How to Programmatically Identify When Your SQL Server Was Last Started
Greg Larsen shows you a quick trick to programmatically script a way to identify when SQL Server was last started.
2018-04-23
3,713 reads
Articles
Making Deployments Simpler with Re-runnable Scripts
Make sure your SQL Server database release scripts to make life easier.
2018-04-20 (first published: 2015-11-17)
10,106 reads
How to Show the Execution Plan of a Running Query
By looking at a query execution plan, you can determine which steps are used to resolve the query. But what if you just want to find out what the query plans are for only the queries that are currently running?
2018-04-20
4,126 reads
Do you check your backups?
Backups. Are you confident you can restore? Do you have a process that ensures you can recover your systems? Learn how one system works in the cloud.
2018-04-19
1,640 reads
SQL Server Graph Databases – Part 2: Querying Data in a Graph Database
Along with Graph Databases, Microsoft has introduced the new MATCH function for querying them. Robert Sheldon explains how to use the new function.
2018-04-19
3,455 reads
Why sp_prepare Isn’t as “Good” as sp_executesql for Performance
Erik Darling shows how execution plan estimates suffer.
2018-04-18
3,318 reads
Fixing system database corruption with setup.exe
Corruption of the system databases is a serious matter. Setup.exe is a brute force method of replacing them.
2018-04-17
997 reads
Recover Data in SQL Server AWS RDS with the Help of BACPAC
With Amazon RDS, it’s easy to have a SQL Server running in minutes. There are some limitations, though. Seth Delconte explains a workaround to overcome one of the limitations: the inability to restore a second copy of a database to recover missing data.
2018-04-17
2,672 reads
Using T-SQL to Detect Stock Price Reversals with the RSI
Rick Dobson explains the Relative Strength Index (RSI), and shows how to create a TSQL script that computes the RSI for a stock closing price series.
2018-04-16
3,074 reads
SSIS Design Pattern - Staging Fixed Width Flat Files
Learn how to load fixed width flat files to staging tables in this article from Samuel Vanga.
2018-04-13 (first published: 2015-10-06)
11,609 reads
Blogs
The flight recorder: Replaying what an AI agent did on my SQL Server
By Arun Sirpal
“What exactly did it do on my server?” is the first question a DBA...
Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference — Barcelona 2026
By James Serra
Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...
Au Revoir for now
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
Forums
Let's Talk Certifications
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The Hidden Security Risks of Role Combination in SSAS Tabular
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hidden Security Risks of...
The Empty Aggregate
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Empty Aggregate
Question of the Day
The Empty Aggregate
I have this table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerOrder] ( [OrderID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NULL, [total] [money] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOWhat is returned from this code? (answers are for the sum and then the count)
SELECT SUM(total) AS sum,
COUNT(total) AS count
FROM dbo.CustomerOrder;
See possible answers