About two decades ago, I introduced the concept of transition constraints to show Data Validation in a database is a lot more complex than seeing if a string parameter really is an integer. In October of 2008, I did an article called Constraint Yourself! on how to use DDL constraints to assure data integrity. One of the topics in that piece was a look at state transition constraints via an auxiliary table.
2025-07-07
Learn about a free inventory tool to help you keep track of basic information on your servers.
2025-07-04
4,880 reads
Building pipelines in Microsoft Fabric can be complicated, and it's easy to write code that is hard to maintain. Using parameters in your connections helps to build pipelines that are easily configured.
2025-07-04 (first published: 2025-06-02)
4,561 reads
When I was perusing my LinkedIn feed the other day, I came across this thread about using SELECT *. In one of the replies, Aaron Cutshall noted that: “Another real performance killer is SELECT DISTINCT especially when combined with UNION. I have a whole list of commonly used hidden performance killers!”
2025-07-04
SQL Server 2025 improved PSPO to handle multiple predicates that might have parameter sensitivity, and that’s great! I love it when Microsoft ships a v1 feature, and then gradually iterates over to make it better. Adaptive Memory Grants were a similar investment that got improved over time, and today they’re fantastic.
2025-07-02
Learn how to get started running R scripts in R/Studio for data analysis.
2025-06-30
1,915 reads
Your choice of how you encode data can be significant. With computers and databases, you have a wide range of options. As a programmer, you will likely be called upon at some time in your career to design and coding scheme for particular application. It would really help if you at least avoided designing a bad one.
2025-06-30
In this next part of the series on Managed Instance, we see how to discover a bit about the internals of how the instance is being run. Learn how to kill and respawn a Managed Instance.
2025-06-27
1,098 reads
SQL Server has several functions to assist with meta data about the server, databases, indexes, and more. In this tip, we will look at how to get index information for indexes in a database using the INDEXPROPERTY function.
2025-06-27
Starting in SQL Server 2025, a new edition is available for installation: SQL Server Developer Standard Edition. This article dives into this edition, the problems it solves, and why it is a great addition for development teams that use SQL Server!
2025-06-25
By Brian Kelley
Every year, the South Carolina State Internal Auditors Association and the South Carolina Midlands...
Data Céilí 2026 Call for Speakers is now live! Data Céilí (pronounced kay-lee), is...
By John
One of the more frustrating aspects about creating an Azure virtual machine is that...
I've come across what appears to be a strange deadlock anomaly. As seen in...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Challenge of AI, which...
From T-SQL, without requiring an XEvent session, can I tell which deprecated features are being used on my instance?
See possible answers