(Bob Dorr) I realize the title is generic and that is because the problem is generic. On the surface it would not surprise me that an update takes longer than a select. (A little bit anyway.)

(Pinal Dave) Let me paint a picture of everyday life for you. Let’s say you and your wife both have address books for your groups of friends. There is definitely overlap between them, so that you both have the addresses for your mutual friends, and there are addresses that only you know, and some

(Rohatash Kumar) In this article, we will see how to use the cast and convert functions in SQL Server 2012. The cast and convert functions provide similar functionality. They are used to convert a value from one data type to another. So let’s take a look at a practical example. The example is develo

(Niladri.Biswas) In this article, we will look into the Try_Parse function of SQL Server 2012 (Denali).

(Derik Hammer) One challenge for a DBA is to setup the appropriate backup plans for the databases under our responsibility. It is easy to use SSMS’s maintenance plans to get the job done or even just write a simple BACKUP DATABASE command and pop it into a SQL Agent job but as databases grow their n

(Tibor Nagy) I was checking the statistics objects in my Microsoft SQL Server database and found some statistics with strange names. Could you please explain what the _WA_Sys… statistics are? Why are they created? Can I safely delete them? Do they differ from the other statistics objects?

(Pinal Dave) Databases are awesome. I’m sure my readers know my opinion about this – I have made SQL Server my life’s work after all! I love technology and all things computer-related. Of course, even with my love for technology, I have to admit that it has its limits.

(Ray Barley) I am using the SQL Server package configuration option with my SSIS 2005 and 2008 packages. One issue that I am trying to resolve is how to specify multiple configurations within a single SSIS Configuration table. For instance I have several applications that use SSIS packages and I w

(Laerte Junior) Why should a DBA learn PowerShell ? It is all about solutions. In this article, I want to explain how one can integrate PowerShell, TSQL, SQL Jobs and SQL WMI alerts into a complete solution. I will go further in this topic in my new written project along three great friends.

(Pinal Dave) Earlier I talked about what kind of questions, I do not like when I get asked. Today we will go over the question which I like when I get asked the same. One of the reader practices various steps in my earlier blog post Step by Step Guide to Beginning Data Quality Services in SQL Server