Aaron is a senior consultant for SQL Sentry, Inc., makers of performance monitoring and event management software for SQL Server, Analysis Services, and Windows. He has been blogging here at sqlblog.com since 2006, focusing on manageability, performance, and new features; has been a Microsoft MVP since 1997; tweets as @AaronBertrand; and speaks frequently at user group meetings and SQL Saturday events.

September 2011 - Posts

• SQL Server v.Next (Denali) : Will you use EOMONTH()?

  In Denali we have a new date-related function called EOMONTH () - it comes straight to us from VBA so many Excel and Access users will know exactly what it does. For those that don't, it returns the last day of the month for the date passed in, returning Read More... Posted Thursday, September 22, 2011 4:45 PM by AaronBertrand | 13 Comments Filed under: date and time, denali, EOMONTH, range queries

• Connect Digest : 2011-09-22

  Where is SYSDATE()? I've talked about this one before, but due to a recent conversation about building a datetime value from separate date/time columns or variables, it may be worth bringing up again. When SQL Server 2008 introduced several new date/time Read More... Posted Thursday, September 22, 2011 8:31 AM by AaronBertrand | 4 Comments Filed under: CASE, clr, COALESCE, date and time datatypes, numbers table, partitioning, statistics

• Want your bug fixed? File a good bug!

  In some circles I'm known as "the Connect guy" because I've filed a heck of a lot of suggestions and bugs that I've envisioned or encountered, and I'm often willing to file an issue on someone else's behalf. In other circles, for very much the same reasons, Read More... Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2011 11:45 AM by AaronBertrand | 2 Comments Filed under: bugs, Connect, SQL Server, suggestions

• Bad Habits to Kick : Using shorthand with date/time operations

  I've come across quite a bit of code that uses date/time shorthand that can either be confusing or downright dangerous. There are two areas I want to focus on: shorthand for date arithmetic, and shorthand for date parts. Date Arithmetic This one I mentioned Read More... Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2011 9:31 AM by AaronBertrand | 12 Comments Filed under: bad habits, best practices, dates, formatting, forward compatibility

• Cumulative Update #6 for SQL Server 2008 SP2 is available

  Last night, the SQL Server Release Services Team published Cumulative Update #6 for SQL Server 2008 SP2: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2582285 There are 13 fixes listed, and the build # is 10.00.4321. NOTE: This cumulative update is NOT for SQL Server Read More... Posted Tuesday, September 20, 2011 9:23 AM by AaronBertrand | 0 Comments Filed under: cumulative updates, hotfixes, SQL Server 2008

• Cumulative Update #16 for SQL Server 2008 SP1 is available

  This evening Microsoft released cumulative update #16 for SQL Server 2008 SP1: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2582282/ There are only seven fixes listed, and the build # is 10.00.2850. NOTE: This update is NOT for SQL Server 2008 R2. Read More... Posted Monday, September 19, 2011 11:18 PM by AaronBertrand | 0 Comments Filed under: cumulative updates, hotfixes, patches, SQL Server 2008

• Bad Habits to Kick : Using EXEC() instead of sp_executesql

  Today in my T-SQL: Bad Habits to Kick session at SQL Saturday #84 in Kalamazoo, a user asked if SQL Server supported anything like bind variables in Oracle when using dynamic SQL. When using dynamic SQL, you have two choices: EXEC() / EXECUTE() , or sp_executesql Read More... Posted Saturday, September 17, 2011 1:50 PM by AaronBertrand | 5 Comments Filed under: bad habits, dynamic SQL, performance, plan caching

• Why generalizations are dangerous

  A couple of years ago, John Sansom wrote a blog post comparing the performance of two different ways to get the maximum value from a column: MAX() and TOP (1). http://www.johnsansom.com/performance-comparison-of-select-top-1-verses-max/ In the conclusion, Read More... Posted Thursday, September 15, 2011 8:19 PM by AaronBertrand | 5 Comments Filed under: aggregates, execution plans, performance, Plan Explorer, Query plans, testing, Windowing functions

• A demo kit for SQL Sentry Plan Explorer

  Plan Explorer is a free application from SQL Sentry , designed to make execution plan analysis faster and easier. It was developed in response to customer demand for deeper query analysis, but was originally intended only for the paid version of the software. Read More... Posted Tuesday, September 13, 2011 1:31 PM by AaronBertrand | 11 Comments Filed under: execution plans, management studio, Missing indexes, Plan Explorer, Query plans, SQL Sentry, SSMS