Which Should You Use: VARCHAR or NVARCHAR?
You’re building a new table or adding a column, and you wanna know which datatype to use: VARCHAR or NVARCHAR?
2025-11-03
Articles
Regular Expressions in SQL Server 2025
This article examines the new regular expression functions added to T-SQL in SQL Server 2025.
2025-10-31
15,638 reads
Static Versus Dynamic Bulk Insert Imports of Multi-File Datasets
There are numerous use cases for multi-file imports of CSV files into a SQL Server table:
2025-10-31
2025-10-29
Docker Advice for SQL Server in Production
Introduction Nowadays, with the widespread adoption of microservices across major companies, using Windows Server to host SQL Server remains the gold standard. However, there are still certain scenarios—or even specific environments—where deploying SQL Server in containerized setups using the Docker engine becomes necessary. In this article, I will offer practical tips based on my hands-on […]
2025-10-27
4,069 reads
Managing Underused Indexes in SQL Server Availability Groups – Part 2
Knowing the usage from all workloads is definitely better than focusing on only the primary or a single secondary. But what if I want to make more informed decisions, incorporating row counts, size, and index columns into this output?
2025-10-27
How Implicit Transactions Hurt SQL Server Performance Without You Knowing
Learn about implicit transaction and why you might not want to enable this setting.
2025-10-24
6,189 reads
Memories of Andrew Clarke, by Simon Galbraith
Simon Galbraith, co-founder of Redgate and one of the creators of Simple Talk, remembers Andrew Clarke
2025-10-24
DIY Database Clones
This article explores the 'shadow copy' and 'disk virtualization' services built into the Windows operating system and explains a basic solution demonstrating how the technology is used to copy the data and log files for a live SQL Server database into an 'image', from which we can create multiple, lightweight copies, or clones, of the original database.
2025-10-22 (first published: 2021-04-29)
6,106 reads
Why Indexes are Important Beyond Faster Execution of Queries
Learn how indexes can help you with more than just querying data.
2025-10-22
16,512 reads
Blogs
Data Céilí 2026 Call for Speakers!
Data Céilí 2026 Call for Speakers is now live! Data Céilí (pronounced kay-lee), is...
Streamlining Azure VM Moves Into Availability Zones
By John
One of the more frustrating aspects about creating an Azure virtual machine is that...
Monday Monitor Tips: Native Replication Monitoring
By Steve Jones
Redgate Monitor has been able to monitor replication for a long term, but it...
Forums
Deadlock graph anomaly
I've come across what appears to be a strange deadlock anomaly. As seen in...
Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale Level 6: Backup and Restore Internals
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to Azure SQL Hyperscale...
The Challenge of AI
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Challenge of AI, which...
Question of the Day
Deprecated Feature Tracking
From T-SQL, without requiring an XEvent session, can I tell which deprecated features are being used on my instance?
See possible answers