Recent Blogs and Articles

Welcome to SQL Matters

SQL Matters is a resource for SQL Server Developers, Architects, DBAs and others interested in SQL Server and related technologies . Our site contains a wide range of articles, tips, blogs, quiz questions and other information about the SQL Server range of products. This includes Integration Services (SSIS), Reporting Services (SSRS), Analysis Services (SSAS) and some other products that we feel might be of interest to the SQL Server community such as PowerPivot and Report Builder.

Here are some examples of technical information that you might be interested in :

Featured Tip

Searching a string for the last occurrence of a given string

CHARINDEX provides an easy way to search for the first occurrence of a string in another string. By reversing the order of the string it can also provide a straightforward way of finding the last occurrence of a string. This can be used in conjunction with the RIGHT function to extract the part of a string that is after the last occurrence of a given delimiter

Featured Script

Checking for unused indexes

SQL Server provides a lot of information in the Data Management Views (DMVs). This script shows how to identify indexes which are never actually used, by using DMVs such as dm_db_index_usage_stats and dm_db_index_operational_stats.

Quick Quiz : DATALENGTH results

What is the result of the following SQL query ?
DECLARE @MyStr NVARCHAR (100)
SET @MyStr = 'ABC'
SELECT DATALENGTH(@MyStr)
Choose one : a) 3    b) 6    c) 50    d) 100