Nagaraj Venkatesan

I am Nagaraj (aka Raj), a SQL Server Database Administrator for one of the busiest OLTP systems in Singapore. Being a SQL Enthusiast for over 10 years now, I love to explore and share more and more on SQL Server.

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Advice I Like: Ranch Rules

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Leave a gate behind you the way you first found it. – from Excellent...

Fix Slow, Bloated MSDB: Purge Old History And Add Missing Indexes

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Fix Slow, Bloated MSDB: Purge Old History And Add Missing Indexes ...

Three Ways to Use Snowflake Data in Microsoft Fabric

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Organizations increasingly want Snowflake and Microsoft Fabric to coexist without duplicating data or fragmenting...

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25 Years of SQL Server Central

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years of SQL Server...

The Decoded Value

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Decoded Value

Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition in Kubernetes: A Cost-Effective Alternative to RDS

By Sujai Krishna

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition...

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Question of the Day

The Decoded Value

In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code: 

DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!';
DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX);

SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000)));
SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded)

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