IF RDBMS = SQL Server, NoSQL = ???
SQL Server is, arguably, the leading relational database management system out there. With continuous development and enhancement of exciting features...
2017-11-08
453 reads
DBA Resolutions
It’s said that “promises are made to be broken”. Surely database administrators don’t fall in that category? It’s that time...
2016-12-28
686 reads
SQL Server on Linux, first observations.
Is this one of those weird food combinations like honey on pizza or salt and pepper on apples that’s going...
2016-11-22
575 reads
“Witch” Statistics?
Three men are in a hot-air balloon. Soon, they find themselves lost in a canyon somewhere. One of the three...
2016-09-20
402 reads
SQL Server, a true Olympian
Suffering SQL Server Performance Issues?: A story of Olympic sprints and handy SQL Server hints!!!
Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest runner,...
2016-08-18
379 reads
SQL 2012 Identity Columns Feature
Recently, a customer mentioned that they seemed to be missing records in tables they don’t delete from. Generally, at this...
2016-02-25
1,440 reads
Freaky statistics feature
SQL Server statistics can make things a bit freaky. You might have read one of my previous articles portraying a...
2015-10-30
1,543 reads
SSMS 2016 – Compare Execution Plans
Microsoft are releasing regular CTP updates for SQL Server 2016. In the very recent release (CTP 2.4), there is a...
2015-10-20 (first published: 2015-10-16)
3,544 reads
No thrills about spills
Statistics, in simplest terms, refer to the distribution of data in a column or index. They are represented in a...
2015-09-21
765 reads
Work of art – the intra query parallelism deadlock graphs
Look at some of the graphs produced by the intra query parallelism deadlocks, below.
Bart Duncan explains this “phenomenon” (bug, rather)...
2015-09-10
1,368 reads
Blogs
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
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...
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