Handling Aggregations on a Poorly Designed Database
When the database design is not great, you may have to write some creative queries to get what you need.
2020-02-17
3,460 reads
Articles
The Dangers of using Float or Real Datatypes
Floating point datatypes accommodate very big numbers but sacrifice precision. They are handy for some types of scientific calculations, but are dangerous when used more widely, because they can introduce big rounding errors.
2020-02-17
Using SQL Server RAND Function Deep Dive
Dr. Dallas Snider, a MSSQLTips author, mentioned that SQL Server RAND() function could generate random values uniformly distributed from 0 through 1, exclusive. He generated random numbers from the normal distribution with a specific mean and standard deviation.
2020-02-17
A quick search without an index
Alex Chamchourine explains how he managed to find a row in a billion row table without an index.
2020-02-14
8,041 reads
Checking for Database Events Using Extended Events and SQL Monitor
You need to make sure that nobody tampers with your production databases, or really any databases outside Development. Even if you weren't of a nervous disposition, you'd want to know if a database was stopped or removed. You'd also be intrigued by the sudden unrehearsed addition of a database to a production server.
2020-02-14
Simple DBCC CHECKDB process to report on database corruption for all SQL Server databases
As DBAs, we all know how important it is to check all of the SQL Server databases under our care for potential corruption issues. However, to accomplish that, we might not have the time to do any of the following:
2020-02-14
Collections
Problem The usage of a collection of integers in some scenarios is considered to be optimal because of the overhead involved by the creation of another user table used just to store numbers, which is the most common solution. What are collections of integers? They are lists or arrays consisting of integers. The number of […]
2020-02-13
5,998 reads
Managing SQL Server Docker containers in macOS
In the second article of this series, Carlos Robles explains how to manage Docker images and containers.
2020-02-13
Azure Data Factory Multiple File Load Example - Part 2
In this two-part tip, we are created a metadata-driven pipeline which will copy multiple flat files from Azure blob storage to an Azure SQL Database. The flat files can have different delimiters and are stored in different folders and there are multiple destination tables as well.
2020-02-12
2020-02-11
21,588 reads
Blogs
Looking Back at the Redgate 2026 Company Kickoff
By Steve Jones
Last week I spent a few days in Cambridge, UK for the Redgate Company...
Using AI for Git Hooks
By Steve Jones
Recently I had someone internally ask about whether SQL Source Control supports Git Hooks....
Flyway Tips: AI Helps with Commit Messages
By Steve Jones
At Redgate, we’re experimenting with how AI can help developers and DBAs become better...
Forums
SQL Agent job running gMSA cannot backup to NAS target
I'm running a group MSA for the database engine and SQL Agent in a...
sys.query_store_query question
All, My query is as follows: SET DATEFORMAT dmy SELECT p.query_id, DATEADD(MICROSECOND,-rs.max_duration,rs.first_execution_time) AS starttime,...
Encoding Strings
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Encoding Strings
Question of the Day
Encoding Strings
I have this code in SQL Server 2025. What is the result?
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(@message); SELECT @encoded AS EncodedResult;See possible answers