I started out working with Microsoft Access and SQL Server back in 2000 as the only employee doing IT full-time, and worked most of my career where “big fish in a little pond” was an overstatement. Learning is scarce when you do everything and don’t work with anyone who knows more than you. In 2010 I was plunged into the Ocean and grabbed onto anything I could find to stay afloat. I wasn’t going to simply run scripts I didn’t understand, so I learned the DMVs and system tables in the scripts I found and rewrote them all. Now, I know enough where I can start giving back to a community that saved me from drowning.

Blog Post

File Growths

I hinted at file growths in my previous posts about shrinking data and log files.  Then I talked about growing...

2016-04-11 (first published: )

1,876 reads

Blog Post

File Growths

I hinted at file growths in my previous posts about shrinking data and log files.  Then I talked about growing log files in my post Database Log VLFs.  However,...

2016-03-29

22 reads

Blogs

Cost Visibility: Tracking and Analysing Your Cloud Spend

By

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in cloud operations is maintaining clear visibility...

Whiling away an afternoon, thinking

By

I come to Heathrow often. Today is likely somewhere close to 60 trips to...

Black Box vs. Gray Box vs. White Box Testing

By

If your organization is spending money, then meaningful results are a must. Pen testing...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Fun with JSON II

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fun with JSON II

Changing Data Types

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Changing Data Types

Answering Questions On Dropped Columns

By Cláudio Silva

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Answering Questions On Dropped Columns

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Fun with JSON II

I have some data in a table:

CREATE TABLE #test_data
(
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(100),
    birth_date DATE
);

-- Step 2: Insert rows  
INSERT INTO #test_data
VALUES
(1, 'Olivia', '2025-01-05'),
(2, 'Emma', '2025-03-02'),
(3, 'Liam', '2025-11-15'),
(4, 'Noah', '2025-12-22');
If I run this query, how many rows are returned?
SELECT t1.[key] AS row,
       t2.*
FROM OPENJSON(
     (
         SELECT t.* FROM #test_data AS t FOR JSON PATH
     )
             ) t1
    CROSS APPLY OPENJSON(t1.value) t2;

See possible answers