Matthew McGiffen

I started my career in IT as a developer with Visual Basic, C# and ASP working with SQL Server backends. For the last ten years though I’ve focused on the SQL Server side of things. Currently I’m working for a leading software vendor for the financial industry as a DBA, doing a mixture of development and data architecture. If I have a speciality it is in making things run faster.

Twitter: @MattMcGiffen
Website: https://matthewmcgiffen.com/

Setting up Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

You can set up Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) when you first create a database, or you can apply it to...

2018-01-26

2,658 reads

How does Query Store capture cross database queries?

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

When I was writing my post Capture the most expensive queries across your SQL Server using Query Store a question crossed...

2017-11-16

628 reads

Avoiding confusion with SQLCMD variables

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

SQLCMD variables can be a useful way of having changeable parameters for your SQL scripts, allowing you to specify the...

2017-11-01

9,916 reads

Bug with STATISTICS TIME?

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

I love the STATISTICS IO and STATISTICS TIME commands. They are such a powerful and easy way to be able...

2017-10-17

504 reads

Setting up Change Data Capture (CDC)

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

As mentioned in my post Auditing Data Access in SQL Server for GDPR Compliance CDC can be a useful tool for...

2017-10-03

16,598 reads

When Deadlocks Become Art

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

We’ve all had to solve deadlock issues. Identify the two conflicting pieces of code, work out an appropriate change to...

2017-09-19

691 reads

Setting the Sample Rate for Auto Stats updates

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

SQL Server functionality can move on pretty quickly sometimes, and it’s not always all about the big features but the...

2017-09-12

2,091 reads

Viewing the Statistics Objects Used to Create an Execution Plan

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

A while ago now I was running some Performance Tuning workshops and was asked how you can find out which Statistics...

2017-09-01

403 reads

How to be a bad interviewer

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

In the monthly SQL blogging party that is T-SQL Tuesday (brainchild of Adam Machanic), Kendra Little has invited us this...

2017-08-08

1,419 reads

Manually updating Statistics

by Matthew McGiffen

Matthew McGiffen DBA

Even though SQL Server automatically updates statistics in the background for you, you may find there are times when you...

2017-08-01

2,423 reads

Blogs

The Benefits of Teaching

By Brian Kelley

Even preparing for a class or seminar with set materials takes a lot of...

Power BI, Excel, OneLake – Dreams Do Come True!

By DataOnWheels

I can’t believe it’s finally here! A way to have Excel live in OneDrive...

The Book of Redgate: What Our Staff Says

This image is from 2010, and it goes along with my last post of...

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Forums

Help! MEMORY_ALLOCATION_EXT wait stalls

Hi I have an overnight process that moves allot of claims records Been working...

Unlocking Data Transformation: My journey with dbt (Data Build Tool) on SQL Server

By ashok.gadiparthi

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Unlocking Data Transformation: My journey...

Putting the Player with the Number

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Putting the Player with the...

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Question of the Day

Putting the Player with the Number

In SQL Server 2025, what does this return?

DECLARE @player varchar(20) = 'Bo Nix',
@num VARCHAR = '10'

SELECT @player || @num

See possible answers