Picking Service Accounts
It is something you do rarely, but with SQL Server 2005 and ten services, there are more decisions to make. Steve Jones gives some advice on which service accounts to choose and some common problems with others.
Red Gate Photo Competition!
Most of the time, it's the simplest tools that have the biggest impact on our lives. If you have a camera and believe, like Leonardo DaVinci, that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, then why not enter Red Gate's Ingeniously Simple Tools photo competition...
To enter is simple. All you need to do is send us a photo of your favorite, simple tool.
SQL Server 2000 Encryption Tools
One of our expert authors has written some encryption tools for the community to use. However as he readies an extensive series, he's looking for some testers that want to work with encryption on the SQL Server 2000 servers.
SQL Server 2005 for SQL2k Developer (Part 1)
There are many changes in SQL Server 2005, especially for the SQL Server developer. New options, features, and changes in the way you program. New author M. Choirul Amri brings us the first in a series on the changes from the point of the developer.
Coming Out as a Cancer Survivor: A Guide for Software Developers
Doug Reilly gives his personal perspective on the responsibilities of a cancer-surviving software developer.
Help a Student
One of our community is working on a thesis for his graduate degree on the effects of outsourcing on knowledge transfer among software engineers. He's got an anonymous survey setup, so if you have a few minutes, lend a helping hand.
The Challenge: Litespeed v TDPSQL
Choosing a backup solution can be a trying exercise with all the various add on products these days. New author David Bird gives us some insight into his testing and decisions with a look at Litespeed and Tivoli's Storage Manager.
Handling Zero Byte Files in DTS
SQL Server 2005 has substantially enhanced its ETL capabilities, but many people will still be working with DTS in SQL Server 2000 for many years. New author James Greaves brings us a technique for working with imports and handling files that might not have any data.
Healthcare Data Models Matter
Healthcare applications come and go, but data live on forever. We’ve seen that since the beginning of the computer industry; when we move from legacy systems into more “modern” architectures, we often leave behind applications, but we almost always take along the data into the future. Even though data are so important, we in health-IT don’t seem to spend the quality time necessary to structure our schemas and databases in such a way as to make it easier to maintain in the future. We often don’t design our data models solidly, and we don’t test them well by putting them through simulations or design them for multiple versions.
Lookup Table Madness
Are you mad? Not angry, more like crazy when it comes to designing databases in SQL Server? Don Peterson has met a few people he thinks are just that when it comes to building lookup tables. Does it stem from poor understanding of database design? Or do you disagree? Read Don's case against this particular design practice.
Blogs
RANK() vs DENSE_RANK(): #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I saw an article recently...
Using CAT for Testing of Data Agents
In last months one of the scenarios where you can use AI has been...
Forums
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral Meant to Me
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral...
Doing Good at SQL Server Central
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Doing Good at SQL Server...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers