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Jerry Dixon

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Do you love XML? Have you been using XML with SQL Server? Many people have, starting way back when with SQL Server 7.0. Back then, there was no support for XML in the database, so we had to write external programs to convert the relational data into an XML format. This was time-consuming and often inefficient. When SQL Server 2000 came out, with its integrated support for XML, there were a lot of high expectations. Unfortunately, XML still couldn't be easily stored in the database, although it could be created and consumed. XML could be stored in the database as a large string of text, but this was problematic at best. Large VARCHAR and TEXT strings are hard to manipulate. This worked, though, and programmers managed to create great systems. Still, something more was ne... (more)

SQL Server 2005 Service Broker

In today's complex and demanding environments, it is quite common for users to be able to submit requests faster than those requests can be processed. In some situations, this is because the system has an enormous number of users. In other situations, it is because the requests take a long time to process. In both cases, the system needs to be designed so that it can accept the requests ... (more)

Hot-Swappable Objects

Like many of you, I have been using .NET since before it was officially released. Even now, after years of using the product, I am still impressed by its incredibly flexible nature. When using the classes in the .NET framework, there are usually half a dozen ways of performing the task at hand. While this does tend to make learning the framework a bit of a chore, it seems to pay off time... (more)

T-SQL Grows Up

Have you ever heard the expression "I want it so bad that I can taste it?" Well, that's the way I feel about SQL Server 2005. I've been looking forward to the official release for quite some time. When people ask me why, I usually say "SELECT TOP X." In addition to generating some funny looks, this response gets my point across rather nicely. The next version of SQL Server supports many ... (more)

A Point of Order: Organize Your Data with SQL Ranking Functions

Sequential numbers. Sooner or later, you'll find a process that requires you to generate a series of sequential numbers. As a matter of fact, most database engines provide at least one method of producing such numbers. Microsoft Access, for example, has AutoNumber columns, while SQL Server has IDENTITY columns. However, these are features of tables. There are times when you need some seq... (more)