Thom Andrews

"Database Administrator" for a small Insurance Broker in England.

I use the quotes as, being a small business, although my role is called Database Administrator, you often need to be a jack of all trades for small companies. As a result I have exposure to Network Administration, Web Development, and some server maintenance (mainly the Ubuntu servers at the office); so although I'm not trained I've had to assist enough times to know what I'm looking for or at (which greatly helps when a problem isn't SQL Server based).

SQL Server enthusiast, however, little to no experience on with any other RDBMS. Linux and Windows user, with VB.Net experience, and enjoy to dabble in PoSH and Bash. I can read C#, it is a .Net language after all, but I'm hopeless at writing it; for some reason it's always escaped my grasp. I can't even blame it on the compulsory semi-colons as (one day) they'll be compulsory in T-SQL too (bring it on SQL Server 2037!).

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Where Your Value Separates You from Others

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Where Your Value Separates You...

Fixing the Error

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Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fixing the Error

T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Encoding Functions

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Question of the Day

Fixing the Error

On SQL Server 2025, I have a database that has this collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. I decide I want to run this code: 

SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C*3068 and good night', '*') AS 'A Classic';
I get this error:Msg 9844, Level 16, State 4, Line 24 The char/varchar input type uses an unsupported collation. Only a UTF8 collation is supported with char/varchar input type in UNISTR function.What is the easiest way to fix this error?

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