Book Image

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration Cookbook

By : Satya Shyam K Jayanty
Book Image

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration Cookbook

By: Satya Shyam K Jayanty

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (19 chapters)
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration Cookbook
Credits
Foreword
About the Author
Acknowledgment
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
More DBA Manageability Best Practices

Implementing sparse columns and wide table features


Using SQL Server 2008, a new space saving storage option is available which is referred to as sparse columns that can provide optimized and efficient storage for columns that contain predominant NULL values. Querying and manipulation of sparse columns is similar to regular columns by using standard INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE statements. The sparse columns are normal columns in a table that have an optimized storage format by reducing the space requirements.

In this recipe, we will look at how to implement sparse columns and wide table features. The sparse columns are useful for the applications such as Windows SharePoint Services that will help to manage the efficient way to store and access a large number of user-defined properties.

Getting ready

The database compatibility must be 100 or 105 to implement sparse column features. The table columns can be any structured data type and the following restrictions are applicable to implement sparse column...