Why Does Everyone Have More Friends Than You?
No, the answer isn’t because you’re a DBA. This isn’t a technical post about databases, but rather a discussion of a statistical paradox that I read about recently. Statistics...
2019-10-01
40 reads
Matthew McGiffen
- Twitter: @MattMcGiffen
- Website: https://matthewmcgiffen.com/
Check Query Progress with Live Query Stats
This is something I touched on back in 2017 a little after the Live Query Statistics feature was introduced with SQL 2016, but I was using the functionality this...
2019-09-26 (first published: 2019-09-18)
1,927 reads
SQL Server Wishlist
This month for T-SQL Tuesday Kevin Chant asks us what our fantasy SQL feature would be. https://www.kevinrchant.com/2019/09/03/t-sql-tuesday-118-your-fantasy-sql-feature/ I think it’s appropriate to give a shout-out to Microsoft at this...
2019-09-11
85 reads
Query Store stores dates as UTC
One of the powerful aspects of Query Store is the ability to directly query the DMVs for details of historical executions and performance. A key view for this is...
2019-09-04 (first published: 2019-08-21)
311 reads
The 99 Flavours of SQL Server are all Vanilla
There are so many options for running SQL Server now. It can feel a little intimidating. You’ve spent years gaining experience with SQL running on Windows Server. On bare...
2019-09-03 (first published: 2019-08-22)
560 reads
Find queries with high memory grants – using Query Store
I had a server that looked like it had been suffering from memory contention. I wanted to see what queries were being run that had high memory requirements. The...
2019-08-14 (first published: 2019-07-31)
777 reads
Adding a Column with a Default Constraint
Last week a question came up about adding a column to a table, and giving that column a default constraint. Would that default value be assigned to all existing...
2019-07-24 (first published: 2019-07-16)
467 reads
T-SQL Tuesday #114 Puzzle Party – Roundup
Here’s my round-up for this month’s T-SQL Tuesday. Thanks to everyone who contributed last week. It was great reading your posts and seeing the different ways you interpreted the...
2019-05-21
97 reads
T-SQL Tuesday #114 – Puzzle Party
A few years back I started running regular SQL workshops in my workplace. Teaching beginners the basics of querying databases with SQL, as well as more advanced topics for...
2019-05-07
118 reads
“SSPI handshake failed” \ “The login is from an untrusted domain” errors
I’ve recently encountered an issue that was difficult to resolve and I didn’t find the particular cause that was troubling...
2019-04-26 (first published: 2019-02-12)
2,960 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