My 200th post, a thank you to my readers and a look at the Journey to SQL Authority milestones: interview questions, coding standards, jobs, humor and more.
SQL SERVER – Delay Function – WAITFOR clause – Delay Execution of Commands
The WAITFOR clause delays a batch, stored procedure or transaction until a set time or for an interval. I use it daily after restores. DELAY and TIME examples.
SQL SERVER – De-fragmentation of Database at Operating System to Improve Performance
Why does de-fragmentation of database files at the operating system level skip MDF files? SQL Server has them open, so stop the services first.
SQL SERVER – 2005 – UDF – User Defined Function to Strip HTML – Parse HTML – No Regular Expression
A simple SQL Server function to parse HTML and keep only the text, with no regular expressions needed. Copy the UDF and try it on your own data.
SQL SERVER – sp_HelpText for sp_HelpText – Puzzle
What happens when you run sp_HelpText on itself? It prints its own code. Plus tips for long lines, encrypted objects and searching object code.
SQL SERVER – 2005 NorthWind Database or AdventureWorks Database – Samples Databases – Part 2
Three tested ways to install the NorthWind and Pubs sample databases on SQL Server 2005, starting from SQL2000SampleDb.msi, with screenshots for each.
SQL SERVER – Easy Sequence of SELECT FROM JOIN WHERE GROUP BY HAVING ORDER BY
The sequence of SELECT, FROM, JOIN, WHERE, GROUP BY, HAVING and ORDER BY that I gave my new hires. Since then they ask me far fewer questions.
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Shaivi Pinalkumar Dave is a book author and a women’s artistic gymnast.

