With the popular data transformation tool dbt (data build tool), we have a bunch of interesting features at our disposal to write SQL more efficiently. One of those features is macros, which we’ll introduce in this article
2025-05-28
What are some of the most common mistakes when working with Power BI? For example, when a junior colleague starts on a Power BI project for the first time, what are the pitfalls you try to warn them about? What advice would you give them?
2025-05-26
In this article, you’ll learn about the many options for using a GitHub-hosted runner, including Docker.
2025-05-23
The STRING_AGG function concatenates strings separated by a specified separator. This was introduced with SQL Server 2017.
2025-05-21
In Part 2, we shift our focus to securing containerized deployments and cloud infrastructure. We will cover Kubernetes security hardening, real-time monitoring, infrastructure as code (IaC) security, and shifting security left to catch misconfigurations early. These strategies will help your team secure workloads in production and respond to potential threats before they lead to a security breach.
2025-05-19
The ASCII function is used to return the ASCII value for the first character in a string.
2025-05-16
First things first: pick up that filthy keyboard, take it over to the trash can, turn it upside down, and give it a good, vigorous shake.
2025-05-14
Microsoft provides T-SQL developers with three functions (rand, newid, and crypt_gen_random) for generating random numbers. Each of these functions is effective at returning random values, but feature sets associated with each function make them best suited to different use cases. This tip’s Solution section presents an overview of common use cases for random numbers in SQL Server along with references to learn more about random numbers in SQL Server.
2025-05-12
I preface a lot of what I write with whether or not it is for a “practical” use. One of the Simple Talk authors used this function in a forthcoming article. and I realized I hadn’t heard of it before (or I forgot about it… which is not completely unlikely.) The practical use was to generate some data and have at least a little variety to the values.
2025-05-09
I know SQL cursors exist, but I am not sure how or why to use them. Can you provide a SQL cursor example? Can you give any guidance on when to use a SQL Server cursor?
2025-05-07
Reading tutorials is fine. Shipping something is better. If you are trying to break...
By Steve Jones
We work hard at Redgate, though with a good work-life balance. One interesting observation...
By Arun Sirpal
Fourth in a series on Ai and databases. What Read-Only Advisory Actually Means A...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Liability for AI Errors
Hello , I would like to run a stored procedure on a secondary replica...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Pro SQL Server Internals
I run this command to start SQLCMD:
sqlcmd -S localhost -E -c "proceed"At the prompt, I type this (the 1> and 2> are prompts):
1> select @@version 2> goWhat happens? See possible answers