October 2008 - Posts

• Assigning multiple variables with one SELECT works faster

  Yesterday MVP Aaron Bertran posted his "best practices checklist". http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2008/10/30/my-stored-procedure-best-practices-checklist.aspx Among other recommendations, he suggested that all assigments should be done Read More... Posted Friday, October 31, 2008 4:33 PM by Alexander Kuznetsov | 3 Comments

• Defensive database programming: qualifying column names.

  If you do not qualify columns in your query, which means that you do not specify from which tables your columns come, you may have problems if the database schema changes. For example, consider the following sample tables and a select query: CREATE TABLE Read More... Posted Saturday, October 25, 2008 2:51 PM by Alexander Kuznetsov | 12 Comments Filed under: SQL Server, Database Programming, Transact SQL, Defensive programming

• Defensive database programming: rewriting queries with NOT IN().

  The behavior of NOT IN clause may be confusing and as such it needs some explanations. Consider the following query: SELECT LastName, FirstName FROM Person.Contact WHERE LastName NOT IN('Hedlund', 'Holloway', NULL) Although there are more than a thousand Read More... Posted Tuesday, October 21, 2008 10:36 PM by Alexander Kuznetsov | 15 Comments Filed under: Database Programming, Transact SQL, Defensive programming

• Database Unit Testing: coverage reports

  Apparently test coverage reports are not available for Transact SQL development yet. Because they are very useful in C# development, I submitted a suggestion: https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=375333 Pls vote Read More... Posted Monday, October 13, 2008 3:37 PM by Alexander Kuznetsov | 1 Comments