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• SQL SERVER – Partition Parallelism Support in expressor 3.6

  - by pinaldave

  I am very excited to learn that there is a new version of expressor’s data integration platform coming out in March of this year.  It will be version 3.6, and I look forward to using it and telling everyone about it.  Let me describe a little bit more about what will be so great in expressor 3.6: Greatly enhanced user interface Parallel Processing Bulk Artifact Upgrading The User Interface First let me cover the most obvious enhancements. The expressor Studio user interface (UI) has had some significant work done. Kudos to the expressor Engineering team; the entire UI is a visual masterpiece that is very responsive and intuitive. The improvements are more than just eye candy; they provide significant productivity gains when developing expressor Dataflows. Operator shape icons now include a description that identifies the function of each operator, instead of having to guess at the function by the icon. Operator shapes and highlighting depict the current function and status: Disabled, enabled, complete, incomplete, and error. Each status displays an appropriate message in the message panel with correction suggestions. Floating or docking property panels provide descriptive tool tips for each property as well as auto resize when adjusting the canvas, without having to search Help or the need to scroll around to get access to the property. Progress and status indicators let you know when an operation is working. “No limit” canvas with snap-to-grid allows automatic sizing and accurate positioning when you have numerous operators in the Dataflow. The inline tool bar offers quick access to pan, zoom, fit and overview functions. Selecting multiple artifacts with a right click context allows you to easily manage your workspace more efficiently. Partitioning and Parallel Processing Partitioning allows each operator to process multiple subsets of records in parallel as opposed to processing all records that flow through that operator in a single sequential set. This capability allows the user to configure the expressor Dataflow to run in a way that most efficiently utilizes the resources of the hardware where the Dataflow is running. Partitions can exist in most individual operators. Using partitions increases the speed of an expressor data integration application, therefore improving performance and load times. With the expressor 3.6 Enterprise Edition, expressor simplifies enabling parallel processing by adding intuitive partition settings that are easy to configure. Bulk Artifact Upgrading Bulk Artifact Upgrading sounds a bit intimidating, but it actually is not and it is a welcome addition to expressor Studio. In past releases, users were prompted to confirm that they wanted to upgrade their individual artifacts only when opened. This was a cumbersome and repetitive process. Now with bulk artifact upgrading, a user can easily select what artifact or group of artifacts to upgrade all at once. As you can see, there are many new features and upgrade options that will prove to make expressor Studio quicker and more efficient.  I hope I’m not the only one who is excited about all these new upgrades, and that I you try expressor and share your experience with me. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Blog Subscription and Comments RSS

  - by pinaldave

  Quite often I get email where many readers ask me how to get email from SQLAuthority.com blog. Today very quickly I will go over few standard practices of this blog using you can stay connected with SQLAuthority.com First the most important is search: I received hundreds of emails and hundreds of comments every day. I try [...]

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• SQL SERVER – Free Online Training on .net and SQL

  - by pinaldave

  I around 10 Free Online Training Codes available of .NET and SQL Training from Pluralsight. I am willing to give it to someone who wants learn technology this weekend. You just have to go to my Facebook page and leave a comment explaining in one line – what course will you learn during weekend. I will send all this codes to 10 winners whom I will randomly select using Facebook. Meanwhile do you know how can you generate Zero without using any numbers in T-SQL. My friend Madhivanan has done that and I find it very interesting.Run following T-SQL code – ‘SELECT $’. He has written many other tricks how to generate zero also on his blog. On another note – I have published my answer for question about SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*) here. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Best Practices, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – First Month as DBA Trainee – Disasters and Recovery

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is written in response to the T-SQL Tuesday hosted by Allen Kinsel. He has selected very interesting subject for T-SQL Tuesday – Disaster and Recovery. This subject took me in past – my past. There were various things, I had done or proposed when I started very first month as a DBA trainee. I was tagged along with very senior DBA in my organization who always protected me or correct my mistake. He was great guy and totally understand the young mind of over-enthusiastic Trainee DBA. I respect him very much. Here are few things which I had learned in my very first month (not necessarily I have practices them on production). Never compress (zip) native backup using any tools, when disaster happen sometime the extra time to un-compress the database can be too long and not acceptable for business SLA Do not truncate logs After restoring full database backup – only restore latest differential back, no need to restore all the backup Always write WHERE condition when deleting and updating Sr. DBA always advised me – always keep your résumé ready and car ready – you never know when you can not recover disaster! Well for sure it was a joke. Today’s T-SQL Tuesday remind me of my very first month as DBA trainee. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Best Practices, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – A Puzzle Part 3 – Fun with SEQUENCE in SQL Server 2012 – Guess the Next Value

