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Jul18

SQL SERVER – Restore Database Without or With Backup – Everything About Restore and Backup

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Download, SQL Scripts
46 Comments

Everything about restore and backup readers ask: can you restore without a backup? No. Here is the right restore order and a plan to stay safe.

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Jul17

SQL SERVER – CASE Statement in ORDER BY Clause – ORDER BY using Variable

Pinal Dave
SQL Performance
SQL Function, SQL Scripts
126 Comments

Stop building ORDER BY strings and running them with EXEC in a stored procedure. I show how a CASE statement in ORDER BY sorts by a variable without dynamic SQL.

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Jul16

CHECKSUM: A Matching Result Does Not Prove Text Identity

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
SQL Function, SQL Scripts, SQL Server
No Comments

CHECKSUM matches do not establish unchanged text. Preserve complete values and compare hyphen and trailing-space differences explicitly.

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Jul15

SQL SERVER – SQL Joke, SQL Humor, SQL Laugh – 15 Signs to Identify Bad DBA

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
Database, SQL Download, SQL Humor, SQL Scripts
7 Comments

A bit of SQL humor: 15 signs of a bad DBA, from reinstalling SQL Server when the sa password is lost to indexing every field to make it faster.

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Jul14

SQL SERVER – 2005 Collation Explanation and Translation – Part 2

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
SQL Collation, SQL Scripts, SQL String
2 Comments

Collation Explanation and Translation, part 2: one query on sys.fn_helpcollations() lists all 1011 collations in SQL Server 2005 with a description of each.

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Jul13

SQL SERVER – 2005 – Use ALTER DATABASE MODIFY NAME Instead of sp_renameDB to rename

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
SQL Scripts, SQL Stored Procedure
30 Comments

sp_renameDB will be deprecated, so use ALTER DATABASE MODIFY NAME to rename a database in SQL Server 2005. A short script shows the new syntax.

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Jul12

SQL SERVER – Validate Field For DATE datatype using function ISDATE()

Pinal Dave
SQL Tips and Tricks
SQL DateTime, SQL Function, SQL Scripts, SQL Server
41 Comments

A CSV import crashed on the date 30/2/2007. Use the ISDATE() function to validate a VARCHAR column in a staging table before moving rows to a DATETIME field.

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SQL Server slow? Let's fix it together in about four hours.

Pinal Dave

In my Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check, you share your screen, I guide you, and we fix your biggest performance troublemakers. No passwords. No remote access.

You keep every script, and the know-how to fix it yourself next time.

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My Practical Workshop has no PowerPoint, just live demos. My AI Enablement Workshop shows your team where AI saves hours, and where it quietly costs them.

Over 400 customers have worked with me this way, and not one shared a password. See all consulting options.


Who We Are

Pinal Dave is an SQL Server Performance Tuning Expert and independent consultant with over 24 years of hands-on experience. He holds a Masters of Science degree and numerous database certifications.

Pinal has authored 19 books and 125 Pluralsight courses. To freely share his knowledge and help others build their expertise, Pinal has also written more than 5,800 database tech articles on his blog at https://blog.sqlauthority.com.

Pinal is also a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer (CF-L1) and CrossFit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2).


Nupur Dave is a social media enthusiast and an independent consultant. She primarily focuses on the database domain, helping clients build short and long-term multi-channel campaigns to drive leads for their sales pipeline.


Shaivi Pinalkumar Dave is a book author and a women’s artistic gymnast.

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