From the MSDN Windows Azure blog - We recently introduced Azure CAT team series of blog posts and tech articles describing the Cloud Service Fundamentals in Windows Azure code project posted on MSDN Code Gallery. The first component we are addressing in this series is Telemetry. This has been one of the first reusable components we have built working on Windows Azure customer projects of all sizes.
2013-07-19
2,531 reads
PowerShell provides comment-based help for functions and scripts with Get-Help, but when you want to document modues or generate a complete indexed API in HTML format, just as you can with Sandcastle for .NET or javadoc for Java, then stronger magic is required. Michael Sorens shows you how it is done, with source code.
2013-07-18
3,632 reads
This article looks at SQL Server locking and transaction isolation levels, how to set the transaction isolation level, and how some isolation levels use locking, while others use row versioning. It also explains what type of locks data update requires.
2013-07-17
3,573 reads
Some companies put business or application logic in SQL Server using stored procedures, views and functions to return values to the calling applications or perform tasks. This is not unusual in companies that use the SQL Server layer to perform business tasks, such as finance operations, or incorporate application functionality into the programmability layer. Here's a tip to preserve secrecy on some procedures, views or functions in order to maintain security.
2013-07-16
3,864 reads
Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), originally the formula language for PowerPivot workbooks, can also be used within the MDX query window of SSMS to directly access data from a tabular SSAS database, an in-memory database that uses the xVelocity analytics engine and compression. Robert Sheldon shows how easy it is to retrieve data from a tabular database.
2013-07-15
3,237 reads
I have a group of developers that I support and they are reporting they cannot see columns within their tables. I have granted them db_datareader permissions which is a standard at my company for QA environments. Why can't they see their column definitions? Check out this tip to learn more.
2013-07-12
3,682 reads
In this article Greg Larsen will show you how to identify when your index statistics were updated last, what method was used to gather statistics, and how to update your statistics.
2013-07-11
3,074 reads
In this article, you will learn what query optimisation statistics are and how SQL Server query optimizer uses statistics. You will also learn how to create and manage statistics, and what are the different ways to determine when statistics were last updated in SQL Server.
2013-07-10
4,410 reads
Forwarded records in SQL Server can cause performance issues on heap tables because the record outgrows the page and the database engine uses pointers to reference the data. The best practice is to have a clustered index on every table, however, sometimes there are cases when a clustered index is not needed.
2013-07-09
3,188 reads
The continuing drop in the price of memory has made fast in-memory OLTP increasingly viable. SQL Server 2014 allows you to migrate the most-used tables in an existing database to memory-optimized 'Hekaton' technology, but how you balance between disk tables and in-memory tables for optimum performance requires judgement and experiment.
2013-07-08
3,567 reads
By Brian Kelley
I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...
EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...
By HeyMo0sh
Working in DevOps long enough teaches you two universal truths: That’s exactly why I...
Hi all, I just started using VS Code to work with DB projects. I...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fun with JSON II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Changing Data Types
I have some data in a table:
CREATE TABLE #test_data
(
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(100),
birth_date DATE
);
-- Step 2: Insert rows
INSERT INTO #test_data
VALUES
(1, 'Olivia', '2025-01-05'),
(2, 'Emma', '2025-03-02'),
(3, 'Liam', '2025-11-15'),
(4, 'Noah', '2025-12-22');
If I run this query, how many rows are returned?
SELECT t1.[key] AS row,
t2.*
FROM OPENJSON(
(
SELECT t.* FROM #test_data AS t FOR JSON PATH
)
) t1
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON(t1.value) t2; See possible answers