  - by pinaldave

  Before continuing this blog post – please read the two part of the SEQUENCE Puzzle here A Puzzle – Fun with SEQUENCE in SQL Server 2012 – Guess the Next Value and A Puzzle Part 2 – Fun with SEQUENCE in SQL Server 2012 – Guess the Next Value Where we played a simple guessing game about predicting next value. The answers the of puzzle is shared on the blog posts as a comment. Now here is the next puzzle based on yesterday’s puzzle. I recently shared the puzzle of the blog post on local user group and it was appreciated by attendees. First execute the script which I have written here. Today’s script is bit different than yesterday’s script as well it will require you to do some service related activities. I suggest you try this on your personal computer’s test environment when no one is working on it. Do not attempt this on production server as it will for sure get you in trouble. The purpose to learn how sequence behave during the unexpected shutdowns and services restarts. Now guess what will be the next value as requested in the query. USE AdventureWorks2012 GO -- Create sequence CREATE SEQUENCE dbo.SequenceID AS BIGINT START WITH 1 INCREMENT BY 1 MINVALUE 1 MAXVALUE 500 CYCLE CACHE 100; GO -- Following will return 1 SELECT next value FOR dbo.SequenceID; ------------------------------------- -- simulate server crash by restarting service -- do not attempt this on production or any server in use ------------------------------------ -- Following will return ??? SELECT next value FOR dbo.SequenceID; -- Clean up DROP SEQUENCE dbo.SequenceID; GO Once the server is restarted what will be the next value for SequenceID. We can learn interesting trivia’s about this new feature of SQL Server using this puzzle. Hint: Pay special attention to the difference between new number and earlier number. Can you see the same number in the definition of the CREATE SEQUENCE? Bonus Question: How to avoid the behavior demonstrated in above mentioned query. Does it have any effect of performance? I suggest you try to attempt to answer this question without running this code in SQL Server 2012. You can restart SQL Server using command prompt as well. I will follow up of the answer in comments below. Recently my friend Vinod Kumar wrote excellent blog post on SQL Server 2012: Using SEQUENCE, you can head over there for learning sequence in details. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Download PSSDIAG Data Collection Utility

  - by pinaldave

  During an early career of mine as a database consultant – when I was dealing with SQL Server 2000, I often needed to collect various data related to SQL Server. My favorite tool to collect the data is PSSDIAG tool. It is a general purpose diagnostic collection utility that Microsoft Product Support Services uses to collect various logs and data files. It collects Performance Monitor logs, SQL Profiler traces, SQL Server blocking script output, Windows Event Logs, and SQLDIAG output. The data collected can be used by SQL Nexus tool which help you troubleshoot SQL Server performance problems. PSSDIAG is a wrapper around other data collection APIs and utilities, the performance impact of running PSSDIAG is generally equal to the impact of the traces that PSSDIAG has been configured to capture. If you are using SQL Server 2000 – you need to seriously consider to upgrading it to SQL Server 2012. Here is a PSSDIAG Data Collection Utility updated in August 2012. My friend and SQL Server Expert Amit Benerjee have written an excellent article on this subject, I encourage all of you to read the same. Note: For SQL Server 2012 there is SQLDiag. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Download, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Recover the Accidentally Renamed Table

  - by pinaldave

  I have no answer to following question. I saw a desperate email marked as urgent delivered in my mailbox. “I accidentally renamed table in my SSMS. I was scrolling very fast and I made mistakes. It was either because I double clicked or clicked on F2 (shortcut key for renaming). However, I have made the mistake and now I have no idea how to fix this. I am in big trouble. Help me get my original tablename.” I have seen many similar scenarios in my life and they give me a very good opportunity to preach wisdom but when the house is burning, we cannot talk about how we should have conserved the water earlier. The goal at that point is to put off the fire as fast as we can. I decided to answer this email with my best knowledge. If you have renamed the table, I think you pretty much is out of luck. Here are few things which you can do which can give you idea about what your tablename can be if you are lucky. Method 1: (Not Recommended but try your luck) Check your naming convention of your system. I have often seen that many organizations name their index as IX_TableName_Colms or name their keys as FK_TableName1_TableName2_Cols. If your organization is following the same you can get the name from your table, you may refer your keys. Again, note that this is quite possible that your tablename was already renamed and your keys were not updated. This can easily lead you to select incorrect name. I think follow this if you are confident or move to the next method. Method 2: (Not Recommended but try your luck) This method is also based on your orgs naming convention. If you use the name of the table in any columnname (some organizations use tablename in their incremental identity column name), you can get that name from there. Method 3: (Not Recommended but try your luck) If you know where your table was used in your stored procedures, you can script your stored procedure and find the name of the table back. Method 4: (Try your luck) All the best organizations first create a data model of the schema and there is good chance that this table is used there, you should take your chances and refer original document. If your organization is good at managing docs or source code, you will get the name of the table back for sure. Method 5: (It WORKS but try on a development server) There is no sure way to get you the name of the table which you accidentally renamed however, there is one way which will work for sure. You need to take your latest full backup and restore it on your development server (remember not on production or where you have renamed this column). Now restore latest differential file of the full backup. Now restore all the log files one by one making sure that you are restoring before the point of time of you renamed the tablename. Now go to explore and this will give you the name of the table which you have renamed. If you are confident that the same table existed with the same name when the last full backup was made, you do not have to go to all the steps. You can just get the name of the table directly from last backup’s restore. Read the article about Backup Timeline. Wisdom: How can I miss to preach wisdom when I get the opportunity to do so? Here are a few points to remember. Use a different account to explore production environment. Do not use the same account which have all the rights and permissions all the time. Use the account which has read only permissions if there are no modification required. Use policy based management to prevent changes which are accidental. If there was policy of valid names, the accidental change of the table was not possible unless it was intentional delibarate changes. Have a proper auditing of the system in place. You can use DDL triggers but be careful with its usage (get it reviewed properly first). (Add your suggestion here) I guess Method 5 will work all the time (using point in time restore). Everything else is chance of luck and if you are lucky are bad – you will get further incorrect name. Now go back and read the first line of this blog. Out of five method four methods are just lucky guesses. The method 5 will work but again it is a lengthy process if the size of the database is huge or if you do not have full backup. Did I miss anything obvious? Please leave a comment and I will publish your answer with due credit. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Presenting at Tech-Ed On Road – Ahmedabad – June 11, 2011 – Wait Types and Queues

