Additional Articles


External Article

Windows Azure SQL Database (WASD) Primer

Are you a SQL Server DBA who is now being asked to migrate databases to Windows Azure SQL Database (WASD)? Are you a developer who is writing code for a cloud service that shall use SQL Database as the back-end? This blog post is based on issues encountered while supporting customers that were once in your shoes and the lessons learned in the process.

2013-11-18

3,173 reads

External Article

Window Functions in SQL

SQL's windowing functions are surprisingly versatile, and allow us to cut out all those self-joins and explicit cursors. Joe Celko explains how they are used, and shows a few tricks such as calculating deltas in a time series, and filling in gaps.

2013-11-14

7,422 reads

External Article

SQL Server SQLCMD Basics

Sqlcmd makes many SQL Server tasks, such as automating test runs and maintenance tasks, easier and quicker. The sqlcmd command-line utility is valuable to any database developer or DBA as the prime means of executing batches of SQL Statements to SQL servers, and saving results to file. Rob Sheldon gives you the basic facts about this great utility.

2013-11-08

6,993 reads

Technical Article

Building Real-World Microsoft BI Dashboards Today

There is a lot of Microsoft buzz about Power BI and Excel these days, but customers need real-world, professional business intelligence solutions that meet their complex real-world requirements today. In this article, Jen Underwood shares what technologies were used to develop a dashboard solution for a Fortune Global 500 company using Microsoft Business Intelligence technologies, and why. Some of the decisions may surprise you and the lessons learned are sure to be of value.

2013-11-07

5,745 reads

External Article

Getting Started with Columnstored Index in SQL Server 2014 – Part 2

Column Store Index, which improves performance of data warehouse queries several folds, was first introduced in SQL Server 2012. Though it had several limitations, now SQL Server 2014 enhances the columnstore index and overcomes several of the earlier limitations. In this article, Arshad Ali discusses how you can get started using the enhanced columnstore index feature in SQL Server 2014 and do some performance tests.

2013-11-06

4,375 reads

Blogs

Stupid Things I Did With AI: ASCII Art

By

I ran across this article recently (https://www.gatesnotes.com/meet-bill/source-code/reader/microsoft-original-source-code) and it has a great opening piece...

Simple Talks Podcasting in 2026

By

I’m in the UK today, having arrived this morning in London. Hopefully, by this...

SSMS 22 still inserting tabs instead of spaces

By

I’m not trying to start up a debate whether you should use tabs or...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Cumulative Update 23 - KB5074819 - Database Mail - No longer working.

By ChrisRNZ

Hi there, Has anyone else had any trouble with Database Mail in Cumulative Update...

Script Task execution error with HTTP request

By Bhagat

I have a script task that tries to execute a HTTP request, which seems...

SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer Edition

By Johan Bijnens

Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer...

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

URL Safe or Not?

If I use BASE4_ENCODE() in SQL Server 2025, is the output URL Safe by default?

See possible answers