I have volunteered in the Hour of CodeTM for the second time this year. This year and last I went to 2 schools and worked with elementary school children on the basics of code.
Year: 2016
Using T-SQL to Insert, Update, Delete Millions of Rows
Challenges of Large Scale DML using T-SQL
Using T-SQL to insert, update, or delete large amounts of data from a table will results in some unexpected difficulties if you’ve never taken it to task.
Let’s say you have a table in which you want to delete millions of records. If the goal was to remove all then we could simply use TRUNCATE. However, if we want to remove records which meet some certain criteria then executing something like this will cause more trouble that it is worth.
Why not run the following in a production environment?
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DELETE FROM myTable WHERE columnA = 'whatever'; |
- Transaction log growth – expect a large transaction like this to cause the transaction log to expand. Calls to expand the database files are some of the most expensive operations SQL Server makes to the OS. Hopefully the initial sizing was good and the growth settings are reasonable.
- Blocking – concurrency is going to increase the likelihood of lock escalation. That will lead to the possibility of excessive blocking.
- Rollbacks – if the SPID is killed then the transaction will enter a rollback state. For very large transactions this can take a lot of time. Don’t even think about killing or stopping SQL Services during a rollback unless you want a corrupt database!
What can we do to improve this?
We follow an important maxim of computer science – break large problems down into smaller problems and solve them.
We break up the transaction into smaller batches to get the job done. Each of the above points can be relived in this manner. Let’s take a look at some examples.
SQL Server 2005 – The End of an Era
This year marks the end of life for Microsoft SQL Server 2005. Remember Query Analyzer? Enterprise Manager? In the dark times before BIDS and the Visual Studio shell we called Management Studio emerged, we had to manage and develop the database using a crude form of an MMC snap-in and a text editor whose power rivaled that of WordPad.
SQL Saturday – Charlotte
I made the journey to Charlotte for SQL Saturday this year. It was a solid event with good attendance, interesting speakers and topics, and in a nice facility.
Snowden Movie – Powerful with Lingering Questions
On Wednesday I attended an early screening of Oliver Stone’s Snowden. After the movie was a live interview with director Oliver Stone,
, Shailene Woodley, and Edward Snowden. Aside from it being a great movie I want to discuss the themes and thoughts it leaves the viewer.From a technology standpoint there are some very important points in the movie to consider.