and security of these new data marts. Microsoft has supplied system stored procedures for the database developer to query the Linked Servers for this type of meta data, as John Miner explains.
Blogs
Rolling Back a Broken Release
By Steve Jones
We had an interesting discussion about deployments in databases and how you go forward...
A bespoke reporting solution doesn’t have to cost the earth
By ChrisJenkins
You could be tolerating limited reporting because there isn’t an off the shelf solution...
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Forums
Lots of FKs
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Lots of FKs
Real-time On-prem SQL Server Data in Excel – Over the Internet
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Real-time On-prem SQL Server Data...
Can You Let Go of Determinism
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Can You Let Go of...
Question of the Day
Lots of FKs
In SQL Server 2025, what are the most outgoing and incoming FK references a table can have?
See possible answers