T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: JSON_ARRAYAGG
Learn how the JSON_ARRAYAGG() function works in SQL Server 2025.
2026-04-27
4,279 reads
Articles
Microsoft On-Premises Data Gateway Administration
As a Microsoft Fabric Administrator, you have the responsibility to manage all the Microsoft Enterprise gateways installed and deployed across your entire data estate.
2026-04-27
Introducing the Relational Embedding Retrieval Pattern: Storing and Querying Vector Embeddings in SQL Server
Learn about using SQL Server to support AI-enhanced search queries with the Relational Embedding Retrieval Pattern (RERP).
2026-04-24
2,021 reads
Cross-database ownership chaining in SQL Server: security risks, behavior, and privilege escalation
A dangerous privilege-escalation path exists in SQL Server when cross-database ownership chaining, system database defaults, and overly permissive permissions are combined.
2026-04-24
Find SQL Server Agent Jobs that Start Other Jobs
A SQL Server Agent job can start other jobs. Writing jobs this way makes it easy to compartmentalize jobs: start a “child” job only when the “parent” reaches a certain step. Finding these steps can be challenging. There is no field or property in sysjobs or its associated tables to help find child jobs.
2026-04-22
What Power BI DirectQuery does to your SQL Server (and how to fix it)
Power BI DirectQuery can quietly overwhelm your SQL Server. Unlike Import mode, DirectQuery sends live T-SQL for every visual interaction, multiplying queries and placing heavy analytical load on the database. This article explains how to identify the worst offending DirectQuery queries, why the generated SQL is often inefficient, and what you can do from the database side, including indexing, Query Store, and reporting views, to improve performance. It also outlines practical changes on the Power BI side and when DirectQuery is simply the wrong architectural choice.
2026-04-20
5,151 reads
How to minimize downtime in a cloud migration
Pat Wright details how to plan cloud migration with minimal downtime. Learn key cutover strategies, testing methods, and critical questions to avoid data loss and system failure.
2026-04-20
2026-04-17
1,470 reads
How User-Defined Types work in PostgreSQL: a complete guide
I’m sure I’m not alone when I say, sometimes I get sidetracked. In this particular instance, I hadn’t intended to start learning about User-Defined Types (UDT) in PostgreSQL – I just wanted to test a behavior that involved creating a UDT. But, once I started reading, I was hooked. I mean, four distinct UDTs with different behaviors? That’s pretty cool. Let’s get into it.
2026-04-17
How to Draw Line Graphs in SSMS
Ever just need a quick visualization of some numbers to get a rough idea of the trend, like this
2026-04-15
Blogs
T-SQL Tuesday #202 SQL Server Outage You’ll Never Forget: A Roundup
When I put together the invitation for T-SQL Tuesday #202, I wasn't sure what...
A Last Minute Trip to the EU
By Steve Jones
My life has some crazy travel stretches for sure. Between speaking, office visits, customer...
Part 3 of 3: Tuning DiskANN — R, Alpha, L, Beam Width, Recall and Latency
In Part 1, we saw how ‘Vamana’ represents vectors as nodes, connects them with...
Forums
Server-Level Table sizes
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Optional Parameter Plan Optimization in SQL Server 2025: Fixing the Kitchen-Sink Search Procedure
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Optional Parameter Plan Optimization in...
Question of the Day
ORDER BY alias
There is a table tmp_tab:
CREATE TABLE tmp_tab ( id int, val int );
INSERT INTO tmp_tab VALUES (1, 1), (2, NULL), (3, 3), (4, 4), (5, 5);You want to order the rows ids by the following expression:
ISNULL(val, id) + 1Which of the following queries produces the expected ordering and why? (Select all correct) See possible answers