Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

As part of performance tuning exercises, our developer always suggest to use SET based operations rather than procedural languages. One of the suggestions given as a substitute for hierarchical data structure was to use CTE. What are CTEs inside SQL Server, what are their advantages and how can you rewrite a subquery using CTEs?

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Notes of Vinod Kumar

Common Table Expressions a.k.a CTEs are an important addition to SQL Server. Though CTE is available as an alternative for Views, Subqueries, there is a special case scenario for using CTEs. Tell us, how innovatively have you used CTEs? Can there be recursive CTEs? If yes, have you ever tried them?

Notes of Pinal Dave

CTEs are often confused with Temp Table and Subqueries, but there are more facts about this subject. While working with recursive CTEs, one has to make sure that they do not go into an infinite loop and stop after certain numbers of fixed iteration. SQL Server does have an option to limit the numbers of iteration; however, there is a default number which is associated with number of loops. CTEs are also very useful in terms of readability. I’ve started to use CTEs in many places, but before I began to practice CTEs, I made sure that I’d spend a good amount of time to learn about them, and so I did.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#109-112
Common Table Expression (CTE) and Few Observation
Multiple CTE in One SELECT Statement Query
Delete Duplicate Rows
Simple Example of Recursive CTE
SQL SERVER – Simple Example of Recursive CTE – Part 2 – MAXRECURSION – Prevent CTE Infinite Loop
T-SQL Paging Query Technique Comparison (OVER and ROW_NUMBER()) – CTE vs. Derived Table

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Recently, the kind folks of INETA APAC – Sanjay Shetty and Raj Chaudhuri – conducted an interview with myself and Vinod Kumar (co-author of my book). We had lots of fun during the interview. Sanjay asks questions which, even as an author, I did not think of. My hope is that talking more about our book will help the community in the same way they all helped motivate me to write this book.  Another benefit of the interview was that Raj always has questions which dig out the secrets of the book publishing business. Well, we answered each question candidly. When the interview was about to be over – we realized that book publishing is indeed long process and, just like us, many need help understanding this subject.

I know that I cannot be the only person who ever dreamed of becoming a published author. We would like to offer help to anybody who wants to write book. Writing this one book has taught us a lot and we are eager to share our hard-earned knowledge with you. If you have also written a technical book about computers, SQL Server, or just technology in general, I know that we will be able to help you in some way. Even if you are the sort of person who writes short stories in their free time, give us a try and we might be able to help you, too!

Once again: Thanks Sanjay and Raj for giving us the honor to be featured in an interview with you.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Compliance is one of the non-negotiable things in this era. SQL Server has had so many options like C2 Auditing since the SQL Server 2000 days. With the advent of Policy Based Management inside SQL Server 2005, what are the different aspects involving PBM one needs to know?

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Notes of Vinod Kumar

Tough Auditing is a great way to monitor SQL Server, but when you try to explore what all methods does the PBM give when compared to Auditing, Policy Based Management can help you take the management of SQL Server to the next level better than Auditing. Also, there are some interesting ways to extend and make your own custom policy using special commands. To learn more, explore these concepts and tell us your views.

Notes of Pinal Dave

Have you ever desired to know who has touched your data? In this tightly conformed world, it is very important to know who has an access to the data and which among the data has been accessed. There are important cases when some data are never accessed by anybody. Preventing data access is one story, while being a DBA who might have his best practices is another story. A DBA may never want the Auto Shrink to become activated in their databases. All these and more can be done using Policy Based Management.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#154-155
Policy Based Management – Create, Evaluate and Fix Policies
Introduction to Policy Management – Enforcing Rules on SQL Server

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Any database design can include only the Normal forms. But while a DBA performs a product deployment, it is critical to take care of certain factors for Index creation. With this noted, explain FILLFACTOR and PATFACTOR inside SQL Server. What are their uses and when would you use each of them?

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Notes of Vinod Kumar

Tough FILLFACTOR is used from the side of performance tuning techniques. It also has an impact on storage needs – the IO increases for Reads if done incorrectly. This Hint has the information related to these notes. Is there a skill that you use regarding this matter? Feel free to share.

