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[Focus]

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Securing Your SQL Server Environment
Locking down your database environment can be a difficult task, but it doesn’t have to be. Learn how to protect your databases by using service accounts and encryption to secure your database files and network.
 — William Sheldon

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[Features]

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Enforce Multitable Constraints Using Indexed Views
If you need to enforce business rules on multiple tables, try indexed views, which let you join tables and enforce uniqueness on the result set.
 — Aviv Zucker


Pivoting the Dynamic Way
The PIVOT statement is a great tool for presenting data in an easy-to-read format, but it has one key limitation: You must know about and include all the column names in the PIVOT query. You can work around this limitation with dynamic pivoting.
 — Mitchel Sellers

SQL Server Reporting Services Questions Answered
Use these techniques and sample reports to get answers to your most frequently asked reporting questions.
 — Tyler Chessman

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[Editorial]

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The Inevitable Virtualization of SQL Server
Improvements in performance and scalability in ESX Server and Hyper-V are making SQL Server a viable candidate for virtualization.
 — Michael Otey

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[Reader to Reader]

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Simple String Encryption and Decryption
In SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2005, one of the easiest ways to encrypt and decrypt strings is to use T-SQL's ENCRYPTBYPASSPHRASE and DECRYPTBYPASSPHRASE functions.
 — Eli Leiba

T-SQL Statement Tracks Transaction-Less Dates
A DBA was asked to produce a list of dates in which there were no transactions from a database that included only the dates in which there were transactions. Here's how he pulled it off.
 — Saravanan Radhakrishnan

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[T-SQL Black Belt]

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Calculating Concurrent Sessions, Part 1
Itzik discusses a set-based and a cursor-based solution to a T-SQL concurrent sessions querying problem, as well as the performance and scaling ramifications of both solutions.
 — Itzik Ben-Gan

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[SELECT TOP(X)]

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7 Facts About SQL Azure
Get the basics on SQL Azure, formerly SQL Data Services, Microsoft’s SQL Server-based database cloud offering.
 — Michael Otey

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[Tool Time with Kevin Kline]

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Database Growth Tracker
Track database growth across multiple SQL Server instances using this CLR stored procedure.
 — Kevin Kline

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[PTO for the Rest of Us]

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Time to Defrag Your Indexes?
When is the right time to defrag? Ultimately, the answer is up to you, but keep these considerations in mind.
 — Andrew J. Kelly