A Microsoft SQL Server community of 1,781,951 DBAs, developers and SQL Server users

Understanding execution plans is a good basic skill for all DBA's and SQL developers. Darren White gives us an overview of what execution plans are in SQL Server and how they are used.  Read more...

You have a reporting requirement where a user has two or more parameters for a single report, but the values for one parameter depend on the values chosen in a previous parameter. Ghanesh Prasad explains how to create cascaded parameters in SQL Server Reporting Services to solve this issue.  Read more...

SQL Saturdau is coming to Tampa on February 28, 2015. This is a free training event for those wanting to learn about SQL Server. Register while space is available.  Read more...

SSRS includes multiple functions that can be used in within an expression. This article hopes to just show an example of how to use the IsNothing function in an SSRS report.  Read more...

SQL Bits is Europe's largest SQL Server conference. They have experts teaching beginners, and beginners questioning experts, providing feedback and improving the event every year. Register with the code SSC-HERO to get a 15% discount on the ticket price!  Read more...

What better way to learn how to construct complex CHECK CONSTRAINTs, use the SQL 2012 window frame capability of the OVER clause and LEAD analytic function, as well as how to pivot rows into columns using a crosstab query? Create the SQL code to score Ten-pin Bowling, of course. Dwain Camps explains the how, what and why.  Read more...

In Level 5 of this stairway, we help you understand and deploy a Failover Cluster Instance (FCI).  Read more...

Resilient T-SQL code is code that is designed to last, and to be safely reused by others. The goal of defensive database programming, the goal of this book, is to help you to produce resilient T-SQL code that robustly and gracefully handles cases of unintended use, and is resilient to common changes to the database environment.  Read more...

SQL Server’s GROUP BY clause provides you a way to aggregate your SQL Server data and to group data on a single column, multiple columns, or even expressions. Greg Larsen discusses how to use the GROUP by clause to summarize your data.  Read more...

If you are still on the edge about PowerPivot and have not given it a shot, this article will get you started with ample of screen shots and a step-by-step guide.   Read more...