Joe has a bunch of small, easy to use scripts that can definitely be the beginning of a great set of monitoring tool. Amazing how much info you can gather with a little bit of code!
2017-02-02 (first published: 2003-06-13)
53,743 reads
Performance tuning is an art or science, depending on who you talk to. SQL Server guru Joe Sack has authored a book on SQL Server 2005 T-SQL and brings us the performance tuning chapter as a preview.
2007-10-23 (first published: 2006-10-25)
14,536 reads
Joe discusses why he prefers command line tools over GUI, then launches into a how-to about querying sysperfinfo to resolve performance issues. Couple nice sample queries included!
2006-04-21 (first published: 2003-05-14)
32,857 reads
As your SQL Server applications grow, chances are that you have more and more objects, especially stored procedures that you need to keep track of. An organized environment is key to being able to prevent the duplication of code and effort. Joe Sack brings us a look at how he names stored procedures to easy identification.
2005-10-03
25,446 reads
Another great article from Joe Sack that looks at a great technique for generating reports in Excel for your users. Using DTS, you can easily setup an ad hoc or recurring schedule for your users. It's a way to quickly build a report that keeps people happy while making you look like a genius.
2005-09-23 (first published: 2004-05-03)
40,321 reads
Analyzing the data storage in SQL Server databases is a bit of an art. It's a skill that takes some time to develop given that the tools are rather limited. DBCC SHOWCONTIG is one of the few ways in which you can get some insight into how SQL Server has structured your table on the disk. Joe Sack brings us another of his top xxx techniques with his ten queries that you can use to analyze the results of this command.
2004-08-16
23,083 reads
SQL Server showplan is a great tool for analyzing queries and determining whether or not more performance tuning needs to be done. However working with showplan can be confusing and it takes some practice to learn the ins and outs of what is occurring. Joseph Sack looks at showplan and seven of the main things that he is aware of when looking at the results. If you've rarely or never used showplan, this is a great article to get started in learning how an experienced DBA views the output.
2004-07-15
22,223 reads
Directly accessing system tables is discouraged - so what's the alternative? Using the Information Schema should allow you to create code that survives upgrades. Beyond that, what can you do with it? Joe has four great examples to get you started.
2003-09-18
14,667 reads
Joseph recently had to upgrade a server from 4g to 8g of memory. Read how he did it and learn about some interesting aspects of AWE. For example, if you have 6.5g configured for use by SQL, how will task manager show used by sqlserver.exe?
2003-04-16
23,878 reads
By Steve Jones
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a...
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
In the era of cloud-native applications, Kubernetes has become the default standard platform for...
Hi experts, I have a 3+ TB database on a 2019 sql server which...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The North Star for the...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Escape Characters
In SQL Server 2025, I run this code (in a database with the appropriate collation):
SELECT UNISTR('%*3041%*308A%*304C%*3068 and good night', '%*') AS 'A Classic';
What is returned? See possible answers