When do Distribution Statistics Get Updated?
Statistics objects are important to us for allowing SQL to make good estimates of the row-counts involved in different parts...
2017-07-05
769 reads
Matthew McGiffen
- Twitter: @MattMcGiffen
- Website: https://matthewmcgiffen.com/
What’s an “Index” and how do they work?
What is an Index?
We often hear indexes explained using the analogy of an index in the back of a book....
2017-06-12
1,580 reads
SQL Puzzle 1: Magic Squares
This is the first in what I hope will be a semi-regular series of recreational puzzles where SQL can be...
2017-06-07
1,563 reads
Working with Data in Always Encrypted
In this post we’re going to create some encrypted columns in a table in a test database and look at...
2017-06-06
10,524 reads
Tuning Parallelism on SQL Server
Parallelism and MAXDOP
There’s no doubt that parallelism in SQL is a great thing. It enables large queries to share the...
2017-05-26
5,292 reads
SQL Server 2016 SP1 – A significant change to licencing
A lot has been written about the change of licencing in SQL 2016 SP1. Here's my two-pence worth.
2017-05-17
10 reads
Splitting Strings on SQL Server 2016
A small change, but a great one, in SQL 2016 is native support for splitting strings.
This has to be about...
2017-05-09
780 reads
Tuning Parallelism on SQL Server
Thoughts on how to think about parallelism in SQL Server - and how to tune it.
2017-04-18
13 reads
Working with Data in Always Encrypted
In this post we’re going to create some encrypted columns in a table in a test database and look at some of the practicalities and limitations of working with...
2017-04-10
9 reads
Understanding Keys and Certificates with Always Encrypted
This post attempts to explain in simple terms what keys are involved in Always Encrypted, how they get used, and the implications of those facts.
2017-04-03
9 reads
Blogs
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Monday Monitor Tips: SQL Auditing Preview
By Steve Jones
One of the features we advocates have been advocating for is a better way...
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...
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