Writing some typical interview questions have been on my list always. I look for new ways of tricking the person and most importantly, some of the interview questions are designed to make sure the person has strong fundamentals. This blog is one such attempt to understand the basics of the AlwaysOn Availability Group.
SQL SERVER – How to do IF…THEN in SQL SERVER?
Just another day I received following question – “Pinal, I am from DotNet expertise and I do not know how to convert the logic of IF…THEN into SQL statement, would you please help? ~Rajesh” I love simple questions as they have simple answers. In SQL Server, we can use a…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – A Stored Procedure for Executing SSIS Packages in the SSIS Catalog – Notes from the Field #092
[Note from Pinal]: This is a new episode of Notes from the Field series. SQL Server Integration Service (SSIS) is one of the most key essential part of the entire Business Intelligence (BI) story. It is a platform for data integration and workflow applications. In this episode of the Notes from the…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – Knowing Which Database is Consuming My Memory
I have been fortunate enough to be at conferences around the world and it is always refreshing to see how people come up with some really common yet never answered questions from time to time. The classic questions I get asked ever since I started working with databases and SQL…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – Unable to Start SQL – Error: SQL Server Could Not Spawn Lazy Writer Thread
I have a tendency to try out various settings on a typical SQL Server just to see how the behavior changes from time to time. While playing with affinity settings in SQL Server – I shot myself in the foot. It was interesting to reach how I came out of…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – Increase Characters Displayed in Text Results
Working with various SQL Server options is always a great feeling. Every now and then I go to the Options page to get just the thing I want. When I wrote the blog post – SQL SERVER – Getting started and creating JSON using SQL Server 2016 I was expecting…
Read MoreInterview Question of the Week #030 – Retrieve Last Inserted Identity of Record
Question: What are the different ways of retrieving the identity of last inserted record? Which method do you prefer? Answer: There are many different ways to do that. Here are three different ways to retrieve the identity of the last inserted record. I personally use SCOPE_IDENTITY () to return the identity…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – How to Remove All Characters From a String Using T-SQL?
In the recent past I have seen the best interaction and learning happens when we all get into a puzzle and challenge mode. And that just gets the creative juice in our minds and some really innovative solutions are given. So this blog is written like a nice trivia solution…
Read MoreSQL SERVER – Puzzle – Inside Working of Datatype smalldatetime
In the recent past, I have been bringing few puzzles around using date and time functions. All these have brought some awesome feedbacks and you all have been sharing some awesome answers. Today’s question comes from an unusual place wherein one of a developer said he was getting unexpected results…
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SQL SERVER – DevOps for the DBA – Notes from the Field #091
[Note from Pinal]: This is a 91st episode of Notes from the Field series. Divas is a new buzz word with lots of substance behind it. Not everyone understands what it means and not everyone actually related it to their daily job. Lots of people think that it is alright to not explore and learn about this as after a few days or months it will be meaningless. However, the reality seems very different about DevOps as it is one of the concepts which is just rediscovered. I recently asked my friend Stuart about what it means by DevOps for DBA and he had a informative answer to this question.