  - by pinaldave

  I will be presenting in person on the subject SQL Server Wait Types and Queues at Ahmedabad on June 11, 2011. Here is the quick summary of the session. SQL Server Waits and Queues – Your Gateway to Perf. Troubleshooting Time: 11:15am – 12:15pm – June 11, 2011 Just like a horoscope, SQL Server Waits and Queues can reveal your past, explain your present and predict your future. SQL Server Performance Tuning uses the Waits and Queues as a proven method to identify the best opportunities to improve performance. A glance at Wait Types can tell where there is a bottleneck. Learn how to identify bottlenecks and potential resolutions in this fast paced, advanced performance tuning session. This session is based on my performance tuning Wait Types and Queues series. SQL SERVER – Summary of Month – Wait Type – Day 28 of 28 During the session there will be Quiz and those who gets right answer will get very interesting gifts from me. Do not miss a single minute of the event. We are also going to have two rock star speakers – Harish Vaidyanathan and Jacob Sebastian. Here is the details for the event: SQLAuthority News – Community Tech Days – TechEd on The Road – Ahmedabad – June 11, 2011 Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – SQL Server Wait Stats – eBook to Download on Kindle – Answer to FREE PDF Download Request

  - by pinaldave

  Being a book author is a completely new experience for me. I am yet to come across the issues faced by expert book authors. I assume that these interesting issues can be routine ones for expert book authors. One of the biggest requests I am getting for my SQL Server Wait Stats [Amazon] | [Flipkart] | [Kindle] book is my humble attempt to write a book. This is our very first experiment, and the book is beginning of the subject of SQL Server Wait Stats; we will come up with a new version of the book later next year when we have enough information for the SQL Server 2012 version. Following are the top 2 requests that I keep on receiving in emails, on blogs, Twitter, and Facebook. “Please send us FREE PDF of your book so we do not have to purchase it.” “If you can share with us the eBook (free and downloadable) format of your book, we will share it with everybody we know and you will get additional exposure.” Here is my response for the abovementioned requests: If you really need my book and cannot purchase it due to financial trouble, then feel free to let me know and I will purchase it myself and ship it to you. If you are in a country where the print book not available, then you can buy the Kindle book, which is available online in any country, and you can just read it on your computer and mobile devices. You DO NOT have to own a Kindle to read a Kindle format book. You can freely download Kindle software on your desired format and purchase the book online. For next 5 days, the kindle book is available at 3.99 in USA, and in other countries, the price is anywhere between 3.99 and 5.99. The price will go up by USD 2 everywhere across the world after 1st November, 2011. Here is the link to download Kindle Software for free PC, WP7, and in marketplace for various other mobile devices. I thank you for giving warm response to SQL Server Wait Stats book. I am motivated to write the next expanded version of this book. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – 5th Anniversary Giveaways

  - by pinaldave

  Please read my 5th Anniversary post and my quick note on history of the Database. I am sure that we all have friends and we value friendship more than anything. In fact, the complete model of Facebook is built on friends. If you have lots of friends, you must be a lucky person. Having a lot of friends is indeed a good thing. I consider all you blog readers as my friends so now I want do something for you. What is it? Well, send me details about how many of your friends like my page and you would have a chance to win lots of learning materials for yourself and your friends. Here are the exciting prizes awaiting the lucky winner: Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros Book – 1 for YOU and 1 for Friend This is USD 444 (each set USD 222) worth gift. It contains all the five Joes 2 Pros books (Vol1, Vol2, Vol3, Vol4, Vol5) + 1 Learning DVD. [Amazon] | [Flipkart] If in case you submitted an entry but didn’t win the Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros books, you could still will  my SQL Server Wait Stats book as a consolation prize! I will pick the next 5 participants who have the highest number of friends who “liked” the Facebook page, http://facebook.com/SQLAuth. Instead of sending one copy, I will send you 2 copies so you can share one copy with a friend of yours. Well, it is important to share our learning and love with friends, isn’t it? Note: Just take a screenshot of http://facebook.com/SQLAuth using Print Screen function and send it by Nov 7th to pinal ‘at’ sqlauthority.com.. There are no special freebies to early birds so take your time and see if you can increase your friends like count by Nov 7th. Guess – What is in it? It is quite possible you are not a Facebook or Twitter user. In that case you can still win a surprise from me. You have 2 days to guess what is in this box. If you guess it correct and you are one of the first 5 persons to have the correct answer – you will get what is in this box for free. Please note that you have only 48 hours to guess. Please give me your guess by commenting to this blog post. Reference:  Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Milestone, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – BACKUPIO, BACKUPBUFFER – Wait Type – Day 14 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  Backup is the most important task for any database admin. Your data is at risk if you are not performing database backup. Honestly, I have seen many DBAs who know how to take backups but do not know how to restore it. (Sigh!) In this blog post we are going to discuss about one of my real experiences with one of my clients – BACKUPIO. When I started to deal with it, I really had no idea how to fix the issue. However, after fixing it at two places, I think I know why this is happening but at the same time, I am not sure the fix is the best solution. The reality is that the fix is not a solution but a workaround (which is not optimal, but get your things done). From Book On-Line: BACKUPIO Occurs when a backup task is waiting for data, or is waiting for a buffer in which to store data. This type is not typical, except when a task is waiting for a tape mount. BACKUPBUFFER Occurs when a backup task is waiting for data, or is waiting for a buffer in which to store data. This type is not typical, except when a task is waiting for a tape mount. BACKUPIO and BACKUPBUFFER Explanation: This wait stats will occur when you are taking the backup on the tape or any other extremely slow backup system. Reducing BACKUPIO and BACKUPBUFFER wait: In my recent consultancy, backup on tape was very slow probably because the tape system was very old. During the time when I explained this wait type reason in the consultancy, the owners immediately decided to replace the tape drive with an alternate system. They had a small SAN enclosure not being used on side, which they decided to re-purpose. After a week, I had received an email from their DBA, saying that the wait stats have reduced drastically. At another location, my client was using a third party tool (please don’t ask me the name of the tool) to take backup. This tool was compressing the backup along with taking backup. I have had a very good experience with this tool almost all the time except this one sparse experience. When I tried to take backup using the native SQL Server compressed backup, there was a very small value on this wait type and the backup was much faster. However, when I attempted with the third party backup tool, this value was very high again and was taking much more time. The third party tool had many other features but the client was not using these features. We end up using the native SQL Server Compressed backup and it worked very well. If I get to see this higher in my future consultancy, I will try to understand this wait type much more in detail and so probably I would able to come to some solid solution. Read all the post in the Wait Types and Queue series. Note: The information presented here is from my experience and there is no way that I claim it to be accurate. I suggest reading Book OnLine for further clarification. All the discussion of Wait Stats in this blog is generic and varies from system to system. It is recommended that you test this on a development server before implementing it to a production server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER 2012 Editions – Highlights of The Cloud-Ready Information Platform

