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Learn how to clean bad characters from lots of data in this article.  Read more...

This free eBook from Redgate Software will take you from the fundamentals of Statistics, Cost Estimation, Index Selection, and the Execution Engine, and guide you through the inner workings of the Query Optimization process, and throws in a pragmatic look at Parameterization and Hints along the way.  Read more...

You can produce HTML from SQL because SQL Server has built-in support for outputting XML, and HTML is best understood as a slightly odd dialect of XML that imparts meaning to predefined tags. There are plenty of edge cases where an HTML structure is the most obvious way of communicating tables, lists and directories. Where data is hierarchical, it can make even more sense. William Brewer gives a simple introduction to a few HTML-output techniques.  Read more...

In this article, we'll explore a less used feature of SQL Server: filegroup restoring, feature that has an interesting consequence because database can become inconsistent without any warning and standard checks don't reveal any issue.  Read more...

Have you ever wanted to be able to see the actual transactions that are contained in the transaction log file? Greg Larsen shows you how to browse the transaction log using an undocumented function.  Read more...

How we overcame the A to Z Windows Drive-Letter limitation using Volume Mount Points  Read more...

Database Lifecycle Management aims to make the development and modification of databases more predictable. Bugs are the source of more unpredictability than anything else, purely because it is so difficult to guess how long it will take to fix them. Good testing at all stages may take some time and effort, but it greatly reduces likelihood of the wildcard factor of the bug that is first detected during the deployment process; or worse, that gets into the production release.  Read more...

Useful free and paid utilities and tools for Microsoft SQL Server - complete list of 213 Utilities  Read more...

In part 5 of this series covering Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Arshad Ali looks at performance optimization.  Read more...

In the first of a three-part series, guest bloggers from DevOpsGuys look at the real role of Ops in DevOps. Where it changes, how it changes, and why Ops has an important part to play in the brave new world of DevOps.   Read more...

With SQL Server on Linux, Microsoft has recognized that they’re opening up their products to a new set of users....  Read more...

In last three years, I presented two times on the topic Transaction Log File Architecture. During the sessions, when I discussed...  Read more...