I’ve been reading some blogs and editorials regarding the use of query hints; primarily NOLOCK. Many of the opinions written state that query hints should be used much less as query optimization improves, or other methods are developed replacing them. The primary exception for using NOLOCK was in those situations where you have a reporting database, and there is no […]

CAP is a database persistence strategy embraced by most NoSQL storage engines. ACID is the most common persistence strategy used by relational database engines. These acronyms define two different approaches to persisting data. CAP represents three goals of data persistence Consistency Availability Partitioning Simplistically, you can fully implement two of the three goals of CAP in any system. There are […]

Many times I have been working on a project, and the first thing my mind starts with is how to build it so that it is future proof. We often want our work to last a long, long time. It’s part of the reason we like doing software in the first place. In contrast, I am constantly reminding myself to […]

Here’s an interesting scenario we all face at one time or another. Your application runs fine until you increase the load. It stands up pretty good with 4 or 5 processes. But, when you get to that 6th process, things begin to degrade. Each additional process, from this point on, increases the degradation exponentially. At some point, nothing is working, […]

Jet Brains creates a lot of my favorite tools and utilities. I really like Resharper. Lots of developers don’t like it. So, it’s a kind of personal thing. Then there is the Team City build suite. Super easy to learn and use. Works great in windows and Linux. They even have a tool for tracking work , much like an […]

If you haven’t seen the comments from yesterday’s editorial, there is some really good insight. AZ Jim provides a good case for requirements first design in a Waterfall methodology. If you are doing waterfall development, he has it right on. Requirements, logical model, physical model, begin coding. This works extremely well, and has proven success to the same degree of […]

Is it the size or quantity that matters, when it comes to creating a good database diagram? I prefer both. That may be a little bit of ego, age, and efficiency all rolled into one. I really like the big screen. With the recent Ultra HD 4 TVs that are now available, you can get a reasonable resolution that looks […]

What should we really be doing in triggers? Are triggers inherently bad?. Or, are they bad because a trigger is misused? I suppose it is like asking if a person is bad, or if a person has made bad choices. So, what are good things that can be done with triggers? Triggers are great for when you are making changes […]

Do you have a complicated query you’re finding it difficult to get your head around? I have found that using Common Table Expressions (CTE) can take some of the pain away, and maybe even improve performance. A common table expression performs much like an inline view. It does not have a permanent definition stored in the database schema, as views […]

It seems like the database systems I’ve been working on are getting bigger and bigger. I remember the days when a 100 gigabyte database was considered large. Today, a terabyte sized database is not uncommon. Are we saving that much more information, or is there something else going on. Well, for one thing, if you are using SQL Server, the […]