When a Service Pack or Cumulative Update Install Fails by Evaporating
Learn a few possible solutions to a frustrating issue when you attempt to patch a SQL Server installation.
2018-12-07 (first published: 2016-01-11)
9,519 reads
Articles
How Much Memory is “Normal” for SQL Servers?
When I look at a SQL Server, one of the first things I check is, “How much memory does this thing have relative to the amount of data we’re hosting on here?” I’ve long used some seat-of-the-pants numbers, but armed with data from SQL ConstantCare® users who opted into public data sharing, let’s do a little deeper analysis.
2018-12-07
4,464 reads
Write more compact SQL Server code using new features
Learn about new functions in SQL Server 2016 and 2017 to have more readable and compact code including STRING_AGG, TRIM, TRANSLATE and DROP... IF EXISTS.
2018-12-06
3,690 reads
Transferring Data with JSON in SQL Server
JSON is a viable option for transferring data between systems. It has the ability to include schema information along with the data which is an advantage over CSV files. In this article, Phil Factor demonstrates how he takes advantage of JSON when exporting or importing tables.
2018-12-05
3,025 reads
2018-12-04
544 reads
Overview of Azure SQL Database Information Protection
Information protection becomes one of the dominant factors that drive modern database design and implementation. This becomes particularly evident when operating in a cloud computing environment, with Azure SQL Database serving as one of the prime examples of this trend. Microsoft delivers relevant features by leveraging several different security-related Azure services. In this article, we will provide an overview of this functionality.
2018-12-04
1,981 reads
Cost estimation for SQL Server Azure VMs
This article provides pricing guidance for SQL Server virtual machines in Azure.
2018-12-03
3,362 reads
Adding a Primary Key to a Prepopulated Table using a SQL Server Integration Services Package
In this tip we look at how you can use SSIS to build a package to add a primary key to an existing table that does not already have a primary key.
2018-12-03
2,109 reads
The Curse of Cursor Options
Books Online says the FAST_FORWARD option has "performance optimizations enabled," but they didn't say if they were good. It turns out they're not.
2018-11-30
3,017 reads
T-SQL Decommenter Part IV
Examination of the comprehensive test suite for the T-SQL Decommenter, along with explanation of the modifications made to produce the production version.
2018-11-29
651 reads
Blogs
Who Are You Doing It For?
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But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed...
Presenting Twice in May 2026
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I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
Forums
DB Design Methods
I've read a few posts regarding what we use to design DB models and...
Auto Update Statistics not triggering on filtered indexes
I've got a table with 186,703,969 rows, about 300GB of data. There are several...
What is the difference between SQL Server and SQL Database?
I created a SQL Database in Azure Portal but I've just noticed it also...
Question of the Day
An Unusual Identity
What values are returned when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest2
(
id NUMERIC(10,0) IDENTITY(10,10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.IdentityTest2
(
somevalue
)
VALUES
( 'Steve')
, ('Bill')
GO
SELECT top 10
id
FROM dbo.IdentityTest2 See possible answers