Missing Numbers Today a developer came up to me and wanted help solving a problem he was running into with a list of numbers. He had a list of 53 numbers in a comma separated list. Unfortunately, the 53 numbers were not all in the table that he was querying. He wanted to know if … Continue reading Finding Missing Values from an Array
Conference Time! The SSWUG Fall 2010 Virtual Conference is coming up. On October 20-22, you can attend a conference from the comforts of your living room, office, or couch. And while you are at it you’ll get to sit in on some incredible presentations, interaction with speakers, and chat with other attendees. All of this … Continue reading SSWUG Fall 2010 Virtual Conference This Month
I need an empty Raw file for my SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) package. Over the last summer I’ve discovered how incredibly useful these are and will hopefully have some blogs coming out soon that go through some of this. But for now – please trust me and help the SQL community fight the good … Continue reading Create Empty Raw File
Some of my clients and I have been waiting on this for a little while – SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 has been released. It includes resolutions for 21 issues and the inclusion of fixes for 61 issues previously resolved. Along with the resolution of those issues, Service Pack 2 includes a few new … Continue reading SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Released
A couple weeks back someone asked me some questions about data types. Apparently, while implementing some financial data, each developer on the project had chosen their own data type. This was a bit of a problem that can lead to serious problems. When financial data is rounded unexpectedly - bad things can sometimes happen and … Continue reading Find Tables and Columns by Data Type
I’ll be speaking for the SQL PASS Database Administration Virtual Chapter today at 12 PM Eastern time. The topic will be Using XML to Query Execution Plans. The abstract for the event is the following: SQL Server stores its execution plans as XML in dynamic management views. The execution plans are a gold mine of … Continue reading Webcast Today – Using XML to Query Execution Plans
I’ll be speaking for the SQL PASS Database Administration Virtual Chapter next week. It’ll be on July 28 at 12 PM Eastern time. The topic will be Using XML to Query Execution Plans. The abstract for the event is the following: SQL Server stores its execution plans as XML in dynamic management views. The execution … Continue reading Webcast Next Week – Using XML to Query Execution Plans
I’ll be speaking for the SQL PASS Performance Virtual Chapter later today starting at 12 PM Eastern time. The topic will be Performance Impacts Related to Different Function Types. The abstract for the event is the following: User defined functions provide a means to encapsulate business logic in the database tier. Often the purpose of … Continue reading Webcast Today – Performance Impacts Related to Different Function Types
I was asked to take a look at an issue the other day regarding displaying Microsoft Project Task’s Notes in SSRS 2008. If you’ve worked with building reports for Microsoft Project Server, you have no doubt dealt with the RTF data that is stored in the Task’s Notes fields. With SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services … Continue reading Displaying Microsoft Project Task’s Notes in SSRS 2008
If you talk to Sarah (twitter), she’ll tell you that I like lists. Lists are awesome – they are almost like non-structured data. They are hierarchies of information that I can work with. They are Data. Microsoft must have known I liked lists because over the weekend I discovered (see below) their SQL Server Best … Continue reading SQL Server Best Practice Whitepapers
Strate SQL 