Perhaps more important than the DISTINCT keyword is the AVG() function's handling of NULL values.

NULLs behave similarly to DISTINCT - regardless of how AVG() is called. That is, the null...

I'd like to see the ability to create a filtered index on a computed column, even if limited to PERSISTED computed columns

Thank you for explaining the internal storage of datetime vs datetime2. The fact that datetime2 is endian raises an interesting question concerning index performance, i.e. for ordering and seeking by...

I expected the optimiser to use the index on code on the basis that the expression was sargible, however I did not expect a SEEK. I was expecting a SCAN...

Much as we love the Merge statement in my workplace, we seem to be running into deadlocking problems that we haven't had when using the UPDATE/INSERT .. LEFT JOIN approach.

We...

Great article - especially the CROSS APPLY option. I've come across the need for this several times (although sadly have been constrained by SQL 2000, which doesn't work with either...

I thought it was a very good article :).

Just making the point, since I've read a number of articles about TDE, had tried it out (on my SQL Developer version,...

I'm surprised there isn't more mention generally about the fact that TDE is only available in SQL Enterprise edition.

This seems to be where it is least needed as the data...