Alexander Chigrik

Introduction SQL Server 6.5 SQL Server 7.0 Literature Introduction In this article I want to show how you can view the SQL Server transaction log for version 6.5 and for version 7.0. It’s not necessary to view the SQL Server transaction log, but if you are a DBA, it may be useful to resolve some […]

In this article I want to show, how you can copy a single text or image value into or out of SQL Server with textcopy.exe utility. You can find this utility in the directory containing the standard SQL Server EXE files (C:MssqlBinn by default for SQL Server 6.5 and C:Mssql7Binn by default for SQL Server […]

If you use OR logical operation to find rows from a MS SQL 6.5 table, and there is index on the field for which values you use OR operation, then MS SQL 6.5 can use worktable with dynamic index on searchable field instead simple index search. You can check it by setting SET SHOWPLAN ON. […]

To get the total row count in a table, we usually use the following select statement: SELECT count(*) FROM This query will perform full table scan to get the row count. You can check it by setting SET SHOWPLAN ON for SQL Server 6.5 or SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT ON for SQL Server 7.0. So, if the […]

General concepts Optimization tips Literature   General concepts In this article I want to show how you can improve the speed of your queries by choosing the proper indexes, what kinds of indexes MS SQL supports and what is the advantage and disadvantage of using indexes in particular situation. There are clustered and nonclustered indexes. […]

General concepts Checking necessary conditions Checking connect Example Literature   General concepts Replication is the process whereby data is copied between databases on the same server or different servers connected by LANs, WANs, or the Internet. Microsoft SQL Server replication uses a publish, distributor and subscribe metaphor. Publisher is the server or database that sends […]

Introduction Optimization tips Examples Literature Introduction In this article I want to show why it is important to know the data pages and the data rows structure and how you can use this knowledge for optimization purpose in MS SQL 6.5. You can use the following undocumented command to view the data pages structure (in […]

General concepts Example Literature General concepts There are five kinds of pages in MS SQL 6.5: Data pages Index pages Allocation pages Text/Image pages Distribution pages Now I want to tell you about how MS SQL 6.5 stores data rows on the data pages. This is the data row structure: Mandatory Optional Variable fields count […]

General concepts Examples Discounts data page structure After delete After insert Literature General concepts There are five kinds of pages in MS SQL 6.5: Data pages Index pages Allocation pages Text/Image pages Distribution pages In this article I want to tell you about data page structure in MS SQL 6.5. The size of the data […]

Introduction Direct update Deferred update Literature Introduction There are two update modes in MS SQL 7.0:     – Direct update     – Deferred update In comparison with MS SQL 6.5, MS SQL 7.0 uses In-place update method with Direct update modes more frequently. It because Nullable fields with fixed length are kept with […]

General concepts Restrictions Example Literature   General concepts Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 allow you to validate data for transactional replication. You can specify rowcount only validation (the default) or full checksum validation of the article data. The process of checking replication includes the following steps: number of lines and checksum of the table of the […]