This month's T-SQL Tuesday is the brainchild of Matt Velic and was inspired by a quote from Adam Machanic on the importance of understanding the APPLY operator. It's a good trick to have up your sleeve as it can do some nifty things and really save you some keystrokes when used properly. My first experience with APPLY …

Read More

I'm not a fan of the BETWEEN operator. While the syntax is very easy to understand and requires less typing than my favorite alternative, it can lead to situations where unwanted results are returned. Because of this I've gotten into the habit of avoiding it all together. If you'd like a refresher on BETWEEN, its …

Read More

My shortest post to date comes as from the inaugural "Meme Monday" as declared by Tom LaRock. Here's my deep SQL Server thought in 11 words or less: Don't deploy changes until they've been tested in a dev environment. Tagged: Jose Chinchilla (blog) Kendra Little (blog | twitter)

Read More

Another SQL Saturday has come and gone, but for me this one was the best by far. I've now had the pleasure of attending 3 SQL Saturday events but this was the first one I've had a hand in planning. It was a great experience and I can't wait until next year! Friday On Friday I spent the day at Brent Ozar's (blog | …

Read More

After months of planning, SQL Saturday #67 is finally upon us! While this is the 3rd SQL Saturday I'll be attending, it's the first one I've had a hand in planning. It's been a real pleasure to be part of such an awesome team putting it all together along with: – Wendy Pastrick (blog | twitter) – Norman Kelm (blog | …

Read More

I enjoy watching college basketball but am absolutely horrible at making my NCAA tournament bracket each year. This time around, rather than spending an hour making guesses, I decided to let SQL Server do the work for me. Besides it's way cooler to be able to justify your bracket with T-SQL, right? My bracket is based …

Read More

T-SQL Tuesday this month is being hosted by the one and only Jes Borland (blog | twitter), and the topic of the month is aggregation. Powerful and fast aggregation tools are one of the biggest reasons to use a database. Without them, there would be a lot less awesomeness to look forward to – kind of like a meal without …

Read More

This Month's T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Pat Wright (blog | twitter) and Pat is asking about tips and tricks for making life easier through automation using either T-SQL or PowerShell. Recently I have been doing more and more work in PowerShell in order to get familiar with it. So far I've been quite happy. Batch …

Read More

This month is the 14th T-SQL Tuesday (my how time flies!) and it's graciously being hosted by MidnightDBA and newly-minted MVP Jen McCown (blog | twitter). Jen is asking what our techie resolutions are for 2011 – what we hope to accomplish and why. I think this is a great topic, and I'm so glad I hadn't already done a …

Read More

What do you call someone who graduated last in their class? In this case, me! I recently took Microsoft Exam 70-433 (MCTS: Database Developer 2008), and am pleased to report that I passed. I'm happy to offer up some of my thoughts as well as tips for those who might take it in the future. Scoring – Why Bother? So you …

Read More