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• 2 + 2 = ?

  As a concise example of the evils of type coercion I came up with the following: INSERT INTO t VALUES ( CAST(2 AS INT), CAST(2 AS INT)); SELECT CASE WHEN x + z = 4 THEN '4' ELSE 'NOT 4' END xPLUSz FROM t; Result: xPLUSz ------ NOT 4 It is left as an exercise Read More... Posted 26 August 2009 21:02 by David.Portas | 3 Comments Filed under: SQL, Data

• The Relational Model turns 40

  The Relational Data Model is 40 years old. Edgar Codd first described the idea that databases could be constructed from mathematical relations in an internal IBM Research report in August 1969. The following year his more famous paper on the same topic Read More... Posted 18 August 2009 22:55 by David.Portas | 3 Comments Filed under: Cloud, SQL, Data

• UPDATE FROM the Sybase code museum

  UPDATE FROM is dead … or it should be. Hugo Kornelis has done a good job of explaining why. Apart from a badly thought out and non-portable syntax, UPDATE FROM suffers a notorious bug/feature. I say “notorious” but it’s probably not notorious enough because Read More... Posted 24 June 2009 22:57 by David.Portas | 0 Comments Filed under: SQL, SQL Server

• DB2 9.7 and Database Type Safety

  DB2 has some new features that are aimed at customers who want to transition from Oracle to DB2: http://www-05.ibm.com/ch/events/symposium/pdf/9_M_Obrecht_IBM_Symposium_2009.pdf IBM are emphasising the improved snapshot isolation, PL/SQL support and packages Read More... Posted 24 June 2009 22:01 by David.Portas | 1 Comments Filed under: SQL

• SQL Server 2008 - Why I'm not waiting for SP1!

  Whether and when to upgrade to SQL Server 2008? It seems that there is still a school of thought that the release version of a product is not to be trusted and that the best policy is to "wait for SP1". Now this has never made much sense to Read More... Posted 21 November 2008 16:31 by David.Portas | 1 Comments

• SQL Server 2008 RTM

  SQL Server 2008 is out! All editions are on MSDN now except for Express, which should hopefully follow soon. Enjoy! Read More... Posted 06 August 2008 19:29 by David.Portas | 1 Comments Filed under: SQL Server, SQL Server 2008, Katmai

• Update on T-SQL MERGE

  The MERGE syntax I used here has changed. In 2008 RC0 the "WHEN SOURCE NOT MATCHED" clause is replaced with "WHEN NOT MATCHED BY SOURCE" which is supposed to make the meaning clearer. Although MERGE is part of standard SQL 2003 it's worth noting that Read More... Posted 09 June 2008 18:21 by David.Portas | 0 Comments Filed under: SQL, SQL Server, SQL Server 2008, Katmai

• SQL Server 2008 RC0

  SQL Server 2008 Release Candidate 0 (build 10.0.1442.32) was released to MSDN and TechNet subscribers on Friday. It should be available to everyone else very soon via the Connect site. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx Read More... Posted 09 June 2008 17:50 by David.Portas | 2 Comments Filed under: SQL Server, SQL Server 2008, Katmai

• Not the model, Bill

  According to InfoWorld , Bill Gates thinks that declarative modelling of business logic has not caught on because of "weak models". This is a surprise. E.F.Codd's earliest papers on the Relational Model described a relational calculus for Read More... Posted 12 February 2008 22:27 by David.Portas | 1 Comments Filed under: SQL, Data, Data Modelling

• SQL Server 2008 November CTP

  CTP5 is available today! http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3BF4C5CA-B905-4EBC-8901-1D4C1D1DA884 Jamie has already blogged about some of the new goodies in CTP5, which include Intellisense for Management Studio. Also new in this Read More... Posted 19 November 2007 18:37 by David.Portas | 0 Comments Filed under: SQL Server, SQL Server 2008, Katmai