Each database has a minimum of two files associated with the database. If a database has more than one filegroup it will have many files associated with one database. Following quick script will give you recordset per file of a database which is stored in master database.
All DBA and Developers must have observed when any variable length column is dropped from table, it does not reduce the size of table. Table size stays the same till Indexes are reorganized or rebuild. There is also DBCC command DBCC CLEANTABLE, which can be used to reclaim any space previously occupied with variable length columns. Variable length columns include varchar, nvarchar, varchar(max), nvarchar(max), varbinary, varbinary(max), text, ntext, image, sql_variant, and xml. Space can be reclaimed when variable length column is also modified to lesser length.
I have received following questions. I will list all the questions here and answer them together.
What is the purpose of Master database?