Notes of Pinal Dave

Fillfactor is an interesting concept. When I tell several DBA and developers that fillfactor 0 is the same as 100, I have seen them not believing what I said. An appropriate fillfactor can have a heavy impact on performance. The fillfactor can be adjusted at server level as well as at index level. A similar concept is PATFACTOR. I have seen it being abused, leading to a terrible performance on server. Aside from fillfactor, there are many additional performance tuning concepts one needs to master if performance is his primary concern for database.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#151-153
SQL SERVER – What is Fill Factor and What is the Best Value for Fill Factor
Fillfactor, Index and In-depth Look at Effect on Performance
Rebuild Every Index of All Tables of Database – Rebuild Index with FillFactor
Change Default Fill Factor For Index
Comparison Index Fragmentation, Index De-Fragmentation, Index Rebuild – SQL SERVER 2000 and SQL SERVER 2005

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Though high availability is something critical for all large database deployments, there are other multiple options one can use. For today’s discussion, what is database mirroring option? What are the Database Mirroring enhancements done in SQL Server 2008 R2 edition? How is it different from Log shipping?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

DBM is a very famous method of HA options that I have seen enterprises use in their environments. The concepts are simple and well-explained. There are also fine-prints when implementing DBM, which need special attention.

Notes of Pinal Dave

“Is database mirroring a high-availability solution, or a disaster recovery solution?” When I ask this question, I keep on getting a different answer every single time. Database mirroring maintains two copies of a single database that must reside on different server instances of SQL Server Database Engine. Now, mirroring requires that the database has to be in full recovery mode and the database resides on different instances. A lesser known fact is that mirroring is also related to the Page Restore concept. Why not spend time to know what the main interesting factors related to database mirroring are? I’m sure it would be a worthwhile learning experience for you.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#158-159, 166
Quick Note of Database Mirroring
Standby Servers and Types of Standby Servers
Mirroring Configured Without Domain

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

The work of a DBA is never to be underestimated. An effective DBA’s role maybe understated for the 364 days in a year, but that 1 day when the database gets into a corrupt state is when all the skills come to the fore.

 Recently, while working on a 24×7 large database split into multiple filegroups, it suddenly got into a corrupt state. The DBA brought the database ONLINE quickly and was doing a restore process in the background. To understand what he had done, what is Piecemeal Restore inside SQL Server? When was this introduced and what are the options of using this feature?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

The behaviors and options of using a Database backup are indeed critical, yet an effective DBA should be able to harness the best results in the shortest time. Hint: it is like a great bookmark to understand the options available when looking for restore strategies with SQL Server. To help you more, read topics around ONLINE restores.

Notes of Pinal Dave

Here are a few quotes from users I often hear:

“I have all the necessary backups but I could not restore the backup.”
“Three hours have passed and yet our restore is still going on?”
“We have a mirroring set up and never faced an issue of corruption.”

When I hear them, I often wonder if they really know the aspects of backup and restore. Piecemeal is another similar concept that people often overlook, ignore and avoid learning. I think all of us should explore this technology further and see if we can avoid saying the above quotes.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#161
Backup Timeline and Understanding of Database Restore Process in Full Recovery Model
Effect of Compressed Backup Setting at Server Level on Database Backup
Target Recovery Time of a Database – Advance Option in SQL Server 2012
A Quick Script for Point in Time Recovery – Back Up and Restore
Copy Database from Instance to Another Instance – Copy Paste in SQL Server
Mirrored Backup and Restore and Split File Backup
Corrupted Backup File and Unsuccessful Restore

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Even though storage as a subsystem is cheap these days, we have seen several DBAs struggling to find Log files run out of space and stop transactions. Understanding the size of Log files is a critical aspect. And now, table data, index data, log data and other related data are becoming important competencies of an effective DBA. In relation to these, how do you enable and disable an Index? What is the behavior of the size when compared to dropping an Index? How does storage change?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

Understanding the Indexing basics will demystify the differences of how Clustered Index and Non-Clustered Indexes work. The nuances of how the de-allocation happens are completely dependent on the specifics of the version. In line with this, it would be helpful to learn about the formula for calculating the size of a non-clustered index.

