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The North Star for the Year

It's the beginning of the year, and some of you likely have today off. But plenty of you are at work, moving slowly through this Friday at the start of the year—handling busywork, catching up on maintenance you've let slide, or preparing for the tasks you know will start coming Monday.

At Redgate, most engineering teams work toward a North Star goal: a high-level direction that guides your various tasks. Perhaps it's growing a customer base or achieving an overarching product specification. For example (this is completely made up), one North Star might be achieving feature parity across all platforms for SQL Compare.

Many people set New Year's Resolutions to adjust their behavior for the year ahead. Many of us also need to set work goals—often SMART goals—that support company direction or personal ambitions. I'm setting mine for Q1 right now, though we're still negotiating the exact items and measures. Some organizations require these in December, others allow January. Some require them multiple times throughout the year.

As we kick off the new year, take a few minutes to think about where you'd like to be at this time next year. What would you like to accomplish? How would you like your career to change before 2027 begins? Whether you formally set goals in your organization, have them assigned to you, or pursue personal aims, the first Friday of the year is likely slower than most—making it perfect for reflection.

Think about your career, your ambitions, and your future direction. Let your dreams and desires guide you.

Set that North Star today and keep it in mind as you move through 2026. It might help guide you toward a better career.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

 

The Voice of the DBA Podcast

Listen to the MP3 Audio podcast or subscribe to the feed at iTunes and Libsyn.

The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music.

 Featured Contents
SQLServerCentral Article

The OUTPUT Clause for INSERT and DELETE Statements

amarreddy23 from SQLServerCentral.com

In this article, I will provide a set of examples to show case the use of OUTPUT clause for INSERT and DELETE statements.

External Article

10 Key Concepts Developers Should Know About the SQL Server model Database

Additional Articles from SimpleTalk

This article covers the 10 key concepts developers should understand to avoid surprises and to use the model database intentionally.

Blog Post

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Vibe Coding a Login Tracking System

Steve Jones - SSC Editor from The Voice of the DBA

A customer was asking about tracking logins and logouts in Redgate Monitor. We don’t do this natively, as this really needs an XEvent session. I decided to see if...

Blog Post

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Why Optimize CPU for RDS SQL Server is a game changer

Anup Sivadas from SQLSailor.com

One feature that I have been waiting for years! The new announcement around optimize CPU for RDS SQL Server is a game changer because it lets you right-size vCPUs...

The Phoenix Project

The Phoenix Project: A Graphic Novel about IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win

Site Owners from SQLServerCentral

Adapted from the acclaimed bestselling book, The Phoenix Project Graphic Novel Volume 1 introduces readers to a stalwart cast of characters as they are challenged by the four types of work that impact complex workflows.

 

 Question of the Day

Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):

 

Multiple Escape Characters

In SQL Server 2025, I run this code (in a database with the appropriate collation):
SELECT UNISTR('%*3041%*308A%*304C%*3068 and good night', '%*') AS 'A Classic';
What is returned?

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

 

 

 Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor)

The Last Binary Value of the Year

What does this code return?

SELECT cast(0x2025 AS NVARCHAR(20))

Image 1:

Image 2:

Image 3:

Image 4:

Answer: Image 2

Explanation: It's image 2. No special significance, just this is the last day of 2025 and this was the character returned from a US English SSMS with default collations. Happy New Year!

Discuss this question and answer on the forums

 

 

 

Database Pros Who Need Your Help

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.


SQL Server 2019 - Administration
Database file shrink issue. - Hi experts, I have a 3+ TB database on a 2019 sql server which has more than 50% free space. I know database or data file shrink is not a good practice so please not go there, I tried with 100 mb in a loop which is taking much longer time so it's not feasible. […]
SQL Server 2019 - Agent job PowerShell step issue - I have a couple of SQL Agent job steps which run PowerShell commands of the form: Invoke-Command -ComputerName REMOTE -ScriptBlock {& "E:\Scripts\PowerShellScript.ps1" -ServerName "REMOTE\INSTANCE"} In each case, these steps have started failing with errors of the form: The job script encountered the following errors. These errors did not stop the script: Unhandled Exception: System.FormatException: Index […]
Analysis Services
Database backup job steps - I have a SQL Agent job for backing up a set of Analysis Services databases with each database covered by a different "SQL Server Analysis Services Command" job step of the form: { "backup": { "database": "CUBE NAME", "file": "CUBE NAME.abf", "allowOverwrite": false, "applyCompression": true } } However, if a database is added, deleted or […]
Editorials
The North Star for the Year - Comments posted to this topic are about the item The North Star for the Year
Finding Motivation - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Finding Motivation
The Side Job - Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Side Job
Happy Holidays, Let's Do Nerdy Stuff - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Happy Holidays, Let's Do Nerdy Stuff
Article Discussions by Author
Multiple Escape Characters - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Escape Characters
The Last Binary Value of the Year - Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Last Binary Value of the Year
SQL Art, Part 2: New Year Fireworks in SSMS - Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 2: New Year Fireworks in SSMS, which is is not currently available on the site.
Database security permissions save script - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Database security permissions save script
SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression Algorithm - Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression Algorithm
The Large Encoded Value - Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Large Encoded Value
UNISTR Escape - Comments posted to this topic are about the item UNISTR Escape
SQL Server 2022 - Development
reaching ftp thru winscp but erroring in ssis ftp task connection - Hi, below i show various results trying to reach our ftp site (a globalscape product) from both winscp and ssis's ftp task as a certain user on a certain port.   as far as i know, in winscp i choose FTP as the protocol even though its more appropriately FTPS (not sftp).  in ssis i tried […]
 

 

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