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Sat, Dec 5 2009 21:32

Dangers of BEGIN and END

I’ve presented this material at three conferences recently, so it’s about time I wrote a blog post on it... As programmers, we love modularisation – even in the SQL space. We make stored procedures, views, and functions to encapsulate our code. This improves...
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Wed, Sep 30 2009 23:50

A busy month – a new book, a new car, a new phone

I don’t know why Septembers are always busy. This one feels like it’s been interesting, and I’m not sure life will be the same again. But first, some of the biggest news – the book that I wrote a couple of chapters for is now available...
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Thu, Jul 16 2009 21:55

Four speaking engagements coming up

I’m just going to list them… This Saturday (July 18th), at Code Camp SA . I’m going to be talking about functions in SQL, particularly those that involve BEGIN and END. At the end of the month, at the ACS Branch Conference . I’m going to be part of a...
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Wed, Jul 1 2009 13:23

Big events every month this quarter

A new Financial Year in Australia, and a bunch of technical events coming up. Of course there’s the usual monthly user groups , but there’s more – particularly if you’re in Adelaide. July sees CodeCampSA in Adelaide on the weekend of July 18/19. I’ve...
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Sat, Dec 6 2008 8:19

GO - repeating batches

GO is very cool. More so than you might think, and in a couple of interesting ways. This is the 6th tip from my TechEd Australia talk, from which you can see my slides and scripts in other posts. In SQL Server, GO is the traditional batch separator. But...
Posted by Rob Farley | 2 comment(s)
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Sun, Nov 16 2008 22:05

Ordered data requires ORDER BY

When you select data out of a database table, it might seem as if the system will give you data in the order of the clustered index that is on that table (assuming it has one), but this isn't quite right. I showed this in the fifth of my T-SQL tips...
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Sun, Nov 9 2008 17:16

Unique Indexes with GROUP BY

Indexes are great, but if you don't understand the significance of unique indexes, then you're potentially missing out on some decent performance gains. I've been meaning to write this blog post for a long time. This is material that I've...
Posted by Rob Farley | 2 comment(s)
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Sun, Nov 9 2008 9:50

JOIN simplification in SQL Server

This is another of my tips/techniques that I demonstrated recently. It is not a new SQL Server 2008 feature - it works just fine in older versions - I demonstrated it running on SQL Server 2005 but using SQL Server 2008 Management Studio. [Note: It's...
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Sun, Oct 12 2008 12:24

Doing the maths to understand SQL optimiser choices

The second of my tips from my talk ( slides and scripts available) was about doing the maths to understand why the SQL Server optimiser behaves in the way that it does - particularly in relation to choosing whether to scan an index/heap, or whether to...
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Sat, Oct 4 2008 11:08

OUTPUT clause - knowing what goes in, and what you've accidentally taken out

The OUTPUT clause has to be one of the best T-SQL features out there. It was new in SQL Server 2005, but it's still remarkably little known. I guess like many of the features that were introduced in SQL 2005, many people just make do with the way...
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Thu, Sep 18 2008 14:46

Improving Your T-SQL Arsenal - slides

I've given this presentation a couple of times at user-groups now - last week in Adelaide, and this week in Melbourne. I posted the scripts to my blog recently, making them available to people who heard this talk at TechEd Australia at the start of...
Posted by Rob Farley | 1 comment(s)
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Wed, Sep 3 2008 7:49

DAT283

TechEd AU this week. I'm giving a talk on "T-SQL Tips n Techniques: Improving Your T-SQL Arsenal" on Friday morning. The slides are available from CommNet for people registered, but the scripts are here as well. Come along to the talk to...
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Thu, Aug 7 2008 23:13

UNICEF Australia project at TechEd

It was unfortunate news when I heard that the UNICEF Australia site was hacked a little while ago. An old colleague of mine called me to let me know, and to ask if I knew anyone who could help them out. I used to work at a hosting company with this guy...
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Fri, Aug 17 2007 20:47

Thoughts on TechEd

I enjoy TechEd . It's always good fun. Last week was my fourth TechEd, having attended for the past three years, plus in '99. The last three years have seen my involvement increase each time. Last year I proctored with the Hands-On Labs, and this...
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Wed, Aug 8 2007 17:08

Bloggers' Lunch at TechEd AU

TechEd is always a great event. Today I've helped with an Instructor-Led Lab on Report Builder, attended a few sessions, helped plenty of people with questions, and participated in the Bloggers' Lunch. This was a panel that Frank Arrigo hosted...
Posted by Rob Farley | 2 comment(s)
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Sat, Jul 21 2007 21:32

Code Camps galore

We all know that Adelaide hosted Code Camp SA recently - it was a great success, and some people even wished I was there ! TechEd is coming up of course, but now there are two code camps scheduled for October, on the same weekend (13-14) and at the same...
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Fri, Jul 20 2007 16:44

TechEd slides uploaded

I should've posted that I was confirmed as a speaker at this year's TechEd Australia. It's in just over two weeks' time - August 7-10. Today I uploaded my slide deck, so that delegates may be able to download the slides before they come...
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Tue, Jul 3 2007 19:23

How to find TechEd Australia 2007 in a search tool

This is just hilarious, but kinda sad for Microsoft. I was in a class, and asked who amongst the students were going to TechEd this year. I had a couple of strange looks, so I pulled up Internet Explorer and went to search for the event site. Knowing...
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