December 2012 - Posts

• The SQL Query Optimizer – when Logical Order can get it wrong

  It’s very easy to get in the habit of imagining the way that a query should work based on the Logical Order of query processing – the idea that the FROM clause gets evaluated first, followed by the WHERE clause, GROUP BY, and so on – finally ending with Read More... Posted Sunday, December 30, 2012 4:32 PM by Rob Farley | 12 Comments Filed under: indexing, performance, sql

• Portfolio changeover time for the PASS board

  The last PASS board meeting for the year has happened, and the portfolio handovers are well under way. Sadly, having new board members elected means having existing board members step down, and this last board meeting was the last one for both Allen Kinsel Read More... Posted Friday, December 28, 2012 4:13 PM by Rob Farley | 1 Comments Filed under: 24hop, community, sql saturday, sqlpass

• SQL Replication demystified

  I spent some time explaining SQL Server Replication to someone recently. They said they hadn’t ever really understood the concepts, and that I’d managed to help. It’s inspired me to write a post that I wouldn’t normally do – a “101” post. I’m not trying Read More... Posted Wednesday, December 26, 2012 12:34 PM by Rob Farley | 13 Comments Filed under: sql

• The MCM lab exam – two days later

  Readers of my blog , or followers on Twitter will know I took the MCM Lab exam a couple of days ago. I let people know I was doing the exam, rather than doing the ‘normal’ thing of doing it in secret and hoping no-one found out until a successful result Read More... Posted Sunday, December 23, 2012 7:59 AM by Rob Farley | 11 Comments Filed under: professional development, sql

• MCM Lab exam this week

  In two days I’ll’ve finished the MCM Lab exam, 88-971. If you do an internet search for 88-971 , it’ll tell you the answer is –883. Obviously. It’ll also give you a link to the actual exam page , which is useful too, once you’ve finished being distracted Read More... Posted Tuesday, December 18, 2012 6:55 PM by Rob Farley | 6 Comments Filed under: professional development, sql

• Joins in single-table queries

  Tables are only metadata. They don’t store data. I’ve written something about this before, but I want to take a viewpoint of this idea around the topic of joins, especially since it’s the topic for T-SQL Tuesday this month. Hosted this time by Sebastian Read More... Posted Tuesday, December 11, 2012 11:05 AM by Rob Farley | 4 Comments Filed under: indexing, sql, t-sql tuesday