For those times when you absolutely, positively got to perform a cross tab query in SQL, Keith Fletcher's T-SQL stored procedure will allow you to do it "on the fly". You can add it to your database and start cross tabbing immediately, without any further setup or changes to you SQL code. Check it out, and then take the cross tab challenge.
2007-04-11
4,992 reads
While it's not likely that many of you need to find prime numbers using T-SQL, it is an interesting programming exercise. SQL Server guru Kathi Kellenburger brings us one solution after taking a break over the holidays and reading some popular fiction.
2008-01-01 (first published: 2007-01-29)
7,382 reads
Phonetic matching, working on finding terms that are misspelled, is an art and there are a number of ways to handle it. In SQL Server 2000 the tools are limited, but Michael Coles brings us part 3 of his toolkit with some handy functions that can help you with text searching.
2006-04-27
16,920 reads
SQL Server allows multiple triggers on a table, but the order in which they are executed can sometimes cause problems. Author Dinesh Asanka brings us a technique for managing the order of execution for your triggers.
2006-04-06
11,956 reads
Do you use identity values? Do missing values ever cause problems? Maybe you need to look for missing invoices? Stephen Lasham brings us a technique for finding those missing values in a sequence.
2006-04-03
14,693 reads
Do you really understand what happens when you create a stored procedure? What if you have some extra code in your batch? This is an interesting article that shows an interesting effect of creating a stored procedure and where your GO statement is placed.
2006-02-21
11,621 reads
String manipulation is not one of the strong points of T-SQL, but there are some functions that can greatly assist you with searching and working with character values. New author Robert Davis brings us a look at PATINDEX, one of the search functions and also explains the differences between it and the often used CHARINDEX.
2006-02-06
20,401 reads
T-SQL does some things wonderfully, but cursors are the bane of the language, often causing performance issues. Changing your queries around to remove cursors can be tricky and new author Kamran Ali brings us one technique he has used to dramatically improve performance.
2008-06-13 (first published: 2006-01-17)
55,168 reads
It's not recommended, but sometimes writing scripts against the system tables and getting information is a great way to work with SQL Server. Alex Grinberg brings us a look at some of the things you can get from system tables along with some sample scripts.
2006-01-16
14,531 reads
There are probably not many SQL Server DBAs that use the semicolon as a statement separator. In SQL Server 2005, this is required in certain places and new author Kenneth Powers brings us a look at where and why you need to use this syntax.
2007-10-02 (first published: 2006-01-09)
45,767 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