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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

External Article

Questions About RDS SQL Server That You Were Too Shy to Ask

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

External Article

Consuming hierarchical JSON documents in SQL Server using OpenJSON

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

External Article

Missing Data

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

External Article

Mixing MongoDB and Relational Databases in the Enterprise

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

External Article

SQL Server R Services: Working with Data Frames

Although you can get started with R in SQL Server without understanding data frames, they are a key structure of the R language that are the equivalent of SQL Server table variables. They give you many ways of manipulating and analyzing data and passing it between R and SQL Server. For a database professional, they provide a clear and familiar concept when getting to grips with integrating R into the database.

2017-11-08

3,412 reads

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Where Your Value Separates You from Others

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Fixing the Error

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T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Encoding Functions

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Question of the Day

Fixing the Error

On SQL Server 2025, I have a database that has this collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. I decide I want to run this code:

SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C*3068 and good night', '*') AS 'A Classic';
I get this error:Msg 9844, Level 16, State 4, Line 24 The char/varchar input type uses an unsupported collation. Only a UTF8 collation is supported with char/varchar input type in UNISTR function.What is the easiest way to fix this error?

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