some other small tip for starters are

NULL is not equal to '' (blank)some time you save '' in your rows thru apps and web apps so to help with that try

SELECT * FROM SOMETABLE WHERE ISNULL(COLUMNNAME, '')<>''

i like to play with isnull a lot
lets say u have a proc with @value1 int=NULL lets say you want to filter the rows when the @value1 is not null

fastest way to do this is

SELECT * FORM SOME TABLE WHERE ISNULL(@value1, COLUMNYOUWHATTOFILTERBY)=COLUMNYOUWHATTOFILTERBY

similarly another ISNULL trick to substitute CASE is

lets say you have a query

SELECT
     COLUMN1,
    CASE COLUMN2 IS NOT NULL THEN
          COLUMN2
     ELSE
           COLUMN3
     END AS SOMECOLUMNNAME

You can do the same with

SELECT COLUMN1, ISNULL(COLUMN2, COLUMN3) AS SOMECOLUMNNAME