Notes of Pinal Dave

I admit – there was a time when I had absolutely no clue about the difference between CREATE and DROP Indexes versus REBUILD Indexes. Not knowing this simple fact, I have often used each other in place where I should have not used it. There are many differences between them; the one which stands out the most is related to performance as well storage. After sometime, I came to learn about this so I started practicing what is right and more appropriate. Today, I have the puzzle put in front of you. Do you really know the difference between them or do you just use whatever comes to mind first?

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#149
Unused Index Script – Download
Missing Index Script – Download
Disable Clustered Index and Data Insert
Generate Report for Index Physical Statistics – SSMS
Understanding ALTER INDEX ALL REBUILD with Disabled Clustered Index
Disabled Index and Index Levels and B-Tree
Index Levels, Page Count, Record Count and DMV – sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats
Size of Index Table for Each Index – Solution 2
Computed Columns – Index and Performance
Index Created on View not Used Often – Limitation of the View 12
Video – Performance Improvement in Columnstore Index

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

From SQL Server 2000, XML has gained more and more popular due to its many applications. With SQL Server 2005 XML, became a first class datatype and applications are likely to use more natively. In line with this, what are the basic 5 methods provided by XML Datatype for access? When would you use one over the other?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

The standard methods of using XML are interesting. Read here for further details. Using the right option is what makes the usages remarkable, though. Just dig a little more in understanding Typed Vs Untyped XML as part of this learning.

Notes of Pinal Dave

XML is a very exciting subject. I often see two different kinds of opinion about XML; some developers like it very much while others just hate it. I have seen expert developers sweltering when they have to deal with XML.

Let me ask you one question: “If a webpage has 100 of the form element and we want to capture all of those which are filled, how would you do it?” See, there are cases where XML just works and moreover it works like a charm. Learning how to read XML data is essential.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#137-139
SELECT * FROM XML
Shredding XML
Validate an XML document in TSQL using XSD
Simple Example of Reading XML File Using T-SQL
Simple Example of Creating XML File Using T-SQL

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

In any performance-testing discussion for a huge, significant development, one of the common requirements is to send multiple values to SQL Server in a single shot. So to help achieve this this requirement, SQL Server introduced the MERGE statement. What is the construct of a MERGE statement? What are the restrictions of using the MERGE?

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Notes of Vinod Kumar

A MERGE statement has great benefits as ETL requirements. Read for more details. As you use them in relational engine, can you tell how you can get details of how many INSERTS, UPDATES and DELETES have happened as part of the database?

Notes of Pinal Dave

What is UPSERT? It is commonly used word for INSERT and UPDATE. How about adding DELETE to the UPSERT as well – what will you call? I will call it MERGE. When I came across MERGE I was very happy as it was not only INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE but if used correctly there were many advantages associated with this operation. Initially, it was very hard into use MERGE statement as I was so used to writing INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE. As I kept myself open to this new procedure; I learned that this can be very helpful. To master any feature, solution or tool, one needs to learn about the limitations of MERGE . Today’s question is based on the main questions above: “What is MERGE and what are the restrictions of the MERGE statement?”

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#112
Merge Operations – Insert, Update, Delete in Single Execution
Introduction to Merge Statement – One Statement for INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE
Explanation SQL SERVER Merge Join

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

As an effective DBA, it is critical to keep updated on the various server side databases. Recently, I encountered a Developer who was saying that the “sys” schema objects were no longer in the MASTER database. Interestingly, what is the use of RESOURCE Database inside SQL Server? Tell us one change in RESOURCE Database inside SQL Server 2008 R2 edition. Also, how can we find the properties of the RESOURCE database, like what its version is, etc.?

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Notes of Vinod Kumar

RESOURCE databases are special databases. And these were created separately for a specific reason. Can you also tell how we can find the details of a RESOURCE database version, and other description of this database? In addition, in your plan to backup the system databases, are you also planning to take the backup of the RESOURCE database? Answering these questions can lead you to the right answer to the SQL Quiz question mentioned earlier. Tell me your views.

