Write maintainable T-SQL with clear names, explicit results, focused procedures, and comments that explain the business reason behind the code.
SQL Server emergency? Email pinal@sqlauthority.com with URGENT in the subject line.
Grouping Dates Into Buckets With DATE_BUCKET
DATE_BUCKET groups timestamps into hourly, weekly, and custom intervals, with an origin that determines where every boundary lands.
SQL SERVER – Difference Between EXEC and EXECUTE vs EXEC() – Use EXEC/EXECUTE for SP always
What is the difference between EXEC and EXECUTE? None. The real difference is EXEC vs EXEC(), and I show why EXEC belongs before every stored procedure call.
COUNT_BIG: Count Rows and Non-NULL Values as bigint
COUNT_BIG helps me name the counting rule before reading the result. Compare rows, supplied values and distinct readings. Then check empty results and the bigint return type.
SQL SERVER – Frequency of SQL Server Reboot and Restart
How often should you do a SQL Server reboot? From my experience there is no need, though our network team reboots all our servers every 15 days.
FORMATMESSAGE: Build a Message Without Raising an Error
FORMATMESSAGE returns formatted text without raising an error. Match placeholders to typed arguments and keep formatting separate from control flow.
RIGHT: Zero Padding Can Remove Significant Digits
RIGHT can make zero padding look correct while quietly removing significant digits. I validate the allowed numeric range before creating a fixed-width label. The suffix expression alone cannot tell whether the input fits.
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