DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by pinaldave

Learning SQL Server - Efficient Query Writing Strategy - Gift Book

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:49:25 GMT

Some people may push back on this next technique or misunderstand until getting to the very end. The goal is to have fewer errors as you write complex queries more quickly by making sure the easy stuff works first.

Find Nth Record Quickest Way in SQL Server

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:00:05 GMT

A Very simple tutorial to find Nth Record. A Quick Tutorial.

Database Worst Practices - New Town and New Job and New Disasters

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:16:54 GMT

Instead of writing best practices, I am going to write about few of the worst practices which I have quite often seen in the real world. Some of them are really bad that I often wonder how those who still use them were able to continue on the job so far. Let us go over few of the worst practices I have observed in the industry.

Two Simple Puzzles - Tease Your Brain - Win Knowledge and Gift

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 06:14:33 GMT

Today I have two simple T-SQL Puzzle. You can answer them and win USD 25 Gift card. The gift card will be sent in email to winner. You will get choice of Gift Card brand based on your preference and country location.

SQL Puzzles and Interesting Solutions

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 08:29:01 GMT

List of all the interesting puzzles and interesting solutions on my blog.

Solution - Generating Zero Without using Any Numbers in T-SQL

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 09:51:48 GMT

Generate Zero without using any numbers. An Interesting Puzzle and its solution.

SELECT * gives error when executed alone but SELECT COUNT(*) does not.

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:24:30 GMT

Try running SELECT * it will throw an error. Try running SELECT COUNT(*) it will not throw an error. Why? Read, Learn and Participate!

Copy Database from Instance to Another Instance - Copy Paste in SQL Se

Fri, 27 May 2011 06:25:45 GMT

SQL Server has feature which copy database from one database to another database and it can be automated as well using SSIS. Make sure you have SQL Server Agent Turned on as this feature will create a job. The same job will execute the task. Make sure that SSIS is properly configured as well with necessary security permissions. You can automate this process as well control error logging. Following are the steps to copy database from one instance to another instance.

Pluralsight On-Demand FREE for SQL Server Course

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 05:24:24 GMT

Learning is always difficult. After learning how to apply your knowledge, learning in real life is even more difficult. Technology is moving faster than the speed of light and new technologies are always emerging - this is now the reality of the new technology world. Between all of this, I personally have very little time to learn new technology. I do not like eBooks (this statement warrants a whole new blog posts - some other time), I prefer regular books. It is becoming more and more difficult to carry around the books and read them with passion. It happened to me once that by the time I finished the book, there was a new version of the product out in the market.

Query to Recent Query on Server with Execution Plan Function

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:29:30 GMT

A quick script to get recently ran query.

A Hidden Performance Bottleneck - Discover and Resolve

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 09:47:16 GMT

I have been working a lot on Wait Stats and Wait Types recently. Last Year, I requested blog readers to send me their respective server's wait stats. I recorded the wait stats and my recommendations and did further research. At some point at time, there were more than 10 different round trips of the recommendations and suggestions. Finally, after six month of working my hands on performance tuning, I have collected some real world wisdom because of this. Now I plan to share my findings with all of you over here.

What is a Technology Evangelist?

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 05:48:32 GMT

Technology evangelists are individuals who, professionally or in their spare time, spread the news about the latest new products. Sounds like a salesperson, right? No they are absolutely different. Salespeople also keep up to date with a large number of people, and like to convince others to buy their product - and some will go to any lengths to sell! An evangelist, on the other hand, is brutally honest about the product, even if sometimes it means not making a sale. An evangelist is out there to tell the TRUTH. A salesperson needs to make sales.

If you are Shrinking your Database - This one is for you!

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:02:57 GMT

Shrinking database is one of the very very bad operation of SQL Server. Pinal Dave proves this with example.

Creating Missing Index and Improve SQL Server Performance

Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:17:43 GMT

A Quick Script which you can right away run and improve SQL Server Performance.

SQL SERVER - Copy Statistics from One Server to Another Server

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 05:36:30 GMT

A very efficient way of copying database statistics from one server to another server without moving data.

Plan Cache and Data Cache in Memory

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 18:46:53 GMT

I get following question almost all the time when I go for consultations or training. I often end up providing the scripts to my clients and attendees. Instead of writing new blog post, today in this single blog post, I am going to cover both the script and going to link to original blog posts where I have mentioned about this blog post.

SQL SERVER - Server Side Paging in SQL Server 2011 - A Better Alternat

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 06:59:52 GMT

A Better Alternative of the SQL Server Paging.

Are you Database Developer or Database Administrator?

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 11:37:51 GMT

Your opinion matters! Are you Database Developer or Database Administrator?

Known Unknown of System Stored Procedure of sys.sp_tables

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 09:00:52 GMT

Do you know even simple query like sys.tables can kill the performance of your system. There are better thing to use: Read more...

SQL SERVER - Encrypted Stored Procedure and Activity Monitor

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 05:15:52 GMT

If you are using Encrypted Stored Procedure you not see them in Activity Monitor

The Limitations of the Views - Eleven and more.

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 18:45:52 GMT

I am confident that you may know few and you may know many. I am now interested to read what all of you have to offer on this subject. I encourage all of you to go through complete series and write your own on the subject

Wait Stats and Health Check - A Path to Performance

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 19:30:52 GMT

Wait Stat Analysis is very crucial for optimizing databases, but it is often overlooked due to lack of understanding. We perform advanced resource Wait Statistics Analysis and provide you with suggestions to optimize your database server. We train your DBA to make them skillful enough so they can perform this analysis by themselves in the future.

TSQL Beginners Challenge 17- Working with Employee hierarchical struct

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:09:44 GMT

The problem is all about identifying all the employees directly or indirectly to whom the given Employee reports to. The challenge is to write a query that can take a Employee Id as a parameter and list all the employees to whom the Employee is reporting, directly or indirectly.

COUNT() Not Allowed but COUNT_BIG() Allowed in VIEW

Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:26:04 GMT

One of the most prominent limitations of the View it is that it does not support COUNT(*); however, it can support COUNT_BIG(*) operator. In the following case, you see that if View has COUNT (*) in it already, it cannot have a clustered index on it. On the other hand, a similar index would be created if we change the COUNT (*) to COUNT_BIG (*).For an easier understanding of this topic, let us see the example here.

How to Stop Growing Log File Too Big

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 19:30:52 GMT

A Simple Solution to Ancient Problem