Category: SQL

When executing long-running SQL commands, it is often important to get feedback on the operations being performed. In the context of SQL Server, the PRINT statement offers the ability to output basic informational messages that can help monitor progress and debugging. While the PRINT statement provides a simple means of outputting a message, it can…

The MERGE statement in SQL provides a streamlined way to insert, update, and delete data as part of a single batch statement. With the potential benefits of cleaner code and performance improvements for certain scenarios, the MERGE statement is a great tool to have up your sleeve. In this article, I will demonstrate how the…

Monitoring query performance is an essential aspect of proper database management. Poorly performing queries can produce a domino effect, affecting the overall health of your database server and severely degrading application user experience. Queries that result in many reads and writes to the hard disk and that use excessive amounts of CPU time and memory…

When working with a SQL Server database, I often find it helpful to have a SQL query to hand that can be executed to tell me how many rows exist within each database table. This can be useful in scenarios where records are being inserted into lots of tables and you need to check that…

Have you ever installed an instance of SQL Server onto a new workstation or server and subsequently realised that you forgot to rename the machine first? In these cases, you’ll likely have installed both SQL Server and SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio). After launching SSMS you happen to notice that the ‘Server name’ field is…

Whenever I’m analysing the performance of a SQL Server database, I often find myself needing to retrieve a list of all indexes for review. Missing or unsuitable indexes are a leading cause of SQL Server slowdowns, so it can be very useful to view the existing indexes to get an idea of how heavily indexed…