It's Dangerous to ISNUMERIC, Take This Try_Convert
There's an issue with some characters in T-SQL when validating numeric values out of raw varchar fields, and it can...
2013-12-17 (first published: 2013-12-12)
5,688 reads
Will Assaf
Upcoming Special Events for the Baton Rouge SQL Server User Groups
I'm happy to announce a big slate of upcoming events for Baton Rouge User Groups and especially the SQL Server...
2013-12-03
634 reads
Speaker Idol Competition at the Hammond .NET User Group
Here's the link to download the sample scripts and meme-tastic slidedeck from my presentation "SQL Server Indexes in Your Ill-Begotten...
2013-11-20
531 reads
Potential Backup Software Issues with Read-Only Databases in FULL Recovery
If you decide to park a database in read-only mode for a long period of time, go ahead and alter...
2013-11-13 (first published: 2013-11-05)
2,026 reads
PowerShell: Delete Unneeded Rows/Columns In Excel
I had a project to automate the import of a large number of excel files via SSIS into SQL 2012....
2013-11-08 (first published: 2013-11-01)
6,881 reads
SQL Saturday #255 Dallas 2013 - SQL Server Permissions and Security Principals
500+ IT pros at UT-Arlington this weekend for SQL Saturday #255 Dallas!
Notes from today:
A big shout-out to SQLSat Dallas organizer...
2013-11-03
712 reads
SQL Server Configuration Manager (sqlserverManager11.msc) Hidden after Windows 8.1 Upgrade
You may have noticed, like I did, that after upgrading-in-place from Windows 8 Enterprise to Windows 8.1 Enterprise, my local...
2013-10-22
7,254 reads
"SQL Server: Bolts to Buzzwords" presentation for the Hammond .NET User Group at Southeastern Louisiana University
One of my favorite groups to speak for (aside from the Baton Rouge SQL Server User Group) is the Hammond...
2013-10-17
432 reads
Houston Tech Fest 2013 - SQL Admin Best Practices with DMV's
Here is the downloadable file with all my sample scripts and slidedeck from my SQL Admin Best Practices with DMV's presentation from...
2013-09-28
1,043 reads
Actual Emails: TL;DR: Stop using varchar(max)
Wrote this email recently to a crew of developers who were shooting themselves in the foot with a database rich...
2013-09-05 (first published: 2013-09-03)
3,211 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
Delta Lake: The Definitive Guide: Modern Data Lakehouse Architectures with Data Lakes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Delta Lake: The Definitive Guide:...
Databricks Data Intelligence Platform: Unlocking the GenAI Revolution
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Databricks Data Intelligence Platform: Unlocking...
Storytelling with Data: Let's Practice!
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Storytelling with Data: Let's Practice!
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