(Vinod Kumar) We had a recent discussion on the public newsgroups on how to get this requirement in a single statement without using T-SQL. I was indeed taken by surprise how this requirement was answered by fellow MVP’s. Infact there is a solution even though no so elegant, but works great having s

(Andy Warren) When we hire new employees (at my day job) we start with a phone interview. I’ve got a list of a couple dozen questions we run through that give us an idea of whether we should consider bringing the person in for a more in depth interview. While a discussion of those questions is proba

(Deac Lancaster) Microsoft SQL Server 2000 has a large number of built-in functions available for SQL programming, database administration and other purposes. The major categories are listed in the table in this article.

(Allen) One of the very common questions appearing on various developer forums is that of comparing the pros and cons of MySQL and MS SQL. While comparisons have been made by many volunteers, mostly technical issues, I personally find that they are difficult to compare especially regarding their per

(Rick Dobson) At the formal release of the Microsoft .NET Framework, Bill Gates promoted Web services by demonstrating the SQL Server 2000 Web Services Toolkit, which comes with XML for SQL Server 2000’s third Web release (SQLXML 3.0). The Web Services Toolkit is a jewel, letting you graphically

(Steve Jones) I recently worked on a data migration project for a friend who was moving from one version of a web application to another. It was a home grown application and also required a complete migration from one database to another, in many cases from a denormalized structure to a very normali

(Scott) Effective indexes are one of the best ways to improve performance in a database application. Without an index, the SQL Server engine is like a reader trying to find a word in a book by examining each page. By using the index in the back of a book, a reader can complete the task in a much

(Kaye Garten) Sometimes, triggers can inadvertently fire other triggers or even the same trigger recursively. In this compilation of SQL Server tips, you’ll learn to detect such an event. Then, by changing gears a bit, you’ll see how to read the backup information stored in SQL Server’s msdb dat

(Brian Moran) Have you ever checked out the page life expectancy counter in Performance Monitor’s Buffer Manager object? SQL Server Books Online (BOL) says the page life expectancy value is the "number of seconds a page will stay in the buffer pool without references." So, a buffer that has a 300-se

(William E. Pearson, III) In this article, we will explore the use of a calculated member property to optimize query performance. Almost anyone who has worked with MSAS for any length of time has become aware of the NON EMPTY keyword in MDX. Empty cells are the reason that most of us are thankful fo