Whether you are working in a procedural language like PowerShell or in T-SQL, there is something slightly bothersome about having to deal with parameters that are lists, or worse with ranges amongst the values. In fact, once you have a way of dealing with them, they can be convenient, especially when bridging the gulf between application and the database. Phil Factor shows how to deal with them.
2017-02-16
4,920 reads
Erin Stellato takes a look at the new COMPRESS and DECOMPRESS functions, comparing their impact on space and performance to traditional data compression.
2017-02-15
6,456 reads
In this edition of Office Hours, Brent, Erik, and Richie discuss AlwaysOn Availability Groups, execution plans, speeding up log shipping, applying wrong service packs, their favourite high availability solutions, and more.
2017-02-14
3,764 reads
If you are a DBA who hasn't so far dived in head-first into using Azure, it is worth setting up an Azure 'Virtual Lab' environment the easy way, using a template. This will then allow you to experiment, try things out with SQL Azure, and get familiar with Resource Groups. Joshua shows how to build a virtual lab, from the ground up in the first of a series that aims to give you a grounding in Azure.
2017-02-13
5,534 reads
In many enterprises, where there are a number of separate systems engaged in processing data, there arises the daunting task of checking and reconciling data as it flows between systems. Discrepancies in data must be detected, tracked and corrected as quickly as possible: there is no room for error in doing this. A Reconciliation Hub can provide the answer, as Rahul Gupta explains.
2017-02-10
3,524 reads
Ben Snaidero explains that if you are updating your SQL Server table statistics nightly, but still seeing occasional poor performance with some of the queries being executed against my database, statistics could be the issue.
2017-02-09
4,089 reads
Have you ever had a need to place some simple row level security on a SQL Server table? Well now you can do that in SQL Server 2016 by...
2017-02-08
6,513 reads
When you force a query plan via the Query Store, you will need to track what happens: Sometimes the request to force a plan will fail, and you will want to know when and why. There are several ways of getting feedback, ranging from the built-in reports to using extended events. Enrico explains the details.
2017-02-07
3,584 reads
Rob Farley uses this month's T-SQL Tuesday to show off the results of one of his Connect items : Estimated Number of Rows to be Read.
2017-02-06
3,839 reads
Aaron Nelson explains how you can take an existing SQL query, run it against a SQL Server and then take the results and save them to a different SQL Server without using Linked Servers.
2017-02-03
5,215 reads
By Brian Kelley
During COVID, I attended training on software/enterprise architecture given by Mark Richards. One of...
For me, the objective is straightforward: have a backup strategy that is reliable, understandable,...
By DesertDBA
Note: This post is the invitation for T-SQL Tuesday #204 on November 3rd, 2026....
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The ##MS_DatabaseConnector## User
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Planning for Change
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Importing Excel files into SQL...
On SQL Server 2025, I run this code as a sysadmin:
CREATE LOGIN Demo WITH PASSWORD = 'Demo1234567' GO ALTER SERVER ROLE ##MS_DatabaseConnector## ADD MEMBER Demo GOI then login as Demo and run this:
USE sandbox go SELECT CURRENT_USERWhat is returned? See possible answers