Using the T-SQL PERCENTILE Analytic Functions in SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008
Percentiles give meaning to measurements by telling you the percentage of the population being measured who get higher or lower values. They are now easier to calculate in SQL, and are useful for reporting; but are the new analytic functions faster and more efficient than the older methods? Dwain Camps demonstrates, and investigates their relative performance.
Hack Us
A challenge from United intrigues Steve Jones. How many other companies would make a challenge like this?
Storing a Binary File in a Database
In this article you will see how to convert a file to a binary stream and insert it into SQL Server with SQLCLR.
SQL Monitor Custom metric: Average I/O stalls
This is a good general indicator of performance problems. High stall times indicate I/O problems, which can be attributed to busy physical disks or queries that return large data sets to the client.
Webinar: How to safely manage application and database changes with continuous delivery
Join Brian A. Randell, Grant Fritchey and Steve Jones in this panel discussion to hear tips, ideas and share your questions on managing application and database deployments with continuous delivery. This Free webinar will be on May 27th at 4PM BST, register while space is available.
The Cascading (CROSS) APPLY
An old trick nowadays but one which is still underused here on SSC is the cascading CROSS APPLY – where output from one CROSS APPLY is used as input for another.
Optimizing Batch Process in SQL Server
SQL Server batch processes are usually run from SQL Agent in the background. Often, the responsibility for creating these tasks belongs entirely to the developer. Dennes Torres demonstrates that DBAs can advise and assist with this type of batch job to help reduce their impact on the working system.
Big Data for SQL folks: The Technologies (Part I)
Will RDBMs be obsolete? Should Data Professionals care about Big Data technologies? What is NoSQL? What is Hadoop? Big Data-the whole story.
Blogs
Creating a Pulsing Conducting Baton - Part 1
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ISACA AI Material/Exam Prep Discount (May 18 – June 30, 2026)
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If you are considering any of the ISACA AI certs like the Advanced Artificial...
A Fabric solution can be very cost effective
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Forums
We Are Eating Our Own Seed Corn
Comments posted to this topic are about the item We Are Eating Our Own...
Before Using AI with Business Data, Read This
Artificial intelligence tools are quickly becoming part of daily business operations, from document analysis...
Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines That Don't Break at Scale
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines...
Question of the Day
Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
In the Database Engine, when a deadlock is detected, what does the detection interval shrink to (in time)?
See possible answers