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Byte Me: Plugged in

Bob Lang from SQLServerCentral.com

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

How to track every change to your SQL Server database

See who’s changing your database, alongside affected objects, date, time, and reason for the change with SQL Source Control. Get a full change history in your source control system. Learn more.

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The SQL Toolbelt lets you reduce the time spent on SQL Server development and administration. Cambridge University developer David Spaxman, for example, says: “I’m saving 10-12 hours a week using the SQL Toolbelt.” Learn how you can double your productivity, speed up deployments and protect your data. Download a free trial.

SQL Clone – create database copies fast!

Create copies of production databases and SQL backups in seconds and save up to 99% of disk space using SQL Clone. Redgate’s new tool removes much of the time and resource needed to create and manage database copies, allowing teams to work on local environments to develop, test and diagnose issues faster. Join the beta.

Featured Contents

Stairway to Biml Level 6 - Programming with Metadata

Reeves Smith from SQLServerCentral.com

In this next level of the Stairway to Biml, learn how metadata makes your Biml code more efficient and helpful in generating packages. More »

Free eBook: Fundamentals of SQL Server 2012 Replication

Press Release from Redgate

Fundamentals of SQL Server 2012 Replication provides a hands-on introduction to SQL Server replication. The book introduces you to the technologies that make up replication, and then walks you through setting up different replication scenarios. When you've finished reading, you should be able to implement your own multi-server replication setup while following the principle of least privilege. More »

Find and Remove Duplicate Rows from a SQL Server Table

Additional Articles from MSSQLTips.com

Though duplicate rows are bad practice, sometimes they're necessary for a short time. But how do you clean your tables when they're no longer needed? Sergey Gigoyan provides a few different solutions. More »

From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - Stored Procedures Are Not Faster Than Views

Grant Fritchey from SQLServerCentral Blogs

A performance tuning tip I saw recently said, “Views don’t perform as well as stored procedures.” <sigh> Let’s break this down, just... More »

Question of the Day

Today's Question (by Steve Jones):

I want to export the results of this query in my database:

 SELECT * FROM dbo.Customers WHERE Active = 1

I decide to use sqlcmd to query the database and export the results to the file, customers.txt. What command should I use to export data and immediately exit sqlcmd?

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

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This question is worth 1 point in this category: SQLCMD.

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Training Kit (Exam 70-463) Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012

The Exam 70-463 Training Kit for Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 helps maximize your performance on the exam by learning how to design and implement a data warehouse, develop and enhance SQL Server Integration Services packages, manage and maintain SQL Server Integration Services packages, build data quality solutions, implement custom code in SQL Server Integration Services packages. Get Your Copy Today

Yesterday's Question of the Day

Yesterday's Question (by Junior Galvão - MVP):

Introduced in Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP2, DBCC CloneDatabase aims to allow the investigation of performance problems in a query. This DBCC command has some usage restrictions. What are they?

Answer: The source database must be a user database, cloning of system databases (master, model, msdb, tempdb, distribution database etc.) isn't allowed, the source database must be online or readable, a database that uses the same name as the clone database must not already exist and the command isn't in a user transaction.

Explanation:

Answer: The source database must be a user database, cloning of system databases (master, model, msdb, tempdb, distribution database etc.) isn't allowed, the source database must be online or readable,
a database that uses the same name as the clone database must not already exist and The command isn't in a user transaction.

Explanation: This update introduces a new management command DBCC CLONEDATABASE (Transact-SQL) in Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 2. This command creates a new database that contains the schema of all the objects and statistics from the specified source database.

References: How to use DBCC CLONEDATABASE to generate a schema and statistics only copy of a user database in SQL Server 2014 SP2 - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3177838

» Discuss this question and answer on the forums

Featured Script

Build restore scripts dynamically

Brian R.A. Smith from SQLServerCentral.com

Save this script on each SQL instance to be restored, and open it in Management Studio. Set the @BackupPath variable to the parent folder where the server's backup files exist, run the script, and copy the output results to a new query window. You can then either run the entire script at once, or restore each database individually.

Database Pros Who Need Your Help

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