  - by pinaldave

  Microsoft has just announced SQL Server 2012 Editions information on official SQL Server 2012 site. SQL Server 2012 will be available in three main editions: Enterprise Business Intelligence Standard The other editions are Web, Developer and Express. Here is the salient features of each of the edition: Enterprise Advanced high availability with AlwaysOn High performance data warehousing with ColumnStore Maximum virtualization (with Software Assurance) Inclusive of Business Intelligence edition’s capabilities Business Intelligence Rapid data discovery with Power View Corporate and scalable reporting and analytics Data Quality Services and Master Data Services Inclusive of the Standard edition’s capabilities Standard Standard continues to offer basic database, reporting and analytics capabilities There is comparison chart of various other aspect of the above editions. Please refer here. Additionally SQL Server 2012 licensing is also explained here. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Business Intelligence, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – BI Quiz Hint – Performance Tuning Cubes – Hints

  - by pinaldave

  I earlier wrote about SQL BI Quiz over here and here. The details of the quiz is here: Working with huge data is very common when it is about Data Warehousing. It is necessary to create Cubes on the data to make it meaningful and consumable. There are cases when retrieving the data from cube takes lots of the time. Let us assume that your cube is returning you data very quickly. Suddenly on one day it is returning the data very slowly. What are the three things will you to diagnose this. After diagnose what you will do to resolve performance issue. Participate in my question over here I required BI Expert Jason Thomas to help with few hints to blog readers. He is one of the leading SSAS expert and writes a complicated subject in simple words. If queries were executing properly before but now take a long time to return the data, it means that there has been a change in the environment in which it is running. Some possible changes are listed below:-  1) Data factors:- Compare the data size then and now. Increase in data can result in different execution times. Poorly written queries as well as poor design will not start showing issues till the data grows. How to find it out? (Ans : SQL Server profiler and Perfmon Counters can be used for identifying the issues and performance  tuning the MDX queries)  2) Internal Factors:- Is some slow MDX query / multiple mdx queries running at the same time, which was not running when you had tested it before? Is there any locking happening due to proactive caching or processing operations? Are the measure group caches being cleared by processing operations? (Ans : Again, profiler and perfmon counters will help in finding it out. Load testing can be done using AS Performance Workbench (http://asperfwb.codeplex.com/) by running multiple queries at once)  3) External factors:- Is some other application competing for the same resources?  HINT : Read “Identifying and Resolving MDX Query Performance Bottlenecks in SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services” (http://sqlcat.com/whitepapers/archive/2007/12/16/identifying-and-resolving-mdx-query-performance-bottlenecks-in-sql-server-2005-analysis-services.aspx) Well, these are great tips. Now win big prizes by participate in my question over here. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Why Do We Need Master Data Management – Importance and Significance of Master Data Management (MDM)

