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[Focus]

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Best Practices for Mixed Authentication
Although Windows authentication provides more security, business or application requirements sometimes dictate the use of mixed authentication. If you work in a mixed- authentication environment, take these steps to secure your SQL server.
 — Geoff Craig


Protecting Your Payload
Well-written code, intrusion-detection systems, and traditional firewalls guard different aspects of your application systems. But how do you protect your data? Consider an SQL content firewall as your next security layer.
 — Ron Ben-Natan

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[Features]

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Inline Conditional Aggregation: One for All
For most simple aggregations, using GROUP BY with an aggregation function returns the information you need. Inline conditional aggregation uses CASE...END to return multiple aggregates from just one query.
 — Vikash K. Agarwal

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[SQL Server Savvy]

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Accessing a Named Instance with UDP Port 1434 Closed
Several attacks have exploited well-known vulnerabilities related to UDP port 1434, so having the option of keeping it closed is valuable.
 — Brian Moran


Counting Blank Spaces
The LEN() function will ignore trailing blanks, to count blank spaces, use the DATALENGTH() function instead.
 — Brian Moran


Registering the Same Instance Multiple Times
Registering the same physical instance of SQL Server more than once might be convenient sometimes.
 — Brian Moran


Using Datetime Columns as Primary Keys
SQL Server can't differentiate between datetime values that are within a narrow range--you must never use a datetime column as a primary key in SQL Server.
 — Brian Moran


Why Do Similar Queries Have Different Execution Plans?
When seemingly similar, or identical queries perform differently you need to compare the queries' execution plans to solve the mystery.
 — Brian Moran

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[Editorial]

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Doing More with Less
SQL Server provides a host of useful features that many customers aren’t taking advantage of. And when you need to do more with less, that’s almost as good as money in the bank.
 — Michael Otey

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[SQL Seven]

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Reporting Services
SQL Server Reporting Services, set for release by the end of the year, will fill the only hole in the SQL Server product--the lack of a built-in reporting component. Here are Reporting Services' seven most important features.
 — Michael Otey

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[Inside SQL Server]

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Track Down Troublemakers
Locks prevent processes from simultaneously modifying data. But if a process holds a lock too long, it blocks other processes. The sysprocesses table can help you track down troublemaker processes so that you can get your queries running smoothly again.
 — Kalen Delaney

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[Mastering Analysis]

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Member-Properties Boot Camp
Member properties let you store additional information about dimension members, but they can do much more. Are you getting all you can from your member properties? Here are 10 ways to pump up member-property effectiveness.
 — Russ Whitney

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[T-SQL Black Belt]

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Survive the (Relational) Divide
If you think relational division is the answer to a programming challenge, set-based solutions might work--unless the data set is too large. Here are a few alternatives.
 — Itzik Ben-Gan

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[Answers from Microsoft]

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Deleting Multiple Records
Learn how to delete multiple records from a table by using a view as the filter.
 — Microsoft's SQL Server Development Team


Using a Stored Procedure in a CASE Expression
You can't execute a stored procedure from a CASE expression, but you can use CASE to return a character string that you can use in the execution of the stored procedure.
 — Microsoft's SQL Server Development Team

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[Exploring XML]

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XML Query Results in .NET
XML views let you produce an XML query result from your database, but ADO.NET's DataSet and XMLDataDocument classes also provide this functionality--and more.
 — Rich Rollman

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[Letters]

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Letters, August 2003
Readers write in about when the Simple Recovery model is appropriate and OLAP's compelling performance advantages over relational reporting.
 — Various Authors

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[New Products]

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New Products, August 2003
Check out the latest SQL Server-related new and improved products.
 — Carolyn Mader