What I Love About My Job
In June this year I took redundancy from the company I’d worked at for the previous 11 years. It was of course an uncertain time while I figured out...
2023-12-25 (first published: 2023-12-07)
206 reads
Matthew McGiffen
- Twitter: @MattMcGiffen
- Website: https://matthewmcgiffen.com/
T-SQL Tuesday 167 – Encryption and Data Protection Roundup
Huge thanks to everyone who responded to my invitation to blog on Encryption and Data Protection for this month’s T-SQL Tuesday. I got what I hoped for, which was...
2023-10-30 (first published: 2023-10-17)
317 reads
T-SQL Tuesday: Encryption and Data Protection
I have the honour of hosting this month’s T-SQL Tuesday. In case there’s any doubt that’s for October 2023, I’m posting this invitation a little early as I got...
2023-09-29
29 reads
Manually updating Statistics in SQL Server
Having up to date statistics is vital for getting the best performance out of your queries. Even though SQL Server automatically updates statistics in the background for you, you...
2023-09-06
32 reads
Statistics and the Ascending Key Problem
I’ve mentioned previously how not having up to date statistics can cause problems in query performance. This post looks at something called the Ascending Key Problem which can badly...
2023-07-21
120 reads
What Happens in the Background when Executing Queries with Always Encrypted
In previous posts we've looked at a number of aspects of Always Encrypted and how it works. I think it's very useful to understand how it actually works in...
2023-07-03 (first published: 2023-06-15)
244 reads
When do Statistics get updated?
Statistics objects are important for allowing the SQL Server Optimizer to make good estimates and form efficient execution plans. Related to that it's useful for us to understand when...
2023-06-28
153 reads
Parameter Sensitive Plan Optimization in SQL Server 2022. What is it and is it any good?
Parameter Sensitive Plan (PSP) optimization is a new feature in SQL Server 2022 that aims to improve the performance of parameterized queries. It is part of the Intelligent Query...
2023-06-26 (first published: 2023-06-08)
329 reads
What are Statistics in SQL Server?
Statistics are vitally important in allowing SQL Server to find the most efficient way to execute your queries. In this post we learn more about them, what they are...
2023-06-21
305 reads
What is Always Encrypted and how does it work?
Always Encrypted was a new encryption feature added to SQL Server with the 2016 version of the product. Initially it was just available in enterprise edition, but from SQL...
2023-06-21 (first published: 2023-06-05)
359 reads
Blogs
SQL Server 2025 CU1 Fixes the Docker Desktop AVX Issue on macOS
Microsoft fixed the AVX instruction issue in SQL Server 2025 CU1. The container now...
Advice I Like: Ranch Rules
By Steve Jones
Leave a gate behind you the way you first found it. – from Excellent...
Fix Slow, Bloated MSDB: Purge Old History And Add Missing Indexes
By SQLPals
Fix Slow, Bloated MSDB: Purge Old History And Add Missing Indexes ...
Forums
25 Years of SQL Server Central
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years of SQL Server...
The Decoded Value
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
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition...
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)See possible answers