  - by pinaldave

  Let me paint a picture of everyday life for you.  Let’s say you and your wife both have address books for your groups of friends.  There is definitely overlap between them, so that you both have the addresses for your mutual friends, and there are addresses that only you know, and some only she knows.  They also might be organized differently.  You might list your friend under “J” for “Joe” or even under “W” for “Work,” while she might list him under “S” for “Joe Smith” or under your name because he is your friend.  If you happened to trade, neither of you would be able to find anything! This is where data management would be very important.  If you were to consolidate into one address book, you would have to set rules about how to organize the book, and both of you would have to follow them.  You would also make sure that poor Joe doesn’t get entered twice under “J” and under “S.” This might be a familiar situation to you, whether you are thinking about address books, record collections, books, or even shopping lists.  Wherever there is a lot of data to consolidate, you are going to run into problems unless everyone is following the same rules. I’m sure that my readers can figure out where I am going with this.  What is SQL Server but a computerized way to organize data?  And Microsoft is making it easier and easier to get all your “addresses” into one place.  In the  2008 version of SQL they introduced a new tool called Master Data Services (MDS) for Master Data Management, and they have improved it for the new 2012 version. MDM was hailed as a major improvement for business intelligence.  You might not think that an organizational system is terribly exciting, but think about the kind of “address books” a company might have.  Many companies have lots of important information, like addresses, credit card numbers, purchase history, and so much more.  To organize all this efficiently so that customers are well cared for and properly billed (only once, not never or multiple times!) is a major part of business intelligence. MDM comes into play because it will comb through these mountains of data and make sure that all the information is consistent, accurate, and all placed in one database so that employees don’t have to search high and low and waste their time. MDM also has operational MDM functions.  This is not a redundancy.  Operational MDM means that when one employee updates one bit of information in the database, for example – updating a new address for a customer, operational MDM ensures that this address is updated throughout the system so that all departments will have the correct information. Another cool thing about MDM is that it features Master Data Services Configuration Manager, which is exactly what it sounds like.  It has a built-in “helper” that lets you set up your database quickly, easily, and with the correct configurations.  While talking about cool features, I can’t skip over the add-in for Excel.  This allows you to link certain data to Excel files for easier sharing and uploading. In summary, I want to emphasize that the scariest part of the database is slowly disappearing.  Everyone knows that a database – one consolidated area for all your data – is a good idea, but the idea of setting one up is daunting.  But SQL Server is making data management easier and easier with features like Master Data Services (MDS). Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Master Data Services, MDM

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• SQL SERVER – Validating Spatial Object with IsValidDetailed Function

  - by pinaldave

  What do you prefer – error or warning indicating error may happen with the reason for the error. While writing the previous statement I remember the movie “Minory Report”. This blog post is not about minority report but I will still cover the concept in a single statement “Let us predict the future and prevent the crime which is about to happen in future”. (Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong about the movie concept, I really do not want to hurt your sentiment if you are dedicated fan). Let us switch to the SQL Server world. Spatial data types are interesting concepts. I love writing about spatial data types because it allows me to be creative with shapes (just like toddlers). When working with Spatial Datatypes it is all good when the spatial object works fine. However, when the spatial object has issue or it is created with invalid coordinates it used to give a simple error that there is an issue with the object but did not provide much information. This made it very difficult to debug. If this spatial object was used in the big procedure and while this big procedural error out because of the invalid spatial object, it is indeed very difficult to debug it. I always wished that the more information provided regarding what is the problem with spatial datatype. SQL Server 2012 has introduced the new function IsValidDetailed(). This function has made my life very easy. In simple words this function will check if the spatial object passed is valid or not. If it is valid it will give information that it is valid. If the spatial object is not valid it will return the answer that it is not valid and the reason for the same. This makes it very easy to debug the issue and make the necessary correction. DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = 'Polygon((2 2, 6 6, 4 2, 2 2))' SELECT @p.IsValidDetailed() GO DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = 'Polygon((2 2, 3 3, 4 4, 5 5, 6 6, 2 2))' SELECT @p.IsValidDetailed() GO DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = 'Polygon((2 2, 4 4, 4 2, 2 3, 2 2))' SELECT @p.IsValidDetailed() GO DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = 'CIRCULARSTRING(2 2, 4 4, 0 0)' SELECT @p.IsValidDetailed() GO DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = 'CIRCULARSTRING(2 2, 4 4, 0 0)' SELECT @p.IsValidDetailed() GO DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = 'LINESTRING(2 2, 4 4, 0 0)' SELECT @p.IsValidDetailed() GO Here is the resultset of the above query. You can see any valid query and some invalid query. If the query is invalid it also demonstrates the reason along with the error message. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Spatial Database, SQL Spatial

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• SQLAuthority News – Whitepaper Download – Using Star Join and Few-Outer-Row Optimizations to Improve Data Warehousing Queries

  - by pinaldave

  Size of the database is growing every day. Many organizations now a days have more than TB of the Data in their system. Performance is always part of the issue. Microsoft is really paying attention to the same and also focusing on improving performance for Data Warehousing. Microsoft has recently released whitepaper on the performance tuning subject of Data Warehousing. Here is the abstract about the whitepaper from official site: In this white paper we discuss two of the new features introduced in SQL Server 2008, Star Join and Few-Outer-Row optimizations. These two features are in SQL Server 2008 R2 as well.  We test the performance of SQL Server 2008 on a set of complex data warehouse queries designed to highlight the effect of these two features and observed a significant performance gain over SQL Server 2005 (without these two features). The results observed also apply to SQL Server 2008 R2.  On average, about 75 percent of the query execution time has been reduced, compared to SQL Server 2005. We also include data that shows a reduction in the number of rows processed and improved balance in parallel queries, both of which highlight the important role the Star Join and Few Outer-Row features played. I encouraged all of those interested in Data Warehouse to read it and see if they can learn the tricks. Using Star Join and Few-Outer-Row Optimizations to Improve Data Warehousing Queries Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Documentation, SQL Download, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Who I Am And How I Got Here – True Story as Blog Post