Notes of Pinal Dave

Today, instead of hint and sound bytes, let me give a question back at you. How many system databases are there in SQL Server? I often end up receiving the answer “FOUR”.

I think that during the course of SQL Server evolution, DBAs and developers frequently miss their respective rhythm to keep updated. I often say that there’s no empty knowledge; we can find small knowledge from everything. At one place, I have seen a developer deleting a resource database, then SQL Server began to face issues when it was attempting to start. This experience tells us that resources database is very important and it has a specific and crucial use. Honestly, every single system database is very significant, and one should know more about them and keep their knowledge updated.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#104
Resource Database ID – 32767
Location of Resource Database in SQL Server Editions
mssqlsystemresource – Resource Database
Importance of Master Database for SQL Server Start-up

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Auditing is always fun when we do code reviews. And in a product back-end check we found a lot of junk names for the Default constraints inside the database. What are the different ways you can use to create a CONSTRAINT inside SQL Server?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

CONSTRAINTS are critical from a business requirement as we design the databases. Read more about them. Are you still using the RULE mode? Well, be careful because this is getting removed in the future release.

Notes of Pinal Dave

When I heard of a question about how many different types of ways there are in order for us to create a constraint, I could not believe the answers given to this, at first. Maybe it’s because I find it a bit confusing at times. However, I think the real answer to this question can be achieved if we understand the fundamentals properly. It is important to know how many types of constraints exist in SQL Server before trying to figure out how many different ways the constraints can be created. There are also cases when the constraint has not only helped maintain data integrity but also performance.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#137-139
Prevent Constraint to Allow NULL
Create Default Constraint Over Table Column
Create Primary Key with Specific Name when Creating Table
Creating Primary Key, Foreign Key and Default Constraint
How to ALTER CONSTRAINT
Disable CHECK Constraint – Enable CHECK Constraint
Query to Display Foreign Key Relationships and Name of the Constraint for Each Table in Database
List All The Constraint of Database – Find Primary Key and Foreign Key Constraint in Database

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Recently, a DBA said that the Log files were growing bigger than the data file size. During the discussion, he mentioned using CHECKPOINT to solve this problem. In relation to this, what does CHECKPOINT do inside SQL Server? Is the behavior change based on Database recovery models?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

Database CHECKPOINTS are interesting. Read more about them. And, as you read more and more, you will surely stumble upon these related questions: What are the correlations of RECOVERY models and their effect? Do dirty records also force flushed to data file during CHECKPOINT? As a DBA, go ahead and play around with this; you’ll find out this is an interesting exercise, trust me.

Notes of Pinal Dave

CHECKPOINT is very exciting concept. I have seen how this function is used, and mis-used. The only advice I have for everyone who is not familiar with this command is that NEVER experiment with it on your production server. In one of the recent technical presentations, I noticed that a few attendees were using CHECKPOINT incorrectly. When I asked a few follow up questions, I learned that their understanding of the dirty records was incorrect. All the advanced concepts require a solid understanding of the basic concepts. Without the basic understanding one person can never master the subject.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#137
Target Recovery Time of a Database – Advance Option in SQL Server 2012

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

It is a common saying that, “where you should use a nail, you should not use a sword”.  Every little tool has its own usage and its own purpose. What are the differences of CHAR, VARCHAR, NVARCHAR and VARCHAR(MAX) datatypes?

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Notes of Vinod Kumar

As we start moving our old ways of using “text” datatypes to VARCHAR(MAX), what is it that we get as an advantage? Read about more specific advantages. And while you’re at it, you might as well answer this question: “What is the storage requirements and special cases when using these datatypes?”

