Prevent Duplicate Records in SQL using Filtered Index
In this article, I share how an SQL Server filtered index solved the problem of preventing duplicates for new rows in a table.
2024-07-03
Additional Articles
Concepts and Issues in Test Data Generation
Data generation is the science and art of providing data for database development work that is as realistic and controllable as possible. The skills of generating realistic data are an essential part of being a database developer. It is important: you need plenty of data of exactly the right type, size and verisimilitude
2024-07-01
Build Chatbot with Large Language Model (LLM) and Azure SQL Database
In this article, we look at how to enable a large language model (LLM) to answer questions based on data stored in Azure SQL Database.
2024-06-28
Two Tweaks for Faster Backups with Ola Hallengren’s Scripts
Ola Hallengren’s free maintenance solution is widely used as a replacement for SQL Server maintenance plans. It’s a more powerful, flexible tool for backups, corruption checking, and index & statistics updates. If you’re using it for backups, there are two quick, easy changes that can dramatically reduce your nightly job runtimes.
2024-06-26
Effective Strategies for Storing and Parsing XML in SQL Server
XML is a common storage format for data, metadata, parameters, or other semi-structured data. Because of this, it often finds its way into SQL Server databases and needs to be managed alongside other data types.
2024-06-24
Query Exercise: Beat ChatGPT at Finding Good Question Times
What are the best days of the week and times of the day to post a question at StackOverflow.com?
2024-06-21
SQL Server TRY CATCH, RAISERROR and THROW for Error Handling
Learn about SQL Server error handling using TRY CATCH, RAISERROR, and THROW for stored procedures, triggers, and user-defined functions.
2024-06-19
The CHECK() Constraint
One of the many ways a relational table differs from the file structures used by pre-relational storage systems is that the tables, rows and columns can have constraints on them. This allows you to reduce the types of bad data that can be loaded into your tables.
2024-06-17
Power BI Treemap Chart Step-by-Step Tutorial
Microsoft Power BI Desktop provides a wide variety of visuals to its users. Sometimes, one wants to conduct a comparative analysis, a simple way to explore the relationship between the data categories within a set hierarchy. Hence, when a decision revolves around understanding the relationship of each element, this visual can provide an insightful analysis. This article will highlight all the steps to create a treemap chart in Power BI Desktop.
2024-06-14
Snake draft sorting in SQL Server, part 4
In the previous posts in this series (part 1, part 2, part 3), I described how I have optimized a long-running set of routines by processing databases, tables, and even subsets of tables in parallel. This leads to many separate jobs that all kick off at roughly the same time
2024-06-12
Blogs
Resetting on the AI hype train
By Brian Kelley
There's a great article from MIT Technology Review about resetting on the hype of...
A New Word: Etherness
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etherness – n. the wistful feeling of looking around a gathering of loved ones,...
Vibe Coding a Login Tracking System
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A customer was asking about tracking logins and logouts in Redgate Monitor. We don’t...
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The Microsoft SQL Year in Review
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T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: The || Operator
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Your Value from a Conference
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Question of the Day
UNISTR Basics
What does this code return in SQL Server 2025+? (assume the database has an appropriate collation)
SELECT UNISTR('Hello 4E16754C') AS 'A Classic';
A: 
B: 
See possible answers