FORCESCAN

External Article

Why the SQL Server FORCESCAN hint exists

  • Article

It is often generalized that seeks are better than scans in terms of retrieving data from SQL Server. The index hint FORCESCAN was recently introduced so that you could coerce the optimizer to perform a scan instead of a seek. Which might lead you to wonder: Why would I ever want a scan instead of a seek?

2014-08-15

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The String Distance I

In SQL Server 2025, what is returned by this code:

SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE('Steve', 'Stan')
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