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T-SQL best practice SQL server

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SQL server T-SQL best practice

This month’s TSQL Tuesday party is being hosted by Amit Banerjee (Blog | Twitter).

He is working with Microsoft and see here his online activities MSDN. The topic this month is T-SQL best practice. It’s the both DBA and developers Topic/Job.

Transact SQL is the best tool to improve the SQL server overall performance. You write your code efficiently then you no need to spend lots of money to buy extra resources like hardware, RAM etc… So the coders/developers have to know the best practice.

He or She does a good job (writing correct codes) then, There is no work for the DBAs. There is lots of T-SQL best practice available on the Internet. Here I’m going to share mine. This are helpful some cases, but always test with your setup, since there are new versions and technology is coming.

T-SQL best practice

DOs and Don’Ts

  • Check/Validate your conditions out of the loop (While/If) statement.
  • Specify exact data type size

Ask the customer and specify the correct data type size what they really need.  Otherwise you will end up with a problem when your data grow larger.

E.X For inserting a 4 digit character don’t create CHAR (400) just create CHAR (4)

  • Always write a query using seek-able operator in your WHERE clause.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172984.aspx

  • Try to avoid Functions and date time functions when you write Quires i.e. Sproc .
  • Avoid an index hint

Use the index hint if you really know it’ll improve the performance otherwise avoid it.

SELECT * FROM emp  WITH (INDEX (ix_n)) WHERE n ='server'
  • Don’t create too many indexes.

Create the indexes it’s really useful otherwise don’t. I have seen a table has 5 non clustered indexes with mostly same column definitions for a particular table/SP and the table size is 4 GB and the index size are nearly 9 GB.

  • Don’t use wildcard characters at the beginning of the word
  • Always write seekable codes.
SELECT ID FROM <table_name> WHERE NAME LIKE '%kumar'

-- use below

SELECT ID FROM <table_name> WHERE NAME LIKE 'muthu%'

 

  • Use “order by” and “distinct” – sorting, really when there is a need.

If you have a doubt on that, you can test run the code with/without sorting, you come to know, how it perform well.

  • Normalize your tables

The best design will give the best performance. Normalize your tables before going to your project. I.e. my second point (Specify correct data type size etc…)

  • Try to write set based queries minimize iteration/Cursors as much as you can.

  • Use the batch statement if you’re going to delete a huge number of records from the table.

Write a batch statement if you’re going to delete huge records it’ll minimize the log file size. Most importantly inform to the DBA team before going to delete otherwise we will get a call from a customer the DB was down 🙂

  • Use ANSI-Standard Join clauses instead of the old style joins.

 

SELECT e.no,ed.name
FROM employee e, employee_details ed,
WHERE ed.name ='muthu'

-- use below

SELECT e.no,ed.name
FROM employee e INNER JOIN employee_details ed
ON emp.no=ed.no
WHERE ed.name ='muthu'

 

  • Test your data and the indexes after migrating one server to another server especially 2000  to 2005/2008.
  • Create a filtered index if you know the query often fetch the unchanged data from a big table.

A well-designed filtered index can improve query performance, reduce storage costs, and reduce maintenance too.

 

CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX I_fi_test
ON dbo.test(ID,joinDate,Relievingdate)
WHERE joinDate > '2001/01/01';
  • Use NO LOCK hint if you have no problem with dirty reads or use RCS isolation.

See my friend’s article http://sqlvibes.blogspot.in/2011/07/beware-of-nolock.html

  • Try Create a clustered index (Primary key) for all mostly used tables

Try to create a clustered index for all the tables. I had seen most of my big tables are not defragmented because of the tables are created primary key with NON clustered index. I asked the reason they said we don’t know who has created.

Use SELECT 1 instead of SELECT *

Use SELECT 1 when you’re checking the records are available at your table.

IF EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM <table_name> WHERE id=100)
  • In general rule retrieve the columns as you want don’t use “SELECT *”
  • Write a required column in the SELECT statement as you want don’t SELECT all the columns.

E.X

SELECT * FROM <table_name>

-- use below

SELECT c1,c2 FROM <table_name>
  • Don’t write your procedure name starting with “SP_”

SQL server searches all the producers one by one starting with “SP_” in the database including system procedure then finally found yours. It causes minor overhead, not really make much improvement.

  • Use WHERE condition as much as possible
SELECT * FROM emp WHERE Name ='SERVER'
  • Use TRY-Catch for error handling

See my procedure has written using Try-Catch.

  • Try to avoid dynamic SQL

It’ll generate SQL injections if you’re not writing it effectively.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/raulga/archive/2007/01/04/dynamic-sql-sql-injection.aspx

  • Always write your codes/SProcs with descriptions and comments.

I hope this best practice will help for the developers/coders. Thanks to Amit has given this great topic.

Edit: Drop me a comment or email if you have / find any t-SQL best practice I will add that too.

 

I’m currently working as a SQL server DBA in one of the top MNC. I’m passionate about SQL Server And I’m specialized in Administration and Performance tuning. I’m an active member of SQL server Central and MSDN forum. I also write articles in SQL server Central. For more Click here

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