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A better way to search dates
SARGability is the ability of the query to properly search the arguments that you pass it. When your query is not sargable you cannot properly use your available indexes. A few months ago I wrote about sargability in detail. Today I want to show a example of how rethinking a solution, with sargability in mind, can provide […]
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My PASS Summit 2016 Submission
This year was the first time I submitted to speak at the PASS Summit. Like many first time candidates, I was not selected to speak this year. The experience was valuable, however. I put more effort into writing this abstract than I have for any other event, User Group, SQL Saturday, etc. I had peers review […]
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Clustered Indexes in SQL Server
In the last post of this blog series, I discussed what a heap is and how it impacts query performance. In this post, I will describe clustered indexes and how they differ from a heap. They are indexes but also tables. Like a heap, the clustered index stores the data pages and is indistinguishable from […]
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Compare paths with PowerShell
The other day I came across the need to compare two different paths for equality. The most annoying part of this task is when the paths are directories and you need to worry about the trailing slash. PowerShell provides a simple solution with minimal code. First let’s look at the manual method [shell]#Paths $path1 = “C:\fake\” […]
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Query Store for Everyone
SQL Server 2016’s Query Store feature is, without a doubt, one of the most exciting new features for this version. The Query Store will keep track of current and past query execution plans which grants you deeper insights into the performance of your queries and allows you to pin a plan in-place, forcing the optimizer to […]
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Heap tables in SQL Server
In the last post of this blog series, I discussed what a B-Tree index was and briefly explained its history. Before we dive into the indexes which SQL Server uses, it is important to set the foundation of data structures. The most basic table that you can create is a heap. A heap is an unsorted […]
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Favorite SQL Server Feature – #TSQL2SDAY #77
Today is the 77th T-SQL2SDAY! If you’re not familiar, T-SQL Tuesday is a blogging party hosted by a different person each month. It’s a creation of Adam Machanic (b|l|t), and it’s been going on for ages now! Basically the host selects a topic, defines the rules (those are almost always the same), and then everyone […]
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The ‘B’ in B-Tree – Indexing in SQL Server
Some people advocate we should count by twelve rather than ten. This is because you can easily count the twelve segments of your fingers by using your thumb as a pointer. With that method, you can count the number of indexes in SQL Server on one hand. That’s right, twelve different types of indexes. Many […]
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Everything has a cost
Too often we end up in a conflict while trying to explain how a minimally impacting function has no true business impact. If you are too detailed, no one wants to listen to you and you are wasting their time. If you are too high-level, they will challenge your evaluation because nothing costs nothing. When we felt […]
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SQL Server 2016 Release Date
tl;dr No release date was announced at Data Driven but it was announced on SQL Server Blog. SQL Server 2016 will be released for general availability on June 1st, 2016! Take a look at the feature breakdown by edition here. Today at 10:00am EST, Microsoft is hosting the live web-event; Data Driven. The official […]