Articles

External Article

Even More SQL Server Features that Time Forgot

SQL Server works well, and Microsoft does everything it can to keep it relevant and competitive: As with everything in real life, it doesn't don't always get it completely right, and Rob Sheldon continues his quest through the jungle of past features to rediscover and explore the ones that time forgot. Here, he comes across Lightweight Pooling, XML Indexes, Stretch Databases, SQL Variants, Transaction Savepoints and In-Memory OLTP.

2017-12-01

5,018 reads

External Article

Simple SQL: Handling Location Datatypes

How do you record locations in SQL? Most relational database systems support spatial and geographical data, generally using the round-earth system based on the SQL specification of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). However, this is not the only approach, as Joe Celko explains.

2017-11-29

2,871 reads

Technical Article

Dynamic Data Masking on Azure SQL Database

Azure SQL Database’s Dynamic Data Masking (DDM) feature limits the exposure of sensitive information to non-privileged users. DDM can mask either the full value or partial value in a column. This method can also mask Social Security and Credit Card Numbers without making any changes to the application.

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2017-11-22

2,211 reads

External Article

More SQL Server Features that Time Forgot

SQL Server produces some great features, but it would be impossible to get them spot-on target every time. We are now quietly advised to use caution about using some of them, such as AutoShrink or the Index Advisor. Others, like the database diagramming tool, almost seem to have been quietly abandoned. Robert Sheldon investigates.

2017-11-21

4,678 reads

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The Empty Aggregate

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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]
GO
What 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