I have been testing SQL Server 2008 RC0 (Release Candidate Zero) that was made available recently and I must admit I am beginning to like it. Even the new logo is growing on me. There are many new ...

Database troubleshooting is not for the faint of heart, especially when it comes to troubleshooting locking and blocking problems. Sometimes the elephant in the room is actually a rhino, a problem ...

Everyone wants faster database queries, and both SQL developers and DBAs can turn to many time-tested methods to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, no single method is foolproof or ironclad. But even ...

I have taught several classes on the new features of SQL Server 2008, made a Web Seminar and written a Whitepaper on the subject. I have also attended the SQL PASS Summit in Seattle where there were ...

Database administrators and developers converged on Seattle for this week's annual Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference, where Microsoft is talking up its recently released SQL ...

A common SQL habit is to use SELECT * on a query, because it’s tedious to list all the columns you need. Plus, sometimes those columns may change over time, so why not just do things the easy way? But ...

If your business uses relational databases to store data, it helps to use the SQL SELECT command with the INTO clause to create new tables from query results. This method isn't ANSI-standard SQL, but ...

As I discussed in an earlier column, SQL Server keeps a plan cached for each query it sees (assuming the query requires planning in the first place, of course). That's great for speeding up processing ...

Read this SQL tutorial to learn when to use SELECT, JOIN, subselects and UNION to access multiple tables with a single statement. It’s sometimes difficult to know which SQL syntax to use when ...