Notes of Pinal Dave

When people ask me why there are similarly looking features that exist in any product, here is my response: In the real world, even identical twins are not really identical. Likewise human finger prints are not alike. In the same way, most products do not come up with two similar features. Every feature has its own usage and specific advantages. Therefore as a product consumer, it is our duty to understand the feature correctly and try to take advantage of its positive side. With regards to CHAR, VARCHAR and NVARCHAR, there are three major components to pay attention to: 1) Storage, 2) Performance and 3) Capabilities.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#85-87
Replace TEXT with VARCHAR(MAX) – Stop using TEXT, NTEXT, IMAGE Data Types
Constraint on VARCHAR(MAX) Field To Limit It Certain Length

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

One of the questions I hear many times concern performance acceleration of 3^rd party applications applications that are critical to business function, the “line of business” applications. In most cases critical software remain intact for many years, growing and expanding but also losing its performance edge and affecting the business for the worse, instead for the good. The main problem with fixing and tuning 3^rd party apps is that it is a closed code or someone else’s code. Those applications are waiting for an upgrade every few years, while the business being affected for the worse.

SafePeak idea: a middleware software that studies SQL Server schema (tables, views, stored procedures, functions, triggers) to learn about object dependencies, and then creates patterns of similar SQL queries and procedures executions while understanding their direct and indirect object dependents. And then it starts actively caching results in RAM, while keeping those update commands (DML, DDL and procs that do DML or DDL) to both effect the cache and the SQL Server. After downloading it (www.safepeak.com/download) the installation is on a standard Windows 2008 R2 virtual machine or a server (different then the SQL server) takes several minutes. Connecting the application is done by pointing the connection string to SafePeak (easy). Configuration is done via their very nice looking GUI and focuses on things SafePeak didn’t understood, which are usually procedures that have some dynamic code inside.

Results can be very exciting: cached queries response time is reduced to 0.25 millisecond or so. Yes, I meant millisecond, pretty impressive. So queries that are slow become extremely fast and queries that are already fast become even faster.

Because it no code change is involved this specifically fits well 3^rd party applications – plug it in, play with it for couple of hours of fine-tuning and see the results.

SafePeak supports SQL 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2008 R2 and can run in a private cloud or the public cloud.

SafePeak provides a 14 days trial with all functions available for a single installation (they also have a safepeak cluster installation, which I plan to review in near future). The download is available here: www.safepeak.com/download – Good luck and tell me your stories.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Compile and Recompile have very interesting meanings when learning Machine learning. However, the same things have similar but very interesting effects in SQL Server. Many related compilations of the code with performance are correct but have nothing to do with each other at some degree. When do your stored Procedures RECOMPILE inside SQL Server?

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Notes of Vinod Kumar

Compilation of any code is inevitable, but why should SQL Server recompile in first place? Well, this is really a fundamental question. Read this article which talks extensively about the usages and when-where these recompile happen. What are the various pitfalls and improvements made with SQL Server 2008 R2 edition?

Notes of Pinal Dave

Compilation and Recompilation are different concepts. I remember my college when I had to take a Compiler course as part of my study. I found myself in really hard nailed shoes during the course. Now, Stored Procedure compilation is an equally difficult concept. You might have found yourself in the situation when compilation of the stored procedure sometimes gives optimal performance, while at other times it reduces the overall performance of the server. One has to really master the similar various aspects of the SQL Server, if they aspire an advanced career with SQL Server technology.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#99
Stored Procedure are Compiled on First Run – SP taking Longer to Run First Time
Recompile Stored Procedure at Run Time
Encrypted Stored Procedure and Activity Monitor
Stored Procedure and Transactions

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Some questions are good for debates. There are so many myths associated with a few subjects that when the discussion starts, it is hard to convince a stubborn friend who is not ready to accept the truth. Let me see you attempt both sides of the following question: What is the difference of table variable and temp tables?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

Understanding these special tables is an important thing, although the usages can be a fine line and are often interchangeably used. What are the differences in scope, usage restrictions and more?

Notes of Pinal Dave

This is indeed an eternal debate. I often meet developers who have different beliefs and strong opinions about when to use what. I frequently express developers the internals as well as what the optimal solution between Table Variables and Temporary Tables is, considering their situation. However, I always feel the desire to reach to every single developer and explain the solution in depth. Here is an advice for those who are confused what to use and what. Test it, compare it and implement it. I always suggest to developers to trust SQL Server Engine and test their solution against it and implement it in their application.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#75-76
Difference Temp Table and Table Variable – Effect of Transaction
Difference TempTable and Table Variable – TempTable in Memory a Myth
ObjectID in Negative – Local TempTable has Negative ObjectID

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

A developer and DBA both sometime have their own priority and preferences when it is about database designs. If you are a DBA or a developer you must learn cross domain expertise features. One of the similar features is DACPAC. What is the use of DACPAC?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

Data-tier applications are a great start for simple data centric application designs. This Hint talks about the root of the documentation. Well, will you be able to use DACPAC with SQL Azure? If yes, how?

