Recently I had to use GUID (Global Unique Identifier) as primary key in order to ensure cross-server uniqueness. In many cases surrogate key (some sort of concatenation between server id and intra-server identity) would give a better performance but in my case due to application requirements surrogate key wasn't an option. Next step is ...

Recently I've been asked by one of my clients to write a simple script that would find out whether particular database had ever been backed up (full backup). The reason for a requirement was semi-automatic application which would enable end users to manage backup activity including manually backup transaction log - not via Management Studio but ...

As with all of the blog posts I keep meaning to write -- I keep a list and given the infrequency with which I've been posting lately, it's getting quite large -- this script has been on the queue for quite some time. So here I find myself with a spare moment right on the cusp of the new year, and figured what better way to end the year than with a ...

  I first heard about the possibility of database cloning way back in version 7.0 and thought it sounded like a great idea. Who wouldn't love to have a bunch of identical little databases running around, of smaller size and easier manageability? Cloning a database means creating a statistics only copy of it, so that you can examine ...

Recently, I got sucked into importing Excel sheets into a database. I had thought, well that's easy with a tool such as SQL Server 2000 DTS Import/Export Wizard or SQL Server 2005 Import/Export Wizard. Needless to say, the Excel import business ran into a snag. With the error messages from the wizard not being really helpful, I ditched the wizard ...

Let's say you run sqlio.exe as follows: D:\sqlIO -kW -t32 -s30 -dE -o1 -fsequential -b8 -BH -LS Testfile.dat The output typically may look like this: sqlio v1.5.SG using system counter for latency timings, 1999980000 counts per second 32 threads writing for 30 secs to file E:Testfile.dat using 8KB sequential IOs enabling multiple I/Os ...

Have you ever run into a situation where you'd like to search many of your SQL Server instances to look for a specific piece of information? Ideally, you should maintain an inventory database of all your SQL Server instances so that all you need to do is query that database. In case you don't have such an inventory (shame on you!) or the inventory ...

SQL Server 2000 included a very useful extended stored procedure called xp_execresultset. This XP had two parameters: @cmd and @dbname. @cmd was expected to be a SELECT statement that would produce a single column of output, each row of which would produce a valid query. @dbname was used to specify the database that both the initial query and ...

Originally posted here.  Of all of the undocumented stored procedures shipped with SQL Server, there are two in particular that I constantly use: sp_MSforeachtable and sp_MSforeachdb. These procedures internally loop over each non-Microsoft shipped (i.e. user-defined) table in the current database, or each database on the current server, ...

Originally posted here.  Yes, another string splitting UDF from a guy who's obvioiusly become obsessed with TSQL string splitting. This time we delve into a mysterious world that I call, ''Tokenization.'' So what is Tokenization? It's a word I made up for this problem. But what is it, really? It's splitting up a string based on ...