An Alternative PDF Reader

Posted by: on | Monday, April 24, 2006     Comments

While browsing the web today, I came across a recommendation for Foxit Reader as an alternative to the more well-known Adobe Acrobat Reader. After downloading it and trying it out, I am happy to report that my first impressions of the product are very positive. Some of my biggest causes for discontent with Adobe Acrobat were the sluggish loading times and persistent nagging to upgrade, and both of these are a thing of the past with Foxit. Now when I double-click a PDF file, it opens in the blink of an eye! Farewell, Acrobat. Your slowness and nagging won't ...

SQL Server Arcana: ISNULL() vs COALESCE()

Posted by: on | Wednesday, April 05, 2006     Comments

The SQL Server functions ISNULL and COALESCE seem to occupy the same space in terms of functionality, only ISNULL is restricted to only two parameters, while COALESCE can take any number of parameters. So why ever use ISNULL? Answers and trivia lie within!

First of all, the simple answer for why to prefer ISNULL over COALESCE when given the choice is that ISNULL tends to produce query plans that are more efficient than COALESCE's. Examine the query plans for the two queries given below to see the difference:

-- These two yield different execution plans.  
select a.au_id,
isnull( (...