Featured Article: Handling SQL Server Errors

This article covers the basics of TRY CATCH error handling in T-SQL introduced in SQL Server 2005. It includes the usage of common functions to return information about the error and using the TRY CATCH block in stored procedures and transactions.

5 April 2010 - Bill Graziano - 3 Comments

Using REPLACE in an UPDATE statement

This article covers using the REPLACE function to selectively replace text inside a string in SQL Server. The REPLACE function is easy to use and very handy with an UPDATE statment.

31 March 2010 - Bill Graziano - 9 Comments

Efficiently Reuse Gaps in an Identity Column

This article will demonstrate an efficient way to reuse gaps in an identity column. Please note that this is something you normally shouldn't be bothered about in a well-designed database or application. However, there are circumstances where you are forced to do this.

9 February 2010 - Peter Larsson - 9 Comments

Testing with Profiler Custom Events and Database Snapshots

We've all had them. One of those stored procedures that is huge and contains complex business logic which may or may not be executed. These procedures make it an absolute nightmare when it comes to debugging problems because they're so complex and have so many logic offshoots that it's very easy to get lost when you're trying to determine the path that the procedure code took when it ran. Fortunately Profiler lets you define custom events that you can raise in your code and capture in a trace so you get a better window into the sub events occurring in your code. I found it very useful to use custom events and a database snapshot to debug some code recently and we'll explore both in this article. I find raising these events and running Profiler to be very useful for testing my stored procedures on my own as well as when my code is going through official testing and user acceptance. It's a simple approach and a great way to catch any performance problems or logic errors.

22 June 2009 - Mike Femenella - 1 Comment

Advanced SQL Server 2008 Extended Events with Examples

In the previous article we learned about SQL Server 2008 Extended Events terminology, components and took a look at a simple example. In this article we'll take a deeper look with some more complex examples.

25 May 2009 - Mladen Prajdić - 1 Comment

Introduction to SQL Server 2008 Extended Events

SQL Server 2008 Extended Events are the new low level, high performance eventing system in SQL Server. They use less system resources and provide better tracking of SQL Server performance than previous methods like Perfmon and SQL Trace/Profiler events.

19 May 2009 - Mladen Prajdić - 1 Comment

Monitoring SQL Server Agent with Powershell

This article introduces the reader to Powershell. The application that it demonstrates is one that monitors SQL Server Agent to make sure it is running.

24 March 2009 - Mike Femenella - 2 Comments

SQL Server Version

I'm continually trying to track down what service packs are installed on various SQL Servers I support. I can never find the right support page on Microsoft's site. So here's an article with all the SQL Server version information I can track down. If you know of any older versions or can help me fill out any missing data, please post in the comments and I'll update the article.

29 January 2009 - Bill Graziano - 25 Comments

Scheduling Jobs in SQL Server Express - Part 2

In my previous article Scheduling Jobs in SQL Server Express we saw how to make simple job scheduling in SQL Server 2005 Express work. We limited the scheduling to one time or daily repeats. Sometimes this isn't enough. In this article we'll take a look at how to make a scheduling solution based on Service Broker worthy of the SQL Server Agent itself.

1 December 2008 - Mladen Prajdić - 22 Comments