T-SQL Tuesday #020 – T-SQL Best Practices

Invitation and summary from Amit Banerjee.

What is the topic for July?

The topic for July is “T-SQL Best Practices”. If you work with SQL Server, then undoubtedly you would have had to write T-SQL queries atleast once or would have had to debug the seemingly useful piece of T-SQL code written by your developers to find out where the performance bottleneck or problem was. Your post for this month’s revolving blog party could be along one of the areas:

a. A set of T-SQL best practices that you follow in your shop that or you believe that should be followed always. It could be as specific as for writing only linked server queries or writing queries for SSIS packages etc.
b. An issue that you resolved because certain T-SQL best practices were not followed.
c. A workaround that you used (like query hints) to resolve an issue where T-SQL best practices couldn’t be implemented due to involvement of a third party solution.

Why did I choose this topic?

Over the years of troubleshooting SQL performance related issues, I have found on multiple occasions that the T-SQL query in question was performing badly because certain best practices for writing that piece of code were not followed and the one responsible for the development had not foreseen that such an oversight could become a bottleneck when the data or the number of users increased. So, I thought it would be a good idea to get the SQL Community’s thoughts around best practices in this area. Sometimes, the most obvious things are the easiest to overlook!

T-SQL Tuesday #018 – CTEs

Invitation and wrapup from Bob Pusateri.

The Topic

This month’s topic is CTEs, or Common Table Expressions. Had you asked me 10 years ago what CTE meant, I would have replied “coefficient of thermal expansion” but that was back in my semiconductor & electronic materials phase. I like the database version much better 🙂

Have you ever solved or created a problem by using CTEs? Got a tip, trick, or something nifty to share? I’d love to see your posts about any of the above. Also don’t forget that T-SQL Tuesday is not limited to only T-SQL:

“Any post that is related to both SQL Server and the theme is fair game. So feel free to post about SSIS, SSRS, Java integration, or whatever other technologies you’re working with in conjunction with SQL Server. Even if your post includes no T-SQL we still want to see it.”

T-SQL Tuesday #017 – APPLY Knowledge

Site list, but invitation below from Matt Velic.

APPLY Knowledge

Recently on Twitter, I heard the claim that “If you don’t understand the APPLY operator, your skills are somewhere around the 50th percentile at best.” While I believe that Adam was giving a warning to self-proclaimed experts (possibly one he might have been interviewing at the time…), I also believe that we could take it as a challenge as a T-SQL blogging community to learn more about APPLY and the ways in which we can use it in our work.

Please share how you use this wonderful feature. Maybe you know how APPLY works inside and out? Perhaps you’ve got a fantastic user defined function (UDF) to share? Or maybe your experience revolves around using Dynamic Management Functions (DMFs) in your never-ending quest for SQL Server performance? Let the community know as it is time to study!

T-SQL Tuesday #016 – Aggregate Functions

Invitation and SUM() from Jes Borland.

The Topic: Aggregation

No, not aggravation (although I’ve used the two interchangably before). I want to hear how you solved business problems with aggregate functions. I want to see your cool T-SQL tricks. How are aggregates used in SSRS, SSAS, or SSIS? What have you learned about aggregate functions?

Let’s SUM(thoughts), COUNT(ways we’ve done things), and set MAX(awesome) on our posts!

Remember: “any post that is related to both SQL Server and the theme is fair game. So feel free to post about SSIS, SSRS, Java integration, or whatever other technologies you’re working with in conjunction with SQL Server. Even if your post includes no T-SQL we still want to see it.”

T-SQL Tuesday #015 – Automation in SQL Server

Invitation and Summary from Pat Wright.

Having taken part in several T-SQL Tuesday’s I decided I would finally put my name in to host one.  I figured it would be a good way to lose my sanity learn some great ideas from this wonderful SQL community.  I figured that since many of you out there set a goal this year to blog more and to learn Powershell then this Topic should help in both of those goals.    So the topic I have chosen for this month is Automation!   It can be Automation with T-SQL or with Powershell or a mix of both.  Give us your best tips/tricks and ideas for making our lives easier through Automation.  Now here are all the details you’ll need for a successful T-SQL Tuesday post!