so not too long ago, we had a need to monitor the space used by our tempdb. one of the other dbas had sent out a script on how to do it that i imagine he found somewhere. when i finally got around to processing that email i forwarded him the sp_spaceused command. very easy built in proc that will give you this information. run it in the db you are in to see the space used there or use a full path to see another database. eg. anotherdb.dbo.sp_spaceused. very easy. =)

here's a fun forum post about a lot of different ways to get this information. some more complicated then others. if you need a specific format or something, then obviously this won't work, but if you just want to check something in a query window really quick, sp_spaceused is the way to go.

i hesistate to put this under tips n tricks since it's just a sql sp. maybe my tip will be that if you haven't, you should check out the system stored procs. lots of fun stuff there. =) I'd also say checkout the information schemas and the data management views as well. there. three tips for the price of one. =)