  - by pinaldave

  Here are few of the sample questions I get every day? “Give me shortcut to become superstar?” “How do I become like you?” “Which book I should read so I know everything?” “Can you share your secret to be successful? I want to know it but do not share with others.” There is generic answer I always give is to work hard and read good educational material or watch good online videos. One of the emails really caught my attention. It was from a friend and SQL Server Expert John Sansom (Blog | Twitter). He wrote if I would like to share my story with the world about “Who I am and How I got Here”. I was very much intrigued with his suggestion. John is one guy I respect a lot. Every single topic he writes, I read it with dedication. I eagerly wait for his Weekly Summary of Best SQL Links. If you have not read them, you are missing something out. Writing a guest post for him was like walking in memory lane. I remembered the time when I was beginning my career and I was bit overconfident and bit naive. I had my share of mistakes when I started my career. As time passed by I realize the truth. Well, we all do mistakes. Though, I am proud that as soon as I know my mistakes I corrected them. I never acted on impulse or when I am angry. I think that alone has helped me analysis the situation better and become better human being. During the course, I have lost my ego and it is replaced by passion. I am much more happy and successful in my work. Quite often people ask me if I am always online and wether I have family or not. Honestly, I am able to work hard because of my family. They support me and they encourage me to be enjoy in what I do. They support everything I do and personally, I do not miss a single occasion to join them in daily chores of fun. If there was a shortcut to success – I want know. I learnt SQL Server hard way and I am still learning. There are so many things, I have to learn. There is not enough time to learn everything which we want to learn. I am constantly working on it every day. I welcome you to join my journey as well. Please join me with my journey to learn SQL Server – more the merrier. I have written a story of my life as a guest post.  Read Here: A Journey to SQL Authority Special thanks to John Sansom (Blog | Twitter) for giving me space to talk my story. Indeed I am honored. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Best Practices, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Technical Reference Guides for Designing Mission-Critical Solutions – A Must Read

  - by pinaldave

  Yesterday I was reading architecture reference material helping my friend who was looking for material in this respect. While working together we were searching twitter, facebook and search engines to find relevant material.While searching online we end up on very interactive reference point. Once I send the same to him, he replied he may not need anything more after referencing this material. The best part of this article was it gives access to various aspect of the technology of the image map. Here is the abstract of the original article from the site: The Technical Reference Guides for Designing Mission-Critical Solutions provide planning and architecture guidance for various mission-critical workloads deployed by users. These guides reflect the knowledge gained by Microsoft while working with customers on mission-critical deployments. Each guide provides not only the key technical concepts and information helpful for design, but also “lessons learned,” best practices, and references to customer case studies. Once you click on any of the desired topic, you will see further detailed image map of the selected topic. Personally once I ended up on this site, I was there for more than 2 hours clicking through various links. Click on image to see larger image Read more here: Technical Reference Guides for Designing Mission-Critical Solutions Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL White Papers, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Presenting at Great Indian Developer Summit 2012 – SQL Server Misconception and Resolutions

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier during TechEd 2012, I presented a session on SQL Server Misconception and Resolutions. It was a pleasure to present this session with Vinod Kumar during the event. Great Indian Developer Summit is around the corner and I will be presenting there once again with the same topic. We had an excellent response during the last event; the hall was so filled, but there were plenty who were not able to get into the session as there was no place for them to sit or stand inside. Well, here is another chance for all who missed the presentation. New Additions During the last session, we were a two-presenter tag team, and we presented the session in a sense that it would suit two speakers in one stage. But this time, I am the only presenter, so I decided to present this session in a much different way. I will still assume there are two presenters. One of the presenters will be me, of course, and the second person will be YOU! Yes, you read that right – you will be presenting this session with me. If you wonder how, well, you will have to attend the session to figure it out. Talking Points We will be talking about the following topics in the session which we will relate to SQL Server: Moon Landing Napoléon Bonaparte Wall of China Bollywood …and of course, SQL Server itself. I promise that this 45 minute- presentation will be the one of the highlights of the event for you. Goodies I can only promise 20 goodies as of the moment. I might bring more when you meet me there. Session Details Title: SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolution – A Practical Perspective (Add to Calendar) Abstract: “The earth is flat”! – An ancient common misconception, which has been proven incorrect as we progressed in modern times. In this session, we will see various database misconceptions prevailing and their resolutions with the aid of the demos. In this unique session, the audience will be a part of the conversation and resolution. Date and Time: April 17, 2012, 16:55 to 17:40 Location: J. N. Tata Auditorium, National Science Symposium Complex (NSSC), Bangalore, India Add to Calendar Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – New Look for CodePlexProject – Hosting for Open Source Software

