SQL Server Engine Tips

Converting from hex string to varbinary and vice versa

Converting hexadecimal values to varbinary and vice versa is now easier using the XQuery functionality available from SQL Server 2005. The code samples below show how to perform the conversion(s): -- Convert hexstring value in a variable to varbinary: Read More...

Posted Wednesday, July 02, 2008 6:26 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 3 Comments

Converting from Base64 to varbinary and vice versa

Converting Base64 values to varbinary and vice versa is now easier using the XQuery functionality available from SQL Server 2005 onwards. The code samples below show how to perform the conversion: -- Convert Base64 value in a variable to varbinary: declare Read More...

Posted Monday, June 30, 2008 6:25 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

Differences between ISNULL and COALESCE

I came across a question in the SQL Server MVP newsgroup recently about ISNULL and COALESCE usage. COALESCE basically translates to CASE expression and ISNULL is a built-in implemented in the database engine. Both ISNULL and COALESCE can be used to get Read More...

Posted Thursday, June 26, 2008 8:55 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 7 Comments

Spool operators in query plan...

I came across a question in the relationalserver.performance newsgroup where a customer was wondering about the spools seen in a recursive query execution plan. The query is shown below: USE Northwind; Go WITH EmpChart AS ( SELECT EmployeeId, ReportsTo, Read More...

Posted Thursday, August 30, 2007 12:38 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 2 Comments

SQL Server 2005 SP2 Re-release and post fixes

Bob Ward from PSS has a wonderful blog article that explains the details about the re-release of SQL Server 2005 SP2 and fixes posted later. This is a must read for anyone deploying SQL Server 2005 SP2 to understand the various hotfixes, GDRs and procedures. Read More...

Posted Wednesday, April 11, 2007 2:21 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

New MSDN Books Online search functionality

Check out the new Books Online search functionality online. The link below provides a scoped search of Books Online that returns a more precise and targeted result set. You can use it to search Books Online content quickly. http://search.live.com/macros/sql_server_user_education/booksonline Read More...

Posted Friday, March 30, 2007 11:53 AM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports

The SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports are Reporting Services report files designed to be used with the Custom Reports feature introduced in the SQL Server 2005 SP2 release of SQL Server Management Studio. The reports allow a database administrator Read More...

Posted Thursday, March 29, 2007 12:22 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

OBJECT_NAME enhancement and OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME addition in SQL Server 2005 SP2

SQL Server 2005 SP2 has an important enhancement to OBJECT_NAME metadata function and a new OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME metadata function. I will first describe the old functionality to give some context and demonstrate how the new features help a lot. Please Read More...

Posted Friday, March 23, 2007 4:24 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 2 Comments

SQL Server Performance Engineering Team Blog

I would like to announce the blog from my team - SQL Server Performance Engineering. Feel free to visit our blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlperf for your performance related questions and needs. Use the email link in the home page to share your feedback Read More...

Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2007 4:16 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

SQL Server 2005 SP2 has been released...

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 has been released. You can find more information from the service pack 2 page . This service pack extends the functionality of SQL Server in many ways. The What's New document highlights the major changes in the Database Read More...

Posted Monday, February 19, 2007 2:24 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

Database Applications Profile Survey in http://connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver

My team (Data & SQL Storage Performance Team) is conducting a survey on http://connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver to better understand SQL Server workloads. The connect link below will take you directly to the survey: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/Survey/Survey.aspx?SurveyID=2226 Read More...

Posted Sunday, February 04, 2007 11:16 AM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

SQL Server 2005 SP2 December CTP is available for download

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 December CTP is available now for download. You can download it from: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d2da6579-d49c-4b25-8f8a-79d14145500d&DisplayLang=en Note that the December CTP has been published Read More...

Posted Tuesday, December 19, 2006 5:37 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

Download SQL Server 2005 SP2 CTP

SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2) CTP has been released. You can provide feedback on the CTP release via http://connect.microsoft.com/sqlserver . The link for the various downloads is: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ctp.mspx SQL Server 2005 SP2 CTP contains Read More...

Posted Wednesday, November 08, 2006 1:04 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

Disabled anonymous comments...

I have disabled anonymous comments due to the inordinate number of spam comments. And since I had email notifications for comments it was pretty bad. Hopefully this is fine. Read More...

Posted Saturday, November 04, 2006 11:34 AM by SQL Server Engine Team | 1 Comments

Top 5 relational data warehouse performance improvements you would like to see in next version of SQL Server

Hello Everyone, We are currently looking at top performance issues for various workloads and how we can improve those in next version of SQL Server. We are collecting feedback from various customer sources. I would like to extend an invitation to readers Read More...

Posted Wednesday, September 20, 2006 4:35 PM by SQL Server Engine Team | 13 Comments