Notes of Pinal Dave

Import and Export is one of the most important tasks any DBA performs. DBAs often have their own style of doing tasks while developers have their own preference. DACPAC is a great tool which is building bridges between DBA and Developers. In SQL Azure, the process of data import and export has been one of the very interesting features. I suggest that you head to Azure Portal and do little experiments with its features.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#64
Azure Interview Questions and Answers – Guest Post by Paras Doshi – Day 25 of 31
Introduction to SQL Azure – Creating Database and Connecting Database

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

A performance tuning expert often encounter situation where it is difficult to figure out why certain activities are happening behind the scene in SQL Server Engine. Understanding that every action has some root cause is the key to be successful performance tuning expert. Here is one question which often puzzles man: When are the non-Clustered Indexes automatically rebuilt?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

Though the concepts of automatic rebuilding are central to the SQL Server Engine, the differences of Rebuilding and reorganizing is also worth knowing. This Hint has an explanation to the reasons when to use what. Knowing these will help a long way if you are a budding DBA.

Notes of Pinal Dave

I believe that there exists more misconception related to Indexes than any other topic in SQL Server. Reorganizing and Rebuilding are very important concepts. Additionally, the fill factor matters the most. This puzzle is so interesting that it is best-proved if T-SQL code is written to verify this puzzle. If the code is interesting, I promise to post it on this blog with due credits to you.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#67
Difference Between Index Rebuild and Index Reorganize Explained with T-SQL Script
Fragmentation – Detect Fragmentation and Eliminate Fragmentation
Generate Report for Index Physical Statistics – SSMS
Comparison Index Fragmentation, Index De-Fragmentation, Index Rebuild – SQL SERVER 2000 and SQL SERVER 2005

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

So what’s the approach?

First, expressor and Melissa Data created a partnership through which expressor Studio users could obtain a key to use the Melissa Data WebSmart Suite .

Second, expressor created a collection of operator templates, one for each service in the WebSmart Suite.

And third, expressor packaged this collection of operator templates into an expressor library that you can easily integrate into any expressor library or project.

Let’s see how this all comes together.

Once you register with on the WEBSMARTexpress Web site, you are given the URL to download the expressor operator template library – WEBSMARTexpress.zip.  Do not extract this archive file.  Rather you simply import the library into an expressor workspace.

• Open the workspace.
• Select the Studio > Import Projects… menu item.
• In the first window of the Import Projects wizard, browse to the file system location where you saved the operator template archive file and select the file for import.
• In the wizard’s second window, select the LIB_WebSmart library and click Finish.  The library is added to your workspace.

If you now expand the library, you will see that it includes composite types, the operator templates, and some Datascript modules.

Each composite type describes the return from one of the WebSmart services.  The scripting that provides the processing logic for each operator template is contained in a dedicated Datascript module.  You will not need to edit the coding within these Datascript modules but you will need to enter your Melissa Data key into the module MDVariables before you can access the WebSmart services.

Double click on the MDVariables entry under the Datascript Modules folder to open this module in the script editor and on line 13 replace num with your key and then save and close the editor.

Now create another library or project that will include the dataflow in which you will use one of the operator templates.  Be certain to reference the LIB_WebSmart library.

When you are laying out the dataflow, note that the operator templates are listed on the Templates tab within the Transformers grouping of operators.  To use one of the operator templates, simply drag it onto the dataflow.  When you are configuring this operator, do not change any of the settings on its Properties panel, but you must open the Rules Editor.  In the screen shots that follow, I’m working with the email validation service, but usage of all the operator templates is identical.

