Merge Operations can combine conditional inserts, updates and deletes. I inspect the plan before making any claim about scans or speed.
SQL SERVER – Convert IN to EXISTS – Performance Talk
A training attendee asked for a simple way to convert IN to EXISTS for better performance. Here is my example with the execution plans.
SQL SERVER – Generate Database Script for SQL Azure
Scripts from a regular SQL Server database used to fail on SQL Azure. With SQL Server 2008 R2 you can generate a database script for SQL Azure. Here is how.
geometry STUnion: Merge the Shared Area Only Once
geometry STUnion merges geometry coverage. These exact-coordinate rectangles distinguish a combined area from the sum of two areas, including duplicate coverage.
REGEXP_INSTR: Locate a Match or a Capture Group
REGEXP_INSTR returns the position of a selected regular-expression match or capture group. I compare its positional arguments using one short string. This example needs SQL Server 2025 and database compatibility level 170.
SQL SERVER – Disabled Index and Update Statistics
A reader asked how disabled indexes affect statistics. With the clustered index disabled, Update Statistics throws an error; see what happens once you enable it.
SQL SERVER – DATE and TIME in SQL Server 2008
What happens when you convert DATE and TIME in SQL Server 2008 to DATETIME? A quick demo shows the midnight and 1900 surprise.