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.
2017-11-22
2,211 reads
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
Rick Dobson demonstrate a clean end-to-end solution for importing historical stock ticker prices from Yahoo Finance into a SQL Server table using Python.
2017-11-20
2,351 reads
There are a number of different ways that you can host SQL Server. RDS SQL Server, for example, uses SQL Server within AWS as a simple database service, much like a more versatile alternative to MySQL. Obviously, it is a compromise, in that you lose many of the extras beyond the database. Laerte Junior answers those questions about RDS that people seem to assume you know the answers to, but which you may be too shy to ask.
2017-11-17
3,241 reads
There is a built-in command called msiexec which has an uninstall parameter (-x). This command can be used to remove stubborn programs through brute force. First, though, you need to get an inventory of the GUIDs that represent the programs you need to remove.
2017-11-16
2,852 reads
Over the years, Phil was struck by the problems of reading and writing JSON documents with SQL Server, and wrote several articles on ways of overcoming these problems. Now that SQL Server 2016 onwards has good JSON support, he thought that the articles would be forgotten. Not so, they continue to be popular, so he felt obliged to write about how you can use SQL Server's JSON support to speed the process up.
2017-11-15
3,562 reads
Brent Ozar shares a free script that that you can run to quickly produce a health check of your SQL Server.
2017-11-14
5,245 reads
In the real world of business or scientific reporting and analysis, data can prove to be awkward. It can be plain wrong or it can be altogether missing. Sure, we have the NULL to signify unknown, but that doesn't play well with regular business reporting. There are a number of ways of dealing with missing information, and methods of estimating data from existing data has a long and respectable history. Joe Celko gets to grips with a data topic that is often treated with some trepidation.
2017-11-13
4,133 reads
Your Agile developers want MongoDB, or a similar document database: your Ops people are concerned about security and backup, and Governance are muttering about transactionality and data transfer between systems. Do you restrict your developers from rapidly-evolving the data design for their domain or do you embrace the joys of NoSQL unconditionally? If you accept a polyglot database environment, where the NoSQL lambs coexist with the relational lions, how do you provide tools and common database concepts that everyone can use and understand?
2017-11-10
3,389 reads
How do you get management to help you figure out if a cluster or an AG is right for you? In this post, Brent Ozar explains the steps involved when doing a review of your SQL Server architecture.
2017-11-09
7,002 reads
By Steve Jones
This was Redgate in 2010, spread across the globe. First the EU/US Here’s Asia...
By John
Today is Christmas and while I do not expect anybody to actual be reading...
By Bert Wagner
Until recently, my family's 90,000+ photos have been hidden away in the depths of...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item UNISTR Escape
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Celebrating Tomorrow
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art: I Made a...
In SQL Server 2025, I run this command:
SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C\3068 and good night', '*') as "A Classic";
What is returned? (assume the database has an appropriate collation)
A: 
B: 
C: 
See possible answers