Performance tuning is an ongoing battle in SQL Server, but having a little knowledge up front when designing an application can greatly reduce the efforts. Do you know which performs better: stored procedures or triggers? There aren't many places where the two are interchangeable, but knowing the impacts of each might change the way you build an application. Read about this analysis by Vijaya Kumar.
2007-10-02 (first published: 2004-08-30)
40,345 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
23,087 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
22,228 reads
Index Creation Guidelines for SQL Server can be pretty sparse. Usually there are a couple, clustered index for ranges, nonclustered, etc. Leo Peysakhovich has taken some time to write down his guidelines based on his experience for creating indexes and the rational for doing so. He's also taken a few minutes to look at which indexes NOT to create, something that might be worth knowing..
2007-10-02 (first published: 2004-06-16)
42,144 reads
Your SQL Server has a case insensitive collation, but you need a case sensitive join? Do you know what happens? There are a couple options but do you know the performance implications of using each? Or a way to mitigate the performance degradation that can result?
2004-06-03
10,111 reads
How can you tell if your code if performing well? Do you know what you want to look for when starting to analyze code? Here's an article from Leo Peysakhovich that looks at some of the things that you can use at a high level to improve the performance of your code.
2004-05-11
12,461 reads
The fourth and final installment in this series, this week Andy discusses how using XML can reduce the load you put on your network and on your server. This is a high level article that discusses concepts. We think you'll find a good idea or two in this one!
2004-04-23
8,991 reads
New Author! Deadlocks aren't the most common problem but they happen they can really degrade performance. Shiv works through how to nail down what is causing the deadlock.
2007-10-02 (first published: 2004-04-06)
44,279 reads
One thing that often amazes me is that many SQL Server developers do not actually measure the performance of their queries. Many of them thought that you needed external tools, more or less complicated, to run against your server, and they did not have the time or inclination to learn and try these. This article will describe a couple of much easier methods of measuring performance of queries.
2005-12-23 (first published: 2004-04-02)
37,769 reads
In this article by Robert Marda, he shows you how to use derived tables to solve some of SQL's problems.
2004-02-06
17,762 reads
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
At Saturday the 21st of February I’m presenting an introduction to dimensional modelling at...
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers