Everyone has their favorite DBMS, is your favorite one of the top databases? Though some non-relational products have entered the top ten,

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What are the Top Ten Databases?

There is more to being a Junior DBA than knowing SQL.  The DBA works at the intersection of the database, server, operations

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Ten Things a Junior DBA Should Learn

What is a Database Trigger? A SQL trigger is special stored procedure that is run when specific actions occur within a database. 

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What is a SQL Trigger?

Both TOP and OFFSET & FETCH can be used to limit the number of rows returned.  OFFSET and FETCH can return similar

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What is the Difference between TOP and OFFSET & Fetch?

Its is easy to get confused between inner join vs outer join clauses. Both inner and outer joins are used to combine

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Inner Join vs Outer Join Clauses

Primary Key vs Unique Key. It really not about one or the other. You actually may need both a primary key and

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Primary Key vs Unique Key – What is the Difference?

A reader recently asked me to help them solve a problem combining data from multiple tables into a single result.  What was

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Is it possible to use Joins, Subqueries, and Unions on Multiple Tables?

Use joins and UNIONS to combine data from two or more tables.  Read this article to find out each command’s strengths and

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What Is the Difference Between a Join and a UNION?

In SQL Server there are a couple a ways you can delete rows from a table.   You can use the TRUNCATE and DELETE

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What is the Difference between TRUNCATE and DELETE?

Table of contentsWhat are the ACID Database Properties?What’s an Example of ACID Properties? What are the ACID Database Properties? The ACID properties

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SQL ACID Database Properties Explained

When modifying one table based on the contents of another it may be tempting to simply use the merge statement, but before

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What is the Difference Between Merge and Update?

I’m commonly asked whether whether I can have a CASE Statement in the WHERE Clause. There are a number of examples using

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Can I have a CASE Statement in the WHERE Clause?

This article is inspired by a series of questions that one of my readers, Nan, recently sent me regarding SQL DISTINCT, TOP,

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SQL DISTINCT and TOP in Same Query

Sort Alphanumeric Values with SQL Server Recently a reader asked me how to sort an alpha numeric field in SQL in natural

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Use SQL Server to Sort Alphanumeric Values

What is a Null Value? In databases a common issue is what value or placeholder do you use to represent a missing

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What is a Database NULL Value?

A database index allows a query to efficiently retrieve data from a database.  Indexes are related to specific tables and consist of

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Database Indexes Explained

A relational database is made up of several components, of which the table is most significant.  The database table is where all

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What is a Database Table?

The main objective of a database management system is to store, retrieve, and process data.  In order to do this in a

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Database Management System Main Parts

A SQL database is used to store and retrieve data.  The database is housed in a database server and largely controlled by

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What are the Major Part of a SQL DB?