Jeff Smith Blog

Random Thoughts & Cartesian Products with Microsoft SQL Server

Log Buffer #98

Hello and welcome to the 98th edition of Log Buffer. My name is Jeff Smith and I will hosting this week's exciting episode. If, for some reason, you are not completely satisfied with this edition, simply write in and complain to Dave over at The Pythian Group and you will receive Log Buffer #99 absolutely free! Read more →

More on GROUP BY; Examining SUM(Distinct)

I've written a two part article on using SQL GROUP BY clauses over at SQLTeam.com. It's always a common topic of discussion and confusion amongst beginner and intermediate SQL programmers alike, so I thought I'd write a fairly long and hopefully comprehensive piece that takes a common summary report request and works towards the solution step-by-step. Read more →

Using LINQ with SQL (link)

There's a great series of posts over at Scott Guthrie's Blog covering LINQ, a new feature in the upcoming version of Visual Studio ("Orcas"). Check it out; I have not had a chance to play around with it yet, but it certainly looks very interesting. Read more →

Slightly more dynamic ORDER BY in SQL Server 2005

There's a very interesting way of handling complicated, multi-column dynamic sorts over at john-sheenan.com. I am not sure about the efficiency of this approach, but in general dynamic sorting tends not to be very efficient anyway (unless you use dynamically-created SQL statements). Read more →

Have you seen Joe's "Blog" Yet?

I just discovered Joe Celko's weblog; it is really entertaining, at least the 5-6 posts I've read so far! It seems the "blog" is actually just a collection of questions and Celko's rather, umm, "honest" responses from various newsgroups and forums. Read more →

Unique Passwords?

Today's article at WorseThanFailure.com is one that the SQL Server community might find enjoyable.  I may try to implement something similar in my next project …. or, maybe not! Read more →

A true MVP

Congratulations to our good friend Alex Papadimoulis over at the asp.net weblogs on his Microsoft MVP award. Well-earned!   Read more →