  - by pinaldave

  Codeplex is my favorite site. CodePlex is Microsoft’s free open source project hosting site. You can create projects to share with the world, collaborate with others on their projects, and download open source software. It is great place to find so many open source project available to explore. All the softwares are free and open source. I often go there at intervals to check what is new in SQL Server field as well on other technologies. Yesterday when I visited it, I had nice surprise as it has total makeover and looks very decent as well elegant at the same time. I have noticed that when I talk about Codeplex is user community, not everybody knows about it. The quickest way I explain what is codeplex is that I start naming few of the projects which are available there and suddenly I start noticing a few hands going up knowing the projects. This is indirect way to prove that many of us know CodePlex usability but do not pay special attention to what it is actually. Let me name a few popular projects of the CodePlex here. SQL Server Sample Database [link] Image Resizer for Windows [link] Ajax Control Toolkit [link] Skype Voice Changer [link] Silverlight Toolkit [link] Windows 7 USB/DBD Download Tool [link] Orchard Project [link] There are very interesting SQL Server projects available on Codeplex as well. I am listing few of them here for reference in listed in no particular order. SQL Server Sample Database [link] SQL Server Compact ToolBox [link] Microsoft Drivers for PHP for SQL Server [link] Internals Viewer for SQL Server [link] SQL Server Spatial Tooks [link] SQL Monitor – managing sql server performance [link] SQL Server 2008 Extended Events SSMS Addin [link] How many of above mentioned project have you come across earlier? Leave a comment it will be interesting to know what our community is familiar with. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – My Evaluation of Singapore SharePoint Conference

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier this year I presented at SQLAuthority News – Presenting at South East Asia SharePoint Conference – Oct 26, 27, 2010 – Singapore. I felt very good to be presenting at Singapore as SharePoint Conference as I was the only SQL Speaker at the event. The event was filled with SharePoint enthusiasts and lots of other experts from all around the globe. The event was one of the best organized event, I attended in subcontinent. I just received my feedback score of the event. I was very much surprised and stunned. My ratting are very high as well, my demo were considered as one of the best demo of the whole event. I am not sure how much feedback I can share with community as organizer did not specify to me but I am very certain that I am allowed to share my own feedback. Speaker – 4.39 (best score 4.74, average 3.84) Contents – 4.37 (best score 4.39, average 3.65) Demo – 4.48 (best score, 4.48, average 3.61) I am very glad that all of my efforts to do presentations at SharePoint Conference are finally paid up. I was very much worried earlier if attendees will accept me or not as I am coming as speaker from foreign technology and no one knows me there. I must thank all of you for the same. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SharePoint, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SharePoint

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• SQL SERVER – Tell me What You Want to Listen – My 2 TechED 2011 Sessions

  - by pinaldave

  I am going to present two sessions at TechEd India on March 25th, 2011. I would like to know what do you want me to cover in this session. Watch the video taken by my wife when I was preparing for the session. Sessions Date: March 25, 2011 Understanding SQL Server Behavioral Pattern – SQL Server Extended Events Date and Time: March 25, 2011 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM SQL Server Waits and Queues – Your Gateway to Perf. Troubleshooting Date and Time: March 25, 2011 04:15 PM to 05:15 PM I promise following for both of my sessions: I will share the scripts demonstrated in the session right at the end of the sessions The sessions will be 300-400 level but I promise to make the concept very simple Less slides and lots of meaningful Demos Session close to real life cases and scenarios Surprise gifts to best participants I promise to answer all the questions either in session or right after the hall after the session Lots of Technical Education and FUN! Please leave your comments with your expectation and if you are going to attend the session do let me know here. We will for sure meet at the event and do some interesting talk. You can read the abstract of the session over here. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology Tagged: TechEd, TechEdIn

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• SQL SERVER – Select the Most Optimal Backup Methods for Server

  - by pinaldave

  Backup and Restore are very interesting concepts and one should be very much with the concept if you are dealing with production database. One never knows when a natural disaster or user error will surface and the first thing everybody wants is to get back on point in time when things were all fine. Well, in this article I have attempted to answer a few of the common questions related to Backup methodology. How to Select a SQL Server Backup Type In order to select a proper SQL Server backup type, a SQL Server administrator needs to understand the difference between the major backup types clearly. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let me offer it to you below. Select a Recovery Model First The very first question that you should ask yourself is: Can I afford to lose at least a little (15 min, 1 hour, 1 day) worth of data? Resist the temptation to save it all as it comes with the overhead – majority of businesses outside finances can actually afford to lose a bit of data. If your answer is YES, I can afford to lose some data – select a SIMPLE (default) recovery model in the properties of your database, otherwise you need to select a FULL recovery model. The additional advantage of the Full recovery model is that it allows you to restore the data to a specific point in time vs to only last backup time in the Simple recovery model, but it exceeds the scope of this article Backups in SIMPLE Recovery Model In SIMPLE recovery model you can select to do just Full backups or Full + Differential. Full Backup This is the simplest type of backup that contains all information needed to restore the database and should be your first choice. It is often sufficient for small databases, but note that it makes a big impact on the performance of your database Full + Differential Backup After Full, Differential backup picks up all of the changes since the last Full backup. This means if you made Full, Diff, Diff backup – the last Diff backup contains all of the changes and you don’t need the previous Differential backup. Differential backup is obviously smaller and carries less performance overhead Backups in FULL Recovery Model In FULL recovery model you can select Full + Transaction Log or Full + Differential + Transaction Log backup. You have to create Transaction Log backup, because at that time the log is being truncated. Otherwise your Transaction Log will grow uncontrollably. Full + Transaction Log Backup You would always need to perform a Full backup first. Then a series of Transaction log backup. Note that (in contrast to Differential) you need ALL transactions to log since the last Full of Diff backup to properly restore. Transaction log backups have the smallest performance overhead and can be performed often. Full + Differential + Transaction Log Backup If you want to ease the performance overhead on your server, you can replace some of the Full backup in the previous scenario with Differential. You restore scenario would start from Full, then the Last Differential, then all of the remaining transactions log backups Typical backup Scenarios You may say “Well, it is all nice – give me the examples now”. As you may already know, my favorite SQL backup software is SQLBackupAndFTP. If you go to Advanced Backup Schedule form in this program and click “Load a typical backup plan…” link, it will give you these scenarios that I think are quite common – see the image below. The Simplest Way to Schedule SQL Backups I hate to repeat myself, but backup scheduling in SQL agent leaves a lot to be desired. I do not know the simple way to schedule your SQL server backups than in SQLBackupAndFTP – see the image below. The whole backup scheduling with compression, encryption and upload to a Network Folder / HDD / NAS Drive / FTP / Dropbox / Google Drive / Amazon S3 takes just a few minutes – see my previous post for the review. Final Words This post offered an explanation for major backup types only. For more complicated scenarios or to research other options as usually go to MSDN. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Answer – Value of Identity Column after TRUNCATE command

