Understanding the difference between IS NULL and = NULL
This article by James Travis details the differences between IS NULL and = NULL. He also discusses the ANSI_NULLS setting.
2017-08-18 (first published: 2003-06-17)
143,614 reads
James Travis
- Interests: My Family, Programming (Go Figure), Movies, Guitar
PASS Summit 2004 - Another Look
Our longtime member and author, James Travis went with the SQLServerCentral.com crew to the 2004 PASS Summit in Orlando last month. For those of you that don't recognize the name, he goes by Antares686 in the forums and has been generous enough to post over 6,000 times, giving lots of his time and knowledge to helping others. He jotted down a few notes on the conference for those of you that weren't there and are considering going next year.
2004-10-14
3,480 reads
Hidden Dangers!
How many of you register a server in Enterprise Manager? Now how many of you click the "save password" box? Probably most of you. Are you aware of the security risks associated with this? James Travis looks at one of potential problems here and other security issues relating to SQL-DMO.
2004-05-04
7,612 reads
Review of Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals
If you are (or want to be) a power user, this book should be on your shelf. How many books have you read that have you using a debugger to step into the sql server process? James gives it a thumbs up!
2004-04-07
6,647 reads
Review of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Visual
We get books in occasionally for review and have started making them available to our existing authors. Jim was interested in this one - turns out he didn't find much to like. If you're a beginner it might be a better fit. Or maybe you've read the book and disagree?
2004-03-16
4,918 reads
UDF to get first date or trim time for Datepart.
Not long ago I was in a forum discussion when someone presented another way to get the date with time value of midnight by doing similar to thisDATEADD(dd,DATEDIFF(dd,0,@DATE),0)Which I find is much cleaner than any other option I have seen or tried myself. Seeing this I realized there are many other dates that can be […]
2003-05-02
492 reads
Remove old DTS Package versions
This Procedure is what I use to clean out all the old DTS package version on my server periodically. You just place it in the msdb database and run it as you need to.Note: Although I have never had an issue with it, I do suggest backup msdb database beforehand, just in case you wack […]
2002-11-30
324 reads
What is the search order for Procedures prefixed sp_?
In this article, James Travis covers a common performance topic of prefixing stored procedures sp_. Does it really slow down performance?
2002-11-14
7,102 reads
Get total file size of backup for last full backup
The information for backup size is stored in the backup_size column of the backupset table in the msdb database as the total bytes for that backup. This script allow you to look at the total back to tape or file so you can plan space needs for those devices. This is a simple piece of […]
2002-05-14
4,630 reads
Get the current state of triggers.
One thing that many people may do is disable a trigger temporarily to make changes without the trigger causing an issue. This is a simple way to quickly get all the triggers states in a database, so you can verify is it enabled or disabled.
2002-05-12
497 reads
Blogs
A Wellbeing Day at Redgate
By Steve Jones
It’s a day off for Redgate today. This is our annual wellbeing day, where...
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server 2025 Unleashed Training Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, March 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server 2025 Unleashed:...
What is ALM in Fabric?
By HeyMo0sh
As someone who’s worked with data for over 20 years and with many cloud...
Forums
A Quick Restore
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Quick Restore
Guarding Against SQL Injection at the Database Layer (SQL Server)
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Guarding Against SQL Injection at...
Ola Hallengren Index Optimize Maintenance can we have data compression = page
I have a quick question on Ola Hallengren Index Optimize Maintenance . Do we...
Question of the Day
A Quick Restore
While doing some testing of an application, I wanted to reset my environment after doing some testing with this code:
USE DNRTest BACKUP DATABASE DNRTest TO DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' GO /* Bunch of stuff tested here */RESTORE DATABASE DNRTest FROM DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' WITH REPLACEWhat happens if this runs, assuming the "bunch of stuff" isn't anything affecting the instance. See possible answers