Get Set For Speed
Loops are common in application code, but set-based solutions are the way to go with SQL.
2018-02-23 (first published: 2015-12-29)
6,441 reads
Articles
"But It Worked in Development!" - 3 Hard SQL Server Performance Problems
You’ve been performance tuning queries and indexes for a few years, but lately, you’ve been running into problems you can’t explain. Could it be RESOURCE_SEMAPHORE, THREADPOOL, or lock escalation? These problems only pop up under heavy load or concurrency, so they’re very hard to detect in a development environment.
2018-02-23
7,201 reads
Performance Comparison Between SQL Server 2014 and 2016
This article outlines the performance innovations in SQL Server 2016 for Columnstore Index and BatchMode Execution.
2018-02-22
11,117 reads
Degree of Duplication
Technology is constantly moving forward, but it is also helpful to understand how we arrived where we are today. Joe Celko reminisces about the history of database design and how it relates to the concept of ‘Degree of Duplication’ in this article.
2018-02-22
3,419 reads
SQL Server Reporting Services 2017 Tutorial
SQL Server Reporting Services has been the go to reporting solution for SQL Server for almost a decade now. In many organizations, the ease of development, web front end and security make SSRS the tool of choice.
2018-02-21
4,545 reads
Solve Sudoku with T-SQL - Part 1
A Sudoku solution can be resolved using a single select statement. The first article shows this method and next how this can be optimised to resolve complex puzzles in seconds.
2018-02-20
4,244 reads
How to Move a TDE Encryption Key to Another SQL Server Instance
If you have a database backup of a Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) enabled database, the database backup will contain encrypted data. Because the database backup contains encrypted data you can’t just restore it to any instance. You can only restore the database backup to an instance that contains the same certificate used to originally encrypt the database.
2018-02-20
2,970 reads
Implementing John Conway's Game of Life in Microsoft SQL Server
A fun exercise, using CTEs to implement John Conway's Game of Life cellular automata simulation
2018-02-19 (first published: 2015-09-22)
6,684 reads
Questions about Data Governance that You Were Too Shy to Ask
A company’s data is one of its most valuable and important resources. Managing and protecting that data are big responsibilities, and a data governance processes must be put into place to avoid misuse and to meet regulations. In this article, William Brewer answers questions you may have about data governance but were too shy to ask.
2018-02-19
4,962 reads
Autogenerating SSIS file import packages using Biml
Tired of building tons of similar SSIS packages for importing files into your data warehouse? Learn how to autogenerate them using Biml.
2018-02-16 (first published: 2015-09-10)
7,473 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
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications
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