REPLACE Multiple Spaces with One

Replacing multiple spaces with a single space is an old problem that people use loops, functions, and/or Tally tables for. Here's a set based method from MVP Jeff Moden.

t-sql first last day date of the month

Returns the First or last day date of the month for a given date.

syscolumns names

get a list of syscolumns names from string comma separated columns list

Generate stored procedure parameter list based on table

Generate stored procedure parameter list based on table, useful when creating new SPs on tables with lots of columns.

Solving the Running Total and Ordinal Rank Problems (Rewritten)

Revisiting his very popular article on the running total and ordinal rank problems, MVP Jeff Moden brings us a detailed analysis of how you might want to implement a solution in T-SQL.

More Fun With NULL

An Un-indexed Foreign Key Gotcha

Indexing is important for improving performance, but do you know that a lack of indexes might actually cause things to stop working? Alok Dwivedi brings us a very interesting scenario where the lack of an index causes a problem with concurrency.

Drive Letter Finder

Find the first available drive letter (working backwards from z)

Using T-SQL CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY

That said, even though my personal focus is pretty much OO, I still miss stuff. SQL Server 2005 came out with the CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY operators and I have just started learning how to use APPLY in the last month or so. When I think I have it figured out, I am fortunate enough that some of you are interested in reading about my understanding of the technology.

T-SQL Best Practices – Don’t Use Scalar Value Functions in Column List or WHERE Clauses

Query performance can be affected by many different factors. This article introduces another best practice of how and how not to use a function within your T-SQL statements.