What should you do if your first, most intuitive solution to a problem ends up scanning the data more than is necessary, resulting in poor performance? Have you missed a new SQL Server feature that can remove inefficiency from your technique? Alternatively, do you need a little help, and some lateral thinking, to open the path to a different approach? Sometimes, the answer is "both".
2013-04-25
6,949 reads
SQL Monitor comes with plenty of metrics, but there are always going to be things that you want to measure that can't be done 'out of the box'. Taking database mirroring as an example, Grant shows that custom metrics can be used to monitor and alert whatever aspect of SQL Server or database that you need.
2013-04-24
2,948 reads
When a database starts showing signs of an illness, it's up to the DBA to get to the root of the problem, fast. Kat Hicks takes a look at the most common causes of database troubles, free tools that can help, and the misconceptions that get in the way.
2013-04-22
4,265 reads
Beginning to learn and comprehend SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) MDX queries can be difficult after one has spent years writing queries in T-SQL. When trying to write SQL Server MDX queries, it's worth considering "How would I write this query in T-SQL?"
2013-04-19
4,630 reads
Data Protection and Disaster Recovery (DR) are IT tasks that seldom get the same level of attention as development… until disaster strikes. Only if planning is adequate can an organisation be resilient in the face of unexpected problems. There are several steps that are needed to achieve an adequate DR process and the ability to restore business operations after a disaster.
2013-04-18
3,227 reads
With SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Availability Groups, you can configure read-only routing and to automatically redirect the read-only workloads to a secondary replica after a failover. Can this be done using Windows PowerShell?
2013-04-17
2,105 reads
When you write T-SQL code what kind of coding style do you use? Do you have a consistent way to comment and format your code? Does your organization provide standards for how you must code your T-SQL? Join Greg Larsen as he discusses some of the coding styles you should consider when writing your T-SQL scripts and stored procedures.
2013-04-16
6,175 reads
Accurate statistics about the data held in tables are used to provide the best execution strategy for SQL queries. but if the statistics don't accurately reflect the current contents of the table you'll get a poorly-performing query. How do you find out if statistics are correct, and what can you do if the automatic update of statistics isn't right for the way a table is used?
2013-04-15
6,631 reads
The performance of 'extract, transform, load' (ETL) processes for large quantities of data can always be improved by objective testing and experiment with alternative techniques. The cause of poor performance can sometimes be surprising.
2013-04-12
4,801 reads
The concept of a sliding window scenario is to manage and keep the same number of partitions on a partitioned table over time. Learn how in this step-by-step from Arshad Ali.
2013-04-11
2,684 reads
Forgive me for the title. Mentally I’m 12. When I started my current day...
By Steve Jones
One of the things a customer asked recently about Redgate Data Modeler was how...
By Steve Jones
For a number of years, we’ve produced the State of the Database Landscape report,...
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In SQL Server 2025, what is returned by this code:
SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE('Steve', 'Stan')
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