Pinal Dave - SQL Server Performance Tuning Expert

SQL SERVER - How to Drop Primary Key Contraint

SQL SERVER – How to Drop Primary Key Constraint

May 12, 2009

ALTER TABLE … DROP PRIMARY KEY is MySQL syntax and fails in SQL Server with Msg 156. Here is how to drop primary key constraint the SQL Server way.

SQL SERVER – Questions and Answers with Database Administrators

May 11, 2009

Pinal Dave

SQL Tips and Tricks

Best Practices, SQL Coding Standards, SQL Scripts

While hiring Database Administrators and senior developers for a large project, we discussed many interesting questions. Here are some, with my own views.

Blue, sage and cream textile panels hang in order above folded cloth and a red spool.

CASE Sort Priority: Put Business Order Before Alphabetical Order

May 10, 2009

Pinal Dave

SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL CASE, SQL NULL, SQL Order By, SQL Server

CASE sort priority makes the queue policy explicit. Map known statuses to numeric ranks and keep missing or unfamiliar labels visible. Finish tied ranks with a unique key.

SQL SERVER – Find Last Date Time Updated for Any Table

May 9, 2009

Pinal Dave

SQL Tips and Tricks

SQL DateTime, SQL Scripts, SQL Table Operation

Want the last date time a table was updated without an UpdatedDate column? The sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats DMV shows it. A quick demo on AdventureWorks.