The question for today: if we have three queries – one which takes 1 second to run, one which takes 2 seconds to run, and one which takes 3 seconds to run – how long will it take to return data for the first and last query if they all start at the same time? […]
Whilst we have front-end code which requires faster response times, there are also times we build code with the purpose of running for extended periods of time. Examples of this could be maintenance routine, or custom built queuing mechanisms. The way in which we design longer running processes like this can be key when it […]
We’ve previously looked at how to implement vertical partitioning and the benefits it can bring within our data. Here I’d like to dive a little further into improving the performance even further with a couple of modifications to our schema. We’ll use the same setup as we had previously to create the table, populate it and partition it. This results in […]
We recently looked at implementing vertical partitioning on a set of data. In an earlier introduction post we also mentioned the benefits which can be seen as a result of the partitioning in both our maintenance and querying of the data. Here we’ll take a look at those benefits with a little more evidence. We’ll be using the data […]
We previously looked at an introduction to Vertical Partitioning where we covered what it is and the potential benefits and drawbacks of using it. Here I wanted to build up some data and show how we may vertically partition it to help make it more manageable for us. So that we’ve got some relevant data to use […]
When dealing with large volumes of data in SQL Server we may need to look for strategies to make querying and managing the data easier to handle. A few months back we looked at an approach where we partitioned our data into multiple segments by applying partition functions and schemes to our tables. This helps […]
In the previous post we looked at how to use the CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY operators as alternative to a JOIN in queries with some examples. As we wrapped that up I also mentioned that there can be drawbacks to using APPLY in our queries, particularly when we’re working with large data sets. The issue is due to the way that the right hand […]
Back in our introduction to partitioning I’d mentioned that using partitions can also bring us benefits in terms of performance. That performance comes in the way of partition elimination with our queries. Before we get started let’s set the stage with a sample table and one million records of data which we’ve used before: What is partition elimination Partition […]
Continuing with our recent theme of partitioning I wanted to make sure that we looked at one of my personal favourite features – Partition Switching. Partition Switching is the ability to switch an entire partition of data from one table to another almost instantly. Where it gets interesting is that this is the same operation […]
Last time out, following up to our posts looking at an introduction to partitioning and how to implement it we started to look at how to manage partitions. In this post we’ll continue that theme by looking at how we’d go about removing (or merging) partitions as well as covering some general considerations when we’re performing operations on partitions and […]
Andy Brownsword 