Are you saying you extracted DDL from one SQL DB and have run it in another SQL DB and are trying to insert data into the second SQL DB?

Have you confirmed that there is a clustered index on that table? The PK does not have to be clustered, and the clustered index does not have to be...

Windows Azure services have been expanding their compliance initiatives over the years, but I believe your interpretation is correct that WASD is not currently included in the HIPAA BAA.

Keep an...

Time periods can be tricky in design. If the codes have no overlapping time periods, I'd go for effective date.

The best way to fix this is to model it so that a code and a concept of date (maybe date and time, depending on how much granularity you need)...

I think the problem here is that there is no possible way to teach every single database design consideration on a single article. It's even hard to do in...

There are some scripts floating around that do this to some degree, but I like Data Compare from Red Gate or Change manager from Embarcadero.

Both can automatically monitor data...

With an Identity, isn't it a risk to assume the value is sequential and ordered?

I've also run into this with an industry standard data model.

The PKs in this model are made up a concatenation of all the "natural" key data. So if...

Not nuclear reactors, but nuclear medicine. One of the worst cases of physical harm (slow, painful, horrific deaths) to people due to poor interface design, then a management attempt...

Drinking and work is so tied to culture. I worked in a shop where the entire company had a rule that there was no drinking, at all, within 24 hours...

I'm so stealing that....

Yeah! Let's get him experienced enough at writing articles that...

Hi Tim

Don't let the trolls get ya down.

I'm a 25+ years of experience data person. Even have a B.Sc. in a program that specializes in database design. ...

You don't have to use a primary key to enforce uniqueness. You can use an alternate key as well. So you could have a surrogate key AND have...