The easiest way to determine if there is encrypted data in a database is to get that information from whoever wrote the application. Aside from that, there are a few things you can look for which would suggest that you have encrypted data in a given database.
2015-01-27
7,810 reads
Not all data is discrete; some data types represent a continuum. In SQL, we have to approximate them and live with the special problems of handling continuous data. We need to understand the problems associated with continuous data types, when these will happen, and how it affects constraints and the results of queries. Joe Celko explains.
2015-01-26
8,731 reads
Extreme Programming (XP) is no general panacea; but for the right team, and for a product that needs to release bug fixes and new features as fast as possible, its benefits are obvious. Working on one of Red Gate's most popular tools, SQL Prompt, Aaron Law and David Priddle use XP. But is their adherence to XP a personal preference or does it bring real benefits?
2015-01-23
8,591 reads
While a diminished level of control is certainly a factor to consider when contemplating migration of on-premises systems to Microsoft Azure, especially when dealing with PaaS resources such as Azure SQL Database, you have a range of techniques at your disposal that allow you to control and monitor both the status of and access to your Azure-resident services. One of these techniques is SQL Database auditing.
2015-01-22
9,981 reads
Having designed and tested our reports, it's time to deploy them to the Report Server, so that our users can access them. Kathi Kellenberger demonstrates how to configure reports for native-mode deployment using Report Manager, and then deploy them from within SSDT-BI. She also explains how to use the Report Builder to provide "self-service" reporting to end users, allowing them to build custom reports based on report parts and shared datasets.
2015-01-21
9,039 reads
Of all the basic SQL operations, the pivot seems to cause the most problems. It turns out that there are several questions that come to mind while learning about pivoting, but which are seldom asked on forums.
2015-01-19
11,491 reads
Having your data returned to you in some meaningful sorted order is important sometimes. If you don’t tell SQL Server you want to order the results of a SELECT statement then there is no guarantee that your result set will come back in a particular order. To make sure a result set is ordered you need to use the ORDER BY clause. In this article I will be exploring how to return an order result set by using the ORDER BY clause.
2015-01-16
10,316 reads
Feodor Georgiev provides a thorough walkthrough on setting up SQL Server's Data Quality Services (DQS) and creating the rules it uses to function as a first step towards data cleansing.
2015-01-15
9,692 reads
In this tip Ben Snaidero looks at how to improve SQL Server Bulk Load performance. He focuses his performance tests on options using the BULK INSERT T-SQL command to judge how the various options affect speed.
2015-01-14
8,200 reads
SQL Server keeps the most-used execution plans in cache, so it doesn't need to recompile the same queries every time. How can we benefit from this to find potential performance problems in execution plans?
2015-01-13
9,693 reads
By Brian Kelley
I am guilty as charged. The quote was in reference to how people argue...
By Steve Jones
Learn how to tie a bowline knot. Practice in the dark. With one hand....
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
Hi, I have a SQL Server instance where users connect to via Windows Authentication,...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
See possible answers