How Filters and Sorting can Derail SQL Pagination Performance

In my previous tip, Pagination Performance in SQL Server, I showed how to make SQL pagination more predictable – turning O(n) into O(1). I materialized and cached row numbers to page through instead of calculating them on every request. It wasn’t the whole story, though; real pagination queries rarely get to sort without filtering. Users always want more control, and filtering can threaten that predictability.

Creating JSON I

Tame Those Strings (Series)

A series of articles that deal with string manipulation techniques.

The Decoded Value

Adding and Dropping Columns II

Encoding Strings

T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Fuzzy String Search II

In the last article, we examined fuzzy string matching in SQL Server 2025 with a few new functions. We know comparing strings has always been hard when we don't have great data quality. If we need exact matches, SQL Server works great. However, we often expect users to enter values without typos and know what […]

Adding and Dropping Columns I

How to View SQL Server Object Code Easily with sp_showcode

sp_helptext has served SQL Server DBAs for years, but it has its very obvious – and many – limitations: broken lines, missing triggers, no help with encrypted objects, to name just a few. That’s where sp_showcode comes in…

Find Missing SQL Server Data with NOT EXISTS

After years of writing T-SQL a certain way, changing can be tough. When comparing tables for missing rows, developers often use LEFT JOIN.