Null Functions (Arent those Meetings?)
Dinesh did a little research on nulls and was kind enough to package it up for us. How many of you know or use NULLIF? Or COALESCE? Handy stuff!
Dump SQL Permissions
We saw a note from Chad about a tool he wrote in the forums and asked him to write up some notes. Not only did we get notes, we got the source code! See what a DBA can do with some DMO.
Review of Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Visual
We get books in occasionally for review and have started making them available to our existing authors. Jim was interested in this one - turns out he didn't find much to like. If you're a beginner it might be a better fit. Or maybe you've read the book and disagree?
What You Don't Know
A very short article that discusses how nulls can ruin your day if you don't understand how they behave when you concatenate.
Review of ApexSQL Report v4.3
We had Mike take a look at this product recently and he found a lot to like. He also had some suggestions about ways the product could be improved - interesting since you get free upgrades for life with this product. This is a very good walk through of the product.
Yukon Delayed Again and Named
Microsoft confirmed today that it has delayed Yukon yet again. It also announced that Yukon has an official name and will have another beta added to the development cycle. Get all the info here and share with Microsoft your thoughts about what features are important to you.
Worst Practice - Not Qualifying Objects With The Owner
Regular columnist Chris Hedgate follow up on Andy's recent article about Worst Practices with one of his own. This is worth passing on to your development team.
Reporting Services!
Mike takes a good first look at Reporting Services. We're trying to add some coverage of this interesting new product. This gives a good overview from a real user perspective.
Generate Next Numbers with SQL Server
Dinesh ran into a situation where a client had very specific requirements for generating keys. Take a look at the solution, can you better alternatives? Sometimes you just can't talk the client into changing!
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...
Are you getting value from your reporting?
By ChrisJenkins
Do you spend so long manipulating your data into something vaguely useful that you...
Forums
Creating JSON II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Creating JSON II
Engineer Lessons
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Engineer Lessons
Question of the Day
Creating JSON II
On SQL Server 2025, what happens when I run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG( N'City':N'Denver' RETURNING JSON) GOSee possible answers