Use SQL Server documentation with the right version and platform selected, read syntax carefully, and keep useful reference material offline.
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SQL SERVER – Introduction to Function SIGN
The SIGN function returns 1, -1 or 0 depending on whether a value is positive, negative or zero. A simple example with INT and DECIMAL values.
SQL SERVER – Follow up – Usage of $rowguid and $IDENTITY
A follow up with great comments from David Hall and Kumar Harsh on the usage of $rowguid and $IDENTITY, and the limits of my earlier solution.
SQL SERVER – ColumnStore Index – Batch Mode vs Row Mode
Someone said columnstore indexes run only in batch mode. I stopped to disagree. Here is what I showed about columnstore batch mode vs row mode.
Importing CSV File into SQL Server: SQL in Sixty Seconds #018
Importing CSV file data into SQL Server means matching the file to a table, loading it and checking the result. The tests here show a bad row skipped after a printed error, a text staging load, and the encoding and line ending settings that break a load.
SQL SERVER – Solution – User Not Able to See Any User Created Object in Tables – Security and Permissions Issue
A friend could connect to SQL Server but could not see any user created object, while his colleague could. It was a security and permissions issue.
SQL SERVER – Identifying Column Data Type of uniqueidentifier without Querying System Tables
Madhivanan asked how to tell if a table has a uniqueidentifier column without querying system tables or DMVs, knowing only the table name.
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