At a minimum, I must connect the incoming attribute that contains the email address to be verified to the Rule_1 input parameter Email.  The outgoing parameters are already bound to their corresponding attributes in the output record.  The structure of the output is predefined by the composite type EmailResponse, which was included in the WEBSMART library.

If I also want to include other incoming attributes in the record emitted by this operator, I must drag them into the Rule_1 input parameter listing, add corresponding attributes to the Output panel, and drag the newly added output attributes into the Rule_1 output parameter listing.

Note that to handle these additional values I did not need to edit the coding in either the operator template or its associated Datascript Module.

And that’s all there is to it.  As your expressor dataflow executes, the email address in each record will be submitted to the WebSmart service for validation and the detailed information returned by the Web service will be added to the record emitted by the operator.

Through their extension framework and operator template functionality, expressor software has provided two very effective approaches for extending the functionality of an expressor Studio installation.  The extension framework provides a mechanism to add new functionality to Studio while the operator template/Datascript Module approach is a simple way to reuse logic that you have previously developed.  And the partnership with Melissa Data demonstrates how straight-forward it is to integrate expressor with functionality or services provided by partner organizations.

expressor is making this integration with Melissa Data available as part of their Desktop and Standard Editions.  You can download a trial of the Desktop Edition by clicking this link.  As always, I am impressed how quickly expressor evolves their product line and adds very valuable new capabilities to it every few months.   I encourage you to download their Desktop Edition trial.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

I noticed a very long stored procedure in the production database. This database creating temporary tables, using insert and select statement. When I asked the purpose of the stored procedure, I realize they should have just used an OUTPUT clause. What is the OUTPUT clause inside SQL Server?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

The feature which got introduced in SQL Server 2005 edition had a lot of scope for usage. UC wrote a great post a while back on this subject on sqltips. Also, try to read more about the composable DML concepts.

Notes of Pinal Dave

When OUTPUT clause was introduced, I was very happy because I do not have to use global functions and temporary tables to accomplish certain tasks as this new clause. The OUTPUT clause has a variety of ways to access inserted and deleted tables (virtual tables). The OUTPUT clause can be used with INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE to identify the actual rows affected by these statements.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#63
OUTPUT Clause Example and Explanation with INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

A query always ran in split second, but suddenly it started to timeout. A quick look at the error log shows that the cause was deadlock. What is a Deadlock and how can we identify and resolve a Deadlock inside SQL Server 2008 R2

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

The concepts of locking and blocking have been a mystery for many people. But becoming a deadlock victim is even stranger than it can get. Even today lots of product companies that come to performance tuning at peak loads get this. It boils down to coding practices. Here’s a Hint for you.

Notes of Pinal Dave

The frequently asked question by many novice DBAs is: “what can I do to reduce deadlocks?” Deadlocks often occur due to inappropriate access to the objects by T-SQL code. There is a big difference between time out and deadlock. The real answer will include a suggestion to resolve both of them efficiently.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#56-57
Simple Example of Snapshot Isolation – Reduce the Blocking Transactions
TRANSACTION, DML and Schema Locks
Introduction to Live Lock – What is Live Lock?
Applying NOLOCK Hint at Query Level – NOLOCK for whole Transaction

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

An SQL developer got surprised when he learned that he does not have to use cursors to calculate ranks in SQL Server 2008. He can now just use the newly introduced ranking functions. What are the different RANKING functions inside SQL Server 2008 R2 and what are the new functions introduced inside SQL Server 2012?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

This is a give away as a hint. But there are specific differences when it comes to each of these. Can you think of a scenario to use each of them effectively? Hint: Just think of a school and you will find ways of using them. :)

Notes of Pinal Dave

I still remember my first manager and his advice: “Take a walk, when you have to use cursor”. I still remember this and follow it every single time; I just have to use cursor. Cursors are not always bad, but if it is used without proper understanding and without considering other alternatives, it is indeed a bad decision to use. I have often seen cases where there were alternate ready-made solutions available, but still the developer went ahead and implemented a cursor that was not optimized (hogging resources). I personally insist on always learning all the new features of SQL Server as I often figure out alternative of cursors when I am exploring new features.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#128-129
Use INSERT INTO … SELECT instead of Cursor
Simple Use of Cursor to Print All Stored Procedures of Database
Simple Use of Cursor to Print All Stored Procedures of Database Including Schema
Simple Example of Cursor
Cursor to Kill All Process in Database

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

A new trainee was confused when he discovered that the organization is discouraging the Indexed View (or materialized views). After talking to the senior team members he realized that Index Views which are good at certain tasks it comes with lots of restrictions. What are the restrictions of using INDEXED VIEWS inside SQL Server?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

Not that I am a great supporter of using INDEXED VIEWS, but there are obviously some special case scenarios.  This Hint gives some amazing documentation around its usage.

