July 12th was a good day for all SQL Server enthusiasts and professionals as Microsoft announced the release of both Service Pack 1 for SQL Server 2008 R2 as well as Community Technology Preview 3 for the next installment in the series, Codename Denali.

SP1 brings with it a number of stability and security fixes as well as some more advanced configuration options to fine-tune performance.  The most interesting update from my point of view is the updated syntax on the FORCESEEK index hint, which now has extra options to further fine tune queries.

There are people out there who struggle to remember the correct order in which to specify T-SQL commands in Microsoft SQL Server.  While I’m not actually one of them, I did like this nice little mnemonic from guest columnist Andy Owl over at SQL Server mega-resource, SQL Server Central.