Hi Jonny I don't have it on my current computer, it might be on an old backup somewhere. But I am out of the office for 5 weeks, so I won't be able to look around until I get back. Thanks Kalen

Hi Munish I'm not sure what you mean by the second update transaction. I just ran my code on SQL2008R2SP2 and got the same results as above. ~Kalen

  I just started using a new DMV (one that’s actually an ‘F’ not a ‘V’, as in Function) that gives us more info about distribution statistics. It returns info about the last statistics update date (which is also available with a function STATS_DATE()). It also provides the number of rows sampled when the statistics were last updated. This is ...

Hi Aaron... I was only intending to focus on MY grammar sins; heaven forbid I should use my blog to cast stones at anyone else,. ;-)

Those of you who know me well know that I am usually a stickler for spelling, grammar and proper word usage. I may have even lost a few friends because of what some people see as obsession. I am not infallible, and I do make typos, but I like to try to correct them if possible as soon as I discover them (or as soon as they are brought to my ...

Aack! I thought about this long and hard, but I admit, I didn't try looking it up. I thought the change happened before XML plans were introduced, which was in 2005. And I think it's an awesome change too... when I said in the post that I have come to appreciate it, I meant that I REALLY love it!   Thanks Adam....

I remember one of the most surprising changes in SQL Server 2000 2005 was how the graphical plans showed the use of a nonclustered index to seek, and the plan included something that looked like a JOIN to find rows in the base table.  Here’s an example. Although I used SQL Server 2008R2, the graphical plan will be pretty similar to what it ...

Thanks sfibich... I actually just found out about the new DMV when this issue of programmatically accessing stats info was being discussed on a private forum. Someone asked why we couldn't use sys.dm_db_stats_properties, and that was the first time I saw it! But as you say, it doesn't have everything. Thanks again Kalen

Distribution statistics are one of the most important sources of information that the Query Optimizer uses to determine a good query plan. In this post, I’m not going to tell you everything about distribution statistics. I’m just going to show you a few tricks for getting access to the statistics. If you want a deeper understanding of what the ...

Thanks William!