Pinal Dave - SQL Server Performance Tuning Expert

Interview Question of the Week #040 – Difference Between Unique Index vs Unique Constraint

October 11, 2015

SQL, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

Question: What is the difference between unique index and unique constraint? Answer: Add Unique Constraint ALTER TABLE dbo.<tablename> ADD CONSTRAINT <namingconventionconstraint> UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED ( <columnname> ) ON [PRIMARY] Add Unique Index CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX <namingconventionconstraint> ON dbo.<tablename> ( <columnname> ) ON [PRIMARY] There is no difference between Unique Index…

SQL SERVER – Trick – Running SSMS With Different Windows Account

October 10, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

MySQL, SQL Server Management Studio

Recently in one of my interaction with a DBA inside a big financial organization, I was surprised to see that the administrator was logging into a desktop / server using a different credential. What baffled me was the fact that he was logging off. I immediately asked, why are you…

SQL SERVER – Database Testing and Waitfor Delay – Notes from the Field #099

October 9, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

Notes from the Field, SQL Function

[Note from Pinal]: This is a 99th episode of Notes from the Field series. In this episode we are going to learn something very simple but effective about database testing. Database testing is one of the most critical elements for any developer or DBA. If you do not test your code, there are…

SQL SERVER – Why Should You Not to Use Old Style JOIN?

October 8, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL Joins

If you want to JOIN two tables you can do it in two ways. One using ANSI compliant INNER JOIN and another with old style join But it is advisable not to use old style join. Here is the reason. Let us create the following data sets CREATE TABLE item_master(item_id…

SQL SERVER – SSMS Query Command(s) completed successfully without ANY Results – Part 2

October 7, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL Server Management Studio

What do you do when you encounter something that you didn’t expect? A lot of times such experiences take you to a state of shock or a state of bafflement. The curiosity sometimes pushes you off the cliff to understand why certain behaviors occur. I am fortunate that I get…

SQL SERVER – Steps to Backup to Windows Azure storage

October 6, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL Azure, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Scripts, SQL Server

Moving to a cloud-based world is inevitable, it is something we need to learn soon. Ever since SQL Server 2014 has been released, the concept of uploading your backups to Blobs with Windows Azure has been around. In reality, performing a backup or restore operations with SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU4 and later requires no additional tools actually, and be done with either T-SQL or SSMS. This blog describes how to perform backup operations with T-SQL. This will be part of a series of blogs to come in the future. Let me walk through the initial steps.

SQL SERVER – Creating a Database Administrator Group Using User-Defined Server Roles

October 5, 2015

Pinal Dave

SQL, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL Server Security

When it comes to security related topics, I always read and learn something new from my friend Vinod. He always comes-up with something interesting and when he was at GIDS event, one of the attendees walked and asked a security question. He was interested in knowing how we can have…