This article has a T-SQL function to detect the SQL Agent job state.

Does success in one field transfer to another?

In general XML documents or fragments are held in strings as text markup. In SQL Server, XML variables and columns are instead tokenised to allow rapid access to the data within. This is fine, but can cause some odd problems, such as ' entitization'. What do you do if you need to preserve the formatting? As usual Rob Sheldon comes to our aid.

The Future of SQL Server Monitoring "Being web-based, SQL Monitor enables you to check on your servers from almost any location" Jonathan Allen. Try SQL Monitor now.

The TSQL aggregate function SUM() gives a number based on the addition of the values of multiple rows to each other. Do the same thing but with multiplication instead of addition.

The challenge is to find the Episode and Sequence based on interval.

One of the more popular counters used by DBAs to monitor SQL Server performance, the Buffer Cache Hit Ratio, is useless as a predictor of imminent performance problems. Worse, it can be misleading. Jonathan Kehayias demonstrates this convincingly with some simple tests.

This level of the Stairway will cover the details of SQL Server transactional and merge replication, from understanding the basic terminology and methodology of setting up replication, to describing how it works and how the basic replication processes can be monitored.

This article takes a closer look at SQL Server getdate() and sysdatetime() functions.

If you will be in London on Mar 29th, come to the official UK launch of SQL Server 2012 at SQL Bits X.

A benefit of using computed columns is that they can save developers from having to write calculation logic at the application layer; at the table level, the application can simply reference the computed column. In addition, performance can be improved by persisting a computed column and building an index on it.

Be careful while using the ISNULL function

Why are they here? Why is anyone?

Learn how to post a Twitter status update with 5 lines of T-SQL using a third party library.

To kick off a series of DBA worst case scenarios, we asked Phil Factor to confess. He came up with a classic: The mistaken belief that a backup WITH CHECKSUM guaranteed a good backup that could be restored, and the ensuing disaster.

Internal and external fragmentation – Causes, cures, and when not to care

Come see Brad McGehee, Grant Fritchey, Steve Jones, and more SQL Server speakers at the SQL Server Connections conference in Las Vegas this spring. Get away from the cold on Mar 26, 2011 and learn about the new version of SQL Server.

In a recent MSSQLTips.com question, a user asked how they could get an alert whenever a login failed due to the account being locked out. As with many problems, there are several ways to solve this issue.

Switching from 32 BIT SQL Server to a 64 BIT edition illustrates how removing a bottleneck from a system can have a detrimental affect overall

SQL Saturday is hitting Dublin for the first time on March 24th.

Derek slips a cog.

Row Sampling Transformation and Percentage Sampling Transformation provide data sampling functionality. This functionality is useful in a number of Analysis Services and Data Mining-based scenarios.

This article describes the requirements to log ship databases between workgroup computers

On Mar 26-29 in Las Vegas, the DevConnections conference is hosting a launch of SQL Server 2012. Come to the conference and learn more at the SQLServerCentral track.

The most common T-SQL command in use has to be the SELECT statement, it is the bedrock of any SQL Professional's day. Sometimes it's used to snatch some data from a table or two while some quick investigation is done, other times it is at the heart of a stored procedure or view that will inform business decisions for coming months or even years.

In FULL recovery mode it is possible to do a point-in-time restore of a database. It is thankfully a rare event. Tony explains what's involved

Revisiting his very popular article on the running total and ordinal rank problems, MVP Jeff Moden brings us a detailed analysis of how you might want to implement a solution in T-SQL.

In this tip, we will see how to build a report which shows the cumulative sales amount for the current month, current quarter (QTD) and current year (YTD) in a single crosstab (tablix) report, which makes it easy to compare the data.

Do you use or need a database process framework? Read on to see if this is something that might help you build better database software processes.

A robot's reaction may be a little different from yours or mine.

Get Smart with SQL Backup Pro Powerful centralised management, encryption and more. SQL Backup Pro was the smartest kid at school Discover why.

Every so often, the question comes up on forums of how to pass a list as a parameter to a SQL procedure or function. Phil Factor provides some examples using XML, and tests them against other popular methods.

A few years ago there was an MSDN forum post:

My SQL Server is accessed by several end user applications. When all the applications are in action my server performance is going down. Some of those applications are business ... [Read Full Article]

Performance Troubleshooting with Windows Resource Monitor - Part 2

In  Troubleshooting Performance with Resource Monitor Part 1 we looked at getting with started the Resource Monitoring interface and using the CPU tab to diagnose performance issues.

The Memory tab

The Memory tab is different from others in ... [Read Full Article]

Performance Troubleshooting with Windows Resource Monitor

There is a handy little tool in Windows Server 2008 R2 that can help system administrators and DBAs better diagnose server performance issues. It’s called the Resource Monitor. Resource Monitor is also present in Windows Server 2008, but its interface ... [Read Full Article]

Adding Column to a SQL Server Table

Adding a column to a table is  common task for  DBAs. You can add a column to a table which is a nullable column or which has default values. But are these two operations are similar internally and ... [Read Full Article]

Implementing Database Settings Using Policy Based Management

Introduction

Database Administrators have always had a tough time to ensuring that all the SQL Servers administered by them are configured according to the policies and standards of organization. Using SQL Server's  Policy Based Management feature DBAs can now ... [Read Full Article]

SQL Azure Performance - Query Optimization
This article outlines the main techniques for optimizing queries running on SQL Azure.