Blog Post: DROP INDEX and CREATE INDEX vs ALTER INDEX REBUILD
I saw someone ask a few weeks ago if it was faster to drop and re-create an index or do an ALTER INDEX REBUILD . I’m not sure, although I suspect they will take about the same amount of time. And what...
View ArticleBlog Post: Exam Prep 70-463: SSIS Connection Managers
This post is part of a series on this blog that will help me, and hopefully you, pass exam 70-463: Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012. So far, we’ve covered: Tables and...
View ArticleBlog Post: Reading The Power Query Trace File–With Power Query
In the September 2014 update of Power Query a new piece of functionality was added: the ability to turn on tracing . There’s no documentation about what the trace files actually contain anywhere (it’s...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL Bits – Europe’s largest SQL Conference
4th 7th March ExCeL Centre in London, England SQLBits have announced their dates for 2015. I have been three times and it is an excellent opportunity to learn and meet fellow DBAs and developers. This...
View ArticleBlog Post: Friday Followup For December 12, 2014
It’s Friday, time to look back at the most popular RealSQLGuy posts of the week. Because it’s Friday and you’re not doing any real work anyway. Posts That Were Popular This Week Don’t Get Slimed By...
View ArticleBlog Post: Obvious and Not-So-Obvious Writing Tips
Takeaway: I leave SQL Server behind this week and I give two tips for technical bloggers, An obvious tip: Practice a lot A not-so-obvious tip: Help your readers skip reading your article First the...
View ArticleBlog Post: Reblog: December 5 to December 11
Photo credit – Husso I’ve always been a fan of the feeling when I find an old blog post that’s got just the information that I need to solve a problem or answer a question. It’s that whole “cha-ching”...
View ArticleBlog Post: We’ve Got to Do More With Less
“We’ve got to do more with less.” A few years ago that phrase was tossed about regularly in companies throughout the U.S. and abroad. Although those exact words have fallen out of favor, the...
View ArticleBlog Post: Little Java Boy
I didn’t want to repeat the Night Before Upgrade again this year, so I wrote something knew. Go ahead, sing along, you know the tune! Go, they told me, pa rum pum pum pum The D-B-A to see, pa rum pum...
View ArticleBlog Post: Does a clustered index sort the rows within a page
This is just something I was curious about. I ran my tests and got an answer and now I thought I would share. Before I start I want to point out a few things about my tests. I’m using code to...
View ArticleBlog Post: DBTA – Microsoft SQL Server and the Big Data Play
When it comes to implementing a big data strategy in a Microsoft SQL Server shop, you’re generally going to consider one of three strategies. In the first strategy, which I won’t be addressing today,...
View ArticleBlog Post: The Value of Writing Good
Most of my peers, and likely yours as well, work in some sort of technical field. Odds are that they’re proficient readers who can digest the driest of technical material. They’re probably good with...
View ArticleBlog Post: Create a clustered index and a primary key on existing tables
It’s the simple things in life that can trip people up. I find that creating primary keys and clustered indexes on existing tables is one that newish DBAs tend to trip up on, and so (like I do), I...
View ArticleForum Post: caching in version 6.5
Hi, How can I turn off caching in Toad for Sql server 6.5 ? Why does this feature has been disappeared ?
View ArticleBlog Post: ROW_NUMBER SQL Server
Row_Number SQL Server SQL Server includes several Ranking Functions that can be called in T-SQL. One of these is the Row_Number() function. You can use this function to return a sequential number in...
View ArticleBlog Post: Interview with Jack Vamvas
I recently had the opportunity to interview Jack Vamvas about SQL, Optimization, and being a DBA. This interview is sprinkled with many gems of practical advice. 1. What is some advice you would give...
View ArticleBlog Post: ‘Twas 4:45 Friday
‘Twas 4:45 Friday, and all through the office not a creature was stirring, not even the bosses. The code was checked in, into Tortoise with care, in hopes a release date – soon would be there. The devs...
View ArticleBlog Post: Bing Pulse
A recent post on the Bing blog alerted me to a Microsoft service called Bing Pulse that I hadn’t heard about before. It’s a way of collecting and analysing audience feedback in real time during events...
View ArticleBlog Post: Power Pivot Update and Issue with Relationships Between Tables
Yesterday the Power BI team released a fantastic new update that improves the usability of Power Pivot inside of Excel. I'm thrilled with what I've seen so far as it removes a lot of the delays when...
View ArticleBlog Post: Playing with the log – VLF order while growing the log
The log file is one of those parts of SQL Server I find fascinating. For instance it is composed of VLFs (virtual log files). These VLFs are a logical way for SQL to break the physical file down into...
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