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I had one conversation with reader where I almost got a headache. I suggest all of you to read it before continuing this blog post SQL SERVER – Reseting Identity Values for All Tables. I believed that he faced this situation because he did not understand the difference between SQL SERVER – DELETE, TRUNCATE and RESEED Identity. I wrote a follow up blog post explaining the difference between them. I asked a small question in the second blog post and I received many interesting comments. Let us go over the question and its answer here one more time. Here is the scenario to set up the puzzle. Create Table with Seed Identity = 11 Insert Value and Check Seed (it will be 11) Reseed it to 1 Insert Value and Check Seed (it will be 2) TRUNCATE Table Insert Value and Check Seed (it will be 11) Let us see the T-SQL Script for the same. USE [TempDB] GO -- Create Table CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTable]( [ID] [int] IDENTITY(11,1) NOT NULL, [var] [nchar](10) NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GO -- Build sample data INSERT INTO [TestTable] VALUES ('val') GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM [TestTable] GO -- Reseed to 1 DBCC CHECKIDENT ('TestTable', RESEED, 1) GO -- Build sample data INSERT INTO [TestTable] VALUES ('val') GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM [TestTable] GO -- Truncate table TRUNCATE TABLE [TestTable] GO -- Build sample data INSERT INTO [TestTable] VALUES ('val') GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM [TestTable] GO -- Question for you Here -- Clean up DROP TABLE [TestTable] GO Now let us see the output of three of the select statements. 1) First Select after create table 2) Second Select after reseed table 3) Third Select after truncate table The reason is simple: If the table contains an identity column, the counter for that column is reset to the seed value defined for the column. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)       Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to Function SIGN

  - by pinaldave

  Yesterday I received an email from a friend asking how do SIGN function works. Well SIGN Function is very fundamental function. It will return the value 1, -1 or 0. If your value is negative it will return you negative -1 and if it is positive it will return you positive +1. Let us start with a simple small example. DECLARE @IntVal1 INT, @IntVal2 INT,@IntVal3 INT DECLARE @NumVal1 DECIMAL(4,2), @NumVal2 DECIMAL(4,2),@NumVal3 DECIMAL(4,2) SET @IntVal1 = 9; SET @IntVal2 = -9; SET @IntVal3 = 0; SET @NumVal1 = 9.0; SET @NumVal2 = -9.0; SET @NumVal3 = 0.0; SELECT SIGN(@IntVal1) IntVal1,SIGN(@IntVal2) IntVal2,SIGN(@IntVal3) IntVal3 SELECT SIGN(@NumVal1) NumVal1,SIGN(@NumVal2) NumVal2,SIGN(@NumVal2) NumVal3   The above function will give us following result set. You will notice that when there is positive value the function gives positive values and if the values are negative it will return you negative values. Also you will notice that if the data type is  INT the return value is INT and when the value passed to the function is Numeric the result also matches it. Not every datatype is compatible with this function.  Here is the quick look up of the return types. bigint -> bigint int/smallint/tinyint -> int money/smallmoney -> money numeric/decimal -> numeric/decimal everybody else -> float What will be the best example of the usage of this function that you will not have to use the CASE Statement. Here is example of CASE Statement usage and the same replaced with SIGN function. USE tempdb GO CREATE TABLE TestTable (Date1 SMALLDATETIME, Date2 SMALLDATETIME) INSERT INTO TestTable (Date1, Date2) SELECT '2012-06-22 16:15', '2012-06-20 16:15' UNION ALL SELECT '2012-06-24 16:15', '2012-06-22 16:15' UNION ALL SELECT '2012-06-22 16:15', '2012-06-22 16:15' GO -- Using Case Statement SELECT CASE WHEN DATEDIFF(d,Date1,Date2) > 0 THEN 1 WHEN DATEDIFF(d,Date1,Date2) < 0 THEN -1 ELSE 0 END AS Col FROM TestTable GO -- Using SIGN Function SELECT SIGN(DATEDIFF(d,Date1,Date2)) AS Col FROM TestTable GO DROP TABLE TestTable GO This was interesting blog post for me to write. Let me know your opinion. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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