05Apr 2021 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Extended Events: Embrace the XML

SQL Server
While XML is, without a doubt, a giant pain in the bottom, sometimes, the best way to deal with Extended Events is to simply embrace the XML. Now, I know, just last week, I suggested ways to avoid the XML. I will freely admit, that is my default position. If I can avoid the XML, I will certainly do it. However, there are times where just embracing the XML works out nicely. Let's talk about it a little. Copy This Query I have a theory. It goes like this: There has only, ever, been a single XML query written from scratch. All other XML queries are just copied from that one and then edited to do what is necessary OK. Maybe that's not entirely true. In fact, I know it's…
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18Mar 2014 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Finding Mistakes

SQL Server, T-SQL
Ever had that moment where you start getting errors from code that you've tested a million times? I had that one recently. I had this little bit of code for pulling information directly from query plans in cache: WITH XMLNAMESPACES(DEFAULT N'http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2004/07/showplan'), QueryPlans AS ( SELECT RelOp.pln.value(N'@PhysicalOp', N'varchar(50)') AS OperatorName, RelOp.pln.value(N'@NodeId',N'integer') AS NodeId, RelOp.pln.value(N'@EstimateCPU', N'decimal(10,9)') AS CPUCost, RelOp.pln.value(N'@EstimateIO', N'decimal(10,9)') AS IOCost, dest.text FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS deqs CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(deqs.sql_handle) AS dest CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_query_plan(deqs.plan_handle) AS deqp CROSS APPLY deqp.query_plan.nodes(N'//RelOp') RelOp (pln) ) SELECT qp.OperatorName, qp.NodeId, qp.CPUCost, qp.IOCost, qp.CPUCost + qp.IOCost AS EstimatedCost FROM QueryPlans AS qp WHERE qp.text = 'some query or other in cache' ORDER BY EstimatedCost DESC; I've probably run this... I don't know how many times. But... I'm suddenly getting an error: Msg 8114, Level 16, State 5,…
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