Yesterday I brought up the topic of logical database modeling. In the discussion, and often considered in comments on the editorial, was this concept that the current trend is not to do modeling at all. There are still some holdouts such as myself, finding models easy to generate and useful for communication. Unlike the typical ERD, if one is created, […]

Logical schemas were quite popular back in the days of Database Engineers. We studied database storage techniques and data modeling. We learned tools allowing us to efficiently create diagrams of our database schema, the purpose of which was to communicate to the world what our intentions were. Today, database engines are so efficient; some software is developed with no centralized […]

What job title most represents the way your work day goes? 911 Operator: Watch call queue and handle next incoming. Team Member: Lots of meetings and interruptions to keep everybody on the same page. Isolationist: No email, no phone, focused on work. Which method produces the best product for you team as individuals and as a corporate whole? I’d say […]

Can you make it work? Those are words I love to hear, or make me cringe depending on the circumstances. What makes the difference? The point in the lifecycle of the product that doesn’t work. When a project is early in the coding or implementation, change is easier to accommodate. When you are in production, change is much more difficult […]

Indexes are very important for SQL Server today. As your database grows, the more value indexes play in the performance of your SQL Server. However, this may not be the case as we move into the future. A good example of this prediction is the performance of systems like Big Table, the engine behind your Google searches. Instead of growing […]

Keeping your indexes tuned up is essential for every database, without exception. This is a dogmatic statement that is easy to defend. You say your database is small, so index tuning has little value. My response would be that because your database is small, the indexes remain adequately tuned by default. You say your database has very little change and […]

We’ve been talking about keys and indexes for the last few days. The keys you choose, and the indexes you create implement the basic business rules of your database when it comes to relationships between tables, and enforcing uniqueness of data. These rules may be defined as table constraints, but the implementation used by the SQL Engine is always based […]

We have touched on Fill Factor a couple of times recently. This is a concept I thought would prove useful to dig into a little deeper for some of our readers who are not as familiar with how data is stored in SQL Server. As I stated earlier, data is stored physically inside a table that is designed internally as […]

When talking about using natural keys the last couple of days, the most frequent comment against this technique is the issue of performance. I have databases where using natural keys outperforms using sequential, system assigned keys. Today I am going to posit a theory as to why that is so (other than I am just fooling myself, or my measurements […]

I had forgotten how much polarization there is regarding the use of System Assigned or Natural Keys. It seems to be an issue were we tend to have VERY strong opinions, mostly based on bad experiences we don’t want to re-visit. If we had a bad experience using Natural keys we lean toward system assigned keys. Those with issues caused […]