Data Compression in SQL Server – Pros and Cons
SQL Server supports row and page compression on tables, indexes and partitions. This can lead to reduced I/O and better performance. However, it can also result in additional CPU...
2016-05-10
17 reads
SQL Server Command Timeout – Application Timeout – Attention
When you use ODBC or SqlClient to access data from SQL Server, by default the query will be cancelled if there is no response from the server within a...
2016-05-09
29 reads
2016-04-05
9 reads
My Best Blog Posts from 2015
ALWAYS LEARNING About mid-way into August of 2015, I learned some important new factors in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that caused me to make some big changes to the way in...
2016-02-01
14 reads
My Best Blog Posts from 2015
ALWAYS LEARNING About mid-way into August of 2015, I learned some important new factors in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) that caused me to make some big changes to the way in...
2016-02-01
8 reads
2015-10-19
4 reads
2015-10-05
7 reads
2015-09-18
8 reads
House Price Predictions @ PASS 2015
The PASS speakers were announced a quite a number of weeks ago now for PASS 2015 in October – and I felt pretty damn honored to be one of the 160 or...
2015-09-07
4 reads
House Price Predictions @ PASS 2015
The PASS speakers were announced a quite a number of weeks ago now for PASS 2015 in October – and I felt pretty damn honored to be one of the 160 or...
2015-09-07
5 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