Phil Factor demonstrates the correct use of the RETURN keyword in stored procedures or batches, to pass back a non-zero RETURN code to the calling process, informing it of the error. He also explains some of its misuses.
2019-09-12
Phil Factor illustrates the 'quirks' of the SQL_VARIANT datatype and why it's best to investigate when SQL Prompt alerts you to its use. It is only safe to store data as a SQL_VARIANT, if you explicitly convert it to its true type before you use it.
2019-08-08
The SQL Prompt Best Practice rule checks whether a comparison or expression includes a NULL literal ('NULL'), which in SQL Server, rather than result in an error, will simply always produce a NULL result. Phil Factor explains how to avoid this, and other SQL NULL-related calamities.
2019-07-30
Many production databases have failed embarrassingly as a result of INSERT code that omits a column list, usually in mysterious ways and often without generating errors. Phil Factor demonstrates the problem, and advocates a 'defense-in-depth' approach to writing SQL, in order to avoid it.
2019-05-28
If Prompt warns you of use of the asterisk, or 'star' (*), in SELECT statements, consider replacing it with an explicit column list. It will prevent unnecessary network load and query performance problems, and avoid problems if the column order changes, when inserting into a table.
2019-05-27
Last year I started to get alerts from Microsoft Repos that someone had put a piece of security information in their code that pertained to one of my Azure services. At first I was worried, but then I realized this was the public version of AdventureWorks we maintain in Azure. We've published the login so […]
2019-04-17
209 reads
There may be some people who enjoy repetitive typing, but Grant Fritchey doesn't. He's always preferred SQL Prompt. The standard snippets suit developers fine but aren't so DBA-oriented, so he set about asking the SQLServerCentral community what they typed in the most, and set about producing a set of DBA snippets with the results.
2015-11-20
4,144 reads
Extend SQL Prompt's functionality by connecting your snippets to version control
2015-07-09
1,973 reads
This SQL Prompt tip shows you how code highlighting makes it easier to find which items match up with each other.
2015-11-25 (first published: 2015-01-26)
3,306 reads
A quick SQL Prompt tip to automatically add semicolons to your code.
2015-11-18 (first published: 2015-01-20)
5,821 reads
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...
By Steve Jones
I’ve often done some analysis of my year in different ways. Last year I...
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
Hi, below i show various results trying to reach our ftp site (a globalscape...
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