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

SSRS : Changing how a date and time is displayed to UK
(dd/mm/yyyy) format

SSRS may not display dates and times in the format you want. Fortunately if you want to set an explicit format (such as dd/mm/yyyy) for a field on a report then it’s straightforward to do this, without using any code or expressions. In this tip I’ll show how to set this up for an example report.

Featured Script

Checking For Unused Database Files

It's useful to periodically check if there are any old database files that can be deleted from a SQL Server. Usually database files will be deleted along with the database, however this is not always the case. This script will identify unused files.

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