Notes of Pinal Dave

As far as I can remember, Views are one of the very old concepts. Earlier in my career, around year 2000, Views were extremely useful to me. I used to rely on them for many reasons – preventing access to the data to users, hiding table definition from users, creating modular T-SQL logic, using materialized views for performance, you name it. However, I gradually started to use stored procedures and user access security features leading less and less use Views. However, I sometimes use Index Views  for special cases until now. And these special cases are what exactly we should learn today.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#50
The Limitations of the Views – Eleven and more…
Interesting Observation – Index on Index View Used in Similar Query
Outer Join Not Allowed in Indexed Views – Limitation of the View 8
Cross Database Queries Not Allowed in Indexed View – Limitation of the View 7
SELF JOIN Not Allowed in Indexed View – Limitation of the View 9
UNION Not Allowed but OR Allowed in Index View – Limitation of the View 6
Keywords View Definition Must Not Contain for Indexed View – Limitation of the View 10

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

A DBA had to restore its database on new server runs a query to validate the data. The same query on the same database started to give different results. After a quick research he figured out that collation was different of both the database. What is Collation and Collation Sensitivity inside SQL Server?

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

The concepts of Collations have not changed for ages now. When it comes to localization and globalization, these concepts really help a lot. Here’s a hint to documentation. Just a small twist, how can you go and explicitly change the collation for a given query?

Notes of Pinal Dave

Language is the most important part of communication. We all communicate with each other through language which both persons understand. If we do not talk in the language which the other person cannot understand, the end result is not fruitful. In a similar way, collation is very important to any database. I have often seen situations when the collation changes from case sensitive and case in-sensitive turning the query result hey-wire and creates chaos on the server.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#46-47
Find Collation of Database and Table Column Using T-SQL
SQL SERVER – Cannot resolve collation conflict for equal to operation
Find Database Collation Using T-SQL and SSMS
Change Collation of Database Column – T-SQL Script – Consolidating Collations – Extension Script
Default Collation of SQL Server 2008

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)

Beyond Relational has come up with a very interesting concept – they have converted a few of the questions from my book into the SQL Quiz. The quiz is indeed focused on my two goals. In addition, it’s going to put the learning of the book to a higher stage. Looking at this novel concept, Vinod Kumar (Co-author) and I have decided to help every participant and reader by giving a few hints and suggestions to solve the quiz.

SQL Quiz

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Notes of Vinod Kumar

Locking and Blocking are non-negotiable when it comes to working with Databases. This support article gives great related information.

Notes of Pinal Dave

Locking and Blocking is an interesting concept. I often see people getting confused between them. Deadlock and Livelock are other concepts which keep on getting people confused as well. I think in today’s note, I have not added any more hint but just asked further questions which are add to the confusion. Well, let me make things more interesting AND confusing. I think it will be a good idea to learn when a query times out due to deadlock and due to server time out or when the server is suffering from performance issues.

Additional Notes

SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers ISBN: 1466405643 Page#41-43
Simple Example of Snapshot Isolation – Reduce the Blocking Transactions
TRANSACTION, DML and Schema Locks
Introduction to Live Lock – What is Live Lock?
Applying NOLOCK Hint at Query Level – NOLOCK for whole Transaction

Prize

There are exciting prizes awaiting the winners. Click here for Prizes and Frequently Asked Questions.

Link to participate in SQL Quiz

Note: The SQL Quiz, winners and prizes are administrated by Beyond Relational. The goal of this blog post is to provide additional learning pointers only.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)