Every SQL Server Database programmer needs to be familiar with the System Functions. These range from the sublime (such as @@rowcount or @@identity) to the ridiculous (IsNumeric()) Robert Sheldon provides an overview of the most commonly used of them.
2016-04-18
6,053 reads
Sometimes, in the quest for raw SQL performance, you are forced to sacrifice legibility and maintainability of your code, unless you then document your code lavishly. Phil Factor's SQL Speed Phreak challenge produced some memorable code, but can SQL features introduced since then help to produce code that performs as well and is also easy to understand? Kathi Kellenberger investigates.
2016-04-15
5,825 reads
Code coverage is a practice that goes hand in hand with automated testing, reporting the percentage of your code that has been exercised during a test run. Ed Elliott and Redgate have partnered to make a code coverage tool available for SQL Server, both free and open source. SQL Cover measures the coverage of your SQL Server stored procedures and functions. It has built-in support for the popular tSQLt unit testing framework, but can also be used alongside any automated testing framework of your choosing. Find out more in this blog post.
2016-04-14
4,457 reads
Paul White shows how an update may fail when a partition has some data on a read-only filegroup, and explains several workarounds.
2016-04-13
2,455 reads
Learn about deadlocks and how you might better troubleshoot the issues involved.
2016-04-12
5,177 reads
The 2015/16 Simple-Talk Awards have concluded, the votes have been counted and recounted, and the winners have now been announced.
2016-04-12
2,372 reads
With the new temporal table feature, SQL Server 2016 internally manages two tables: a base table, which contains the latest data all the time, and a history table, which contains a history of all of the changes. Arshad Ali looks at the new feature, how it works, and how to either create a new table with this feature or enable it for an existing table.
2016-04-11
4,139 reads
With database deployments, not all script-based processes are equal. Some use change scripts in a free-and-easy way, and some, which are normally called ‘migrations-based approaches’, have more discipline around them. In this article, Redgate Product Manager Elizabeth Ayer covers ‘migrations’, and shows some of the benefits that have come with new tooling which is specifically designed to assist the change script processes.
2016-04-08
3,078 reads
Dynamic Data Masking allows you to obscure your confidential data column values at the database engine level for both new and existing SQL Server data. Being able to alter the definition of an existing column to add a masking rule makes it very simple to obscure your existing column values without even changing your application code.
2016-04-07
4,873 reads
SQL Server 2016 RC0 introduces a new native string splitting function, STRING_SPLIT. In this article, Aaron Bertrand compares its performance to existing methods.
2016-04-06
4,076 reads
By ChrisJenkins
Do you spend so long manipulating your data into something vaguely useful that you...
By Steve Jones
It was neat to stumble on this in the book, a piece by me,...
Forgive me for the title. Mentally I’m 12. When I started my current day...
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In SQL Server 2025, what is returned by this code:
SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE('Steve', 'Stan')
Assume preview features are enabled. See possible answers