T-SQL

Prashanth Jayaram

SQL date format Overview; DateDiff SQL function, DateAdd SQL function and more

October 31, 2018 by

SQL date format functions like the DateDiff SQL function and DateAdd SQL Function are oft used by DBAs but many of us never took the time to fully understand these extremely useful features. For professionals just getting started with SQL Server, these functions are some of the first to become familiar with. So hopefully this article will have a little something for everyone across the skill spectrum

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Rajendra Gupta
Data truncation error

SQL truncate enhancement: Silent Data truncation in SQL Server 2019

October 31, 2018 by

In this article, we’ll take a look into SQL truncate improvement in SQL Server 2019.

Data inserts and updates are a normal and regular task for the developers and database administrators as well as from the application. The source of the data can be in multiple forms as if direct insert using T-SQL, stored procedures, functions, data import from flat files, SSIS packages etc.

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Prashanth Jayaram

Overview of the SQL Insert statement

October 16, 2018 by

This article on the SQL Insert statement, is part of a series on string manipulation functions, operators and techniques. The previous articles are focused on SQL query techniques, all centered around the task of data preparation and data transformation.

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Prashanth Jayaram

Static and Dynamic SQL Pivot and Unpivot relational operator overview

October 12, 2018 by

In this article, we’ll walk-through the SQL Pivot and SQL Unpivot operators and how they can be useful to transpose SQL Server data. Also, we’ll discuss both static and dynamic ways to use PIVOT and UNPIVOT relational operators that can be used to transform aggregated distinct values as column(s) in the result-set by specifying all the column values in the PIVOT IN clause.

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Prashanth Jayaram

Overview of the SQL LIKE Operator

October 2, 2018 by

In this article, we are going to learn how to use the SQL LIKE operator, in SQL Server, using regular expressions to find and/or manipulate text. We will start by learning the symbols and basic syntax of using wildcard regular expressions. We will use character sets and repetition expressions to create flexible matching patterns, and along the way, we’ll examine different ways to use the LIKE operator. And then, finally, in the latter part of the section, we will explore some of the most common and most useful regular expression examples.

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Bojan Petrovic

Querying data using the SQL Case statement

September 12, 2018 by

The Case statement in SQL is mostly used in a case with equality expressions. The SQL Case statement is usually inside of a Select list to alter the output. What it does is evaluates a list of conditions and returns one of the multiple possible result expressions.

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Timothy Smith

Useful T-SQL techniques for development in SQL Server

July 17, 2018 by

When we’re developing solutions, we can sometimes forget useful commands we can use in T-SQL that make it convenient to remove data, eliminate objects, or carefully remove data. We look at three of these commands with a few examples of where we might consider using them in development, or in rare production cases. While they may offer us speed and convenience in some cases, we also look at some situations where they may not be the best tool to use.

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Timothy Smith

SQL Server – using lowest unit of measurement in T-SQL

July 2, 2018 by

A client recently discovered a discrepancy on one of our reports that showed an improvement in performance metrics but was inaccurate. Our reports came from a software tool, which showed the average performance throughout the day. It derived this number from periodic checks and the frequency changed, which affected our report. When we showed an improvement in the metrics on a report, the client showed us that the frequency change may have impacted this, not necessarily any improvement in performance. In situations where we’re measuring values and comparing them to other values, how can we prevent a change in measurement from impacting our reports? Read more »

Bojan Petrovic

How to implement error handling in SQL Server

June 15, 2018 by

Error handling overview

Error handling in SQL Server gives us control over the Transact-SQL code. For example, when things go wrong, we get a chance to do something about it and possibly make it right again. SQL Server error handling can be as simple as just logging that something happened, or it could be us trying to fix an error. It can even be translating the error in SQL language because we all know how technical SQL Server error messages could get making no sense and hard to understand. Luckily, we have a chance to translate those messages into something more meaningful to pass on to the users, developers, etc.

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Ben Richardson

Understanding SQL Server’s TRY_PARSE and TRY_CONVERT functions

May 16, 2018 by

Data conversion is one of the most fundamental tasks of any programming language. Data received from different sources is often not in the right format. For example, if you receive an XML file where age is in the string format and you want to calculate an average age for the people in the file you will need to convert age into an integer.

To make the conversion process simple, the TRY_PARSE and TRY_CONVERT functions were introduced in SQL Server 2012. Before TRY_PARSE and TRY_CONVERT, SQL Server only had the PARSE and CONVERT functions.

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Nikhilesh Patel

The HashBytes function in T-SQL

May 16, 2018 by

One of the paramount ways to guard data within a database is to utilize database encryption. However, no one encryption solution is perfect for all databases. Which encryption solution you select totally depends on the requirements of your application. Note that more powerful encryption for larger amounts of data requires a healthy amount of CPU. So, be prepared in the event that that introduction of encryption increases the system load.

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Ben Richardson

Sequence Objects in SQL Server

March 22, 2018 by

Sequence objects are used to sequentially generate numeric values. They were introduced in SQL Server 2012.

Sequence objects are similar to the IDENTITY column in any SQL table. However, unlike the IDENTITY column, they are independent and are not attached to any table. Sequence objects are used both independently and within the DML statements i.e. INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE.

This article will take a detailed look at sequence objects.

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SQLShack

SQL formatter tools

March 8, 2018 by

This collection of content will provide an overview of SQL formatter tools, with product page links for each of the tools. If you noticed a SQL formatter tool we missed, please let us know in the comments below.

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Daniel Calbimonte

How to upload multiple images to SQL Server

March 6, 2018 by

Introduction

Sometimes we need to store information including photos in our database. For example, the photo of the product, the photo of the team members. But how can we store images in SQL Server?

We could create an application in .NET or Java, but if we do not have experience in those programming languages, we could use SQL Server tools to do it.

In this new article, we will learn the following tips that will help us to work with images including how to:

  • insert one image into SQL Server
  • store multiple files into a table
  • verify that the images were inserted
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Ahmad Yaseen

SQL Server table hints – WITH (NOLOCK) best practices

February 14, 2018 by

SQL Server table hints are a special type of explicit command that is used to override the default behavior of the SQL Server query optimizer during the T-SQL query execution This is accomplished by enforcing a specific locking method, a specific index or query processing operation, such index seek or table scan, to be used by the SQL Server query optimizer to build the query execution plan. The table hints can be added to the FROM clause of the T-SQL query, affecting the table or the view that is referenced in the FROM clause only.

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