Common table expressions for readability name query steps and support recursion, but they do not promise cached intermediate results.
SQL Server emergency? Email pinal@sqlauthority.com with URGENT in the subject line.
geometry STDistance: Measure the Closest Points of Two Shapes
geometry STDistance measures the shortest distance between points belonging to two represented shapes. I compare an interior gap with an endpoint gap. Intersecting shapes provide a useful zero-distance case.
SELECT * in Production Code: The Hidden Costs
See the real costs of SELECT * in production code: lost covering indexes, lookups, stale view metadata, broken inserts and wider results.
SQL SERVER – Applying NOLOCK Hint at Query Level – NOLOCK for whole Transaction
Can you apply the NOLOCK hint to a whole query with OPTION (NOLOCK)? No, it fails with Msg 102. Here is how I use an isolation level instead.
SQL SERVER – Making Database to Read Only – Changing Database to Read/Write
A reader attached a client database and it showed as Read Only. Two simple ALTER DATABASE scripts switch a database to READ_ONLY and back to READ_WRITE.
SQL SERVER – Finding Location of Log File when Primary Datafile is Crashed
Do you need the primary datafile to back up the log after a crash? Vinod Kumar asked, so I tried finding the location of the log file without it.
SQL SERVER – Transaction Log Impact Detection Using DMV – dm_tran_database_transactions
Which DMV shows the effect of a transaction on the transaction log file? My quick script uses dm_tran_database_transactions to show it per transaction.
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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.

