When you select data out of a database table, it might seem as if the system will give you data in the order of the clustered index that is on that table (assuming it has one), but this isn't quite right. I showed this in the fifth of my T-SQL tips at TechEd Australia this year. If you don't explicitly order data using the ORDER BY ...

Ok, so real database developers don't use the graphical "Design Query in Editor"... yeah, I know. Sure, there's the odd time when you're typing a query and you don't have an Object Explorer (eg, in SSIS) and a moment of weakness sees you hit "Build Query" to save some typing, but in general I encourage people to ...

The hairy Irishman (his description - I just call him Sacha) is presenting to the Adelaide SQL Server User Group today, talking about improvements in SQL Server 2008 Integration Services. Right now he's talking about the No Match output of the Lookup Component, and I'm wondering why I had always just accepted that in SQL 2005, rows that ...