Manually updating Statistics
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...
2021-02-16
226 reads
Matthew McGiffen
- Twitter: @MattMcGiffen
- Website: https://matthewmcgiffen.com/
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...
2021-02-09
183 reads
Rowcount estimates when there are no Statistics
When you don't have statistics, what does SQL use to calculate the estimated number of rows?
2021-02-04 (first published: 2021-01-26)
295 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...
2021-01-25 (first published: 2021-01-18)
501 reads
How does Query Store capture cross database queries?
Query Store is a configuration that is enabled per database, and the plans and stats for queries executed in that database are stored in the database itself. So what...
2021-01-18 (first published: 2021-01-11)
471 reads
Identify the (Top 20) most expensive queries across your SQL Server using Query Store
Script to identify the most expensive queries on your database server using the Query Store DMVs. This allows you to look at data from a specific time frame, as...
2021-01-11 (first published: 2021-01-04)
695 reads
SQL Puzzle – Eight Queens on a Chess board
Here's a SQL Puzzle for the festive period. 2020 has been a year of many things but amongst it all, it has been the year of chess. The combined...
2020-12-24 (first published: 2020-12-15)
536 reads
Introduction to SQL Server Query Store
Introduced with SQL 2016, Query Store was, probably without doubt, the most anticipated and talked out new feature. In this post we'll just take a brief look at it,...
2020-12-21 (first published: 2020-12-14)
932 reads
TDE in Standard Edition on SQL 2019
Recently Microsoft quietly let us know that TDE (Transparent Data Encryption) will be available in the Standard Edition of SQL Server 2019. If you don’t follow SQL topics on...
2019-11-12 (first published: 2019-11-05)
7,123 reads
Instantaneous Transaction Rollback with SQL 2019
If you’ve read about the Accelerated Database Recovery feature in SQL Server 2019 you could be forgiven for thinking it’s just about speeding up database recovery time in case...
2019-10-09 (first published: 2019-09-25)
950 reads
Blogs
Using Prompt AI for a Travel Data Analysis
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
FinOps for Kubernetes: Leveraging OpenCost, KubeGreen, and Kubecost for Cost Efficiency
In the era of cloud-native applications, Kubernetes has become the default standard platform for...
2025 Wrapped for Steve
By Steve Jones
I’ve often done some analysis of my year in different ways. Last year I...
Forums
The North Star for the Year
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The North Star for the...
Multiple Escape Characters
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Escape Characters
reaching ftp thru winscp but erroring in ssis ftp task connection
Hi, below i show various results trying to reach our ftp site (a globalscape...
Question of the Day
Multiple Escape Characters
In SQL Server 2025, I run this code (in a database with the appropriate collation):
SELECT UNISTR('%*3041%*308A%*304C%*3068 and good night', '%*') AS 'A Classic';
What is returned? See possible answers