Which Should You Use: VARCHAR or NVARCHAR?
You’re building a new table or adding a column, and you wanna know which datatype to use: VARCHAR or NVARCHAR?
2025-11-03
Additional Articles
Static Versus Dynamic Bulk Insert Imports of Multi-File Datasets
There are numerous use cases for multi-file imports of CSV files into a SQL Server table:
2025-10-31
2025-10-29
Managing Underused Indexes in SQL Server Availability Groups – Part 2
Knowing the usage from all workloads is definitely better than focusing on only the primary or a single secondary. But what if I want to make more informed decisions, incorporating row counts, size, and index columns into this output?
2025-10-27
Memories of Andrew Clarke, by Simon Galbraith
Simon Galbraith, co-founder of Redgate and one of the creators of Simple Talk, remembers Andrew Clarke
2025-10-24
SQL EXISTS Use Cases and Examples
I’ve seen the SQL EXISTS keyword in Microsoft SQL Server T-SQL code and don’t understand it well. What does it do? How do I use it? Are there best practices around SQL IF EXISTS?
2025-10-22
Mastering SQL VIEWs: Syntax, Use Cases, and Best Practices
VIEWs are an undervalued and underused feature in SQL. They basically consist of a query that has been given a name, and a parameter list, so can be used like an inline macro. Technically, you’re supposed to think of it as a virtual table.
2025-10-20
T‑SQL BULK INSERT vs OPENROWSET: CSV Imports, File Access Gotchas, and A PowerShell Script
Most SQL bulk insert and SQL Server openrowset tutorials skip file access issues that can stop imports cold. Both the bulk insert statement and openrowset function rely on the SQL Server service account to read a source file. The SQL Server service account must have read permission on the file or its folder. It is also convenient to have read & execute as well as list folder content permissions.
2025-10-17
No, Accelerated Database Recovery Doesn’t Fix NOLOCK.
I have never seen a T-SQL feature that people love as much as NOLOCK.
2025-10-15
Schema Design Basics for Power BI
You have a Power BI project that generates real-time reports for an inventory management system that uses SQL Server. You are aware that Power BI performance is heavily influenced by how your data is structured in SQL Server but don’t have a clear understanding of how to optimize your SQL data structure for Power BI. In this article, we look at different ways to structure the data and tables to help improve Power BI query performance.
2025-10-13
Blogs
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Question of the Day
Encoding URLs
I have this data in a table:
CREATE TABLE Response ( ResponseID INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT ResponsePK PRIMARY KEY , ResponseVal VARBINARY(5000) ) GOIf I want to get a value from this table that I can add to a URL in a browser, which of these code items produces a result I can use? See possible answers