DataSet Server CE: Database Connectivity for Windows Mobile-Based Devi
A short tutorial on building database back-ended applications with SQL Server and CE. If you're looking to build mobile apps, this is a good place to start.
The SQLServerCentral.com Store
We've added a new store section. Read on and visit to see if there's anything worth your while.
MDX in Analysis Services: Mastering Time: Introduction to Moving Avera
In this article, we will examine "rolling average" aggregations, a common business requirement. "Rolling," or "moving," averages, involve a measure, the average under consideration, that is aggregated over a progressively moving window of time periods.
Incident Response - The Framework
Do you have a SQL Server disaster plan? What about something less than a disaster? Steve Jones has worked more than his share of disasters or incidents, some of them self-inflicted. He's taken some of his experience and started a new series looking at a framework for dealing with incidents. Read part 1 about getting prepared.
MDX in Analysis Services: Mastering Time: Period - to - Date Aggregati
In this article, we began with a discussion of general business needs as related to the concept of relative time. We then undertook a practical, multi-step exercise, based upon a hypothetical business need, to illustrate a potential solution for a stated requirement.
NULL Column Analysis
NULL values in columns can indicate a few things, the value isn't known, it's not yet been filled in, or perhaps, as Leo Peysakhovich argues, the column isn't being used? How many SQL Server tables do you have with extra tables and columns that are not being used? Or maybe never have been? This article looks at a statistical analysis of columns using NULLs to determine if you might be able to remove certain columns.
MDX in Analysis Services: Mastering Time: Change across Periods
In this article and others subsequent to it, we will focus on time considerations in our MDX queries., and how we can successfully report change over time, as well as to accumulate those changes to present the precise snapshots, trends and other time-based metrics so dearly appreciated in business.
Disaster in the Real World - Hurricane
Hurricane Charlie had a pretty substantial impact on residents and businesses in Central Florida. Andy lives in the Orlando area and wrote up some notes on the various challenges he ran into it. Out of it you might find a couple things worth thinking about adding into your DR plan.
Review: Log PI
Ever have a transaction you need to roll back? Undo a fat finger? There are a number of log reading products available for SQL Server to help with you in this area. Dale Corey takes a look at LOG PI with an extensive review of the product, including a bunch of screenshots..
Win One of 5 XBOXs!!!!
By now everyone should have heard about the PASS 2004 Summit in Orlando this September. Hopefully you are also aware that SQLServerCentral.com is one of the sponsors for this event and to make it a bit special, we're putting on a reception for everyone that registers for PASS with our promotion code. Read on to see what we've got planned!
Blogs
Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025
When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...
Forums
Multiple Deployment Processes
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How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases
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Upgrading Admin Queries
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Question of the Day
Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
See possible answers