A New Word: Nighthawk
nighthawk – n. a recurring thought that only seems to strike you late at night – an overdue task, a nagging guilt, a looming future – which you sometimes...
2023-12-01
71 reads
Blog Posts
Building Upon Your Productivity Momentum: Staying Productive For Life
Note: I found this sitting in my Medium draft. This was a cross-post from my old productivity blog that got lost in oblivion. Productivity is never an accident. It...
2023-12-01 (first published: 2023-11-17)
253 reads
Changing the Data Type of a Primary Key–#SQLNewBlogger
A client asked this question recently: How do I change my numeric PK to a character type? I decided to write a short blog on how to do this....
2023-12-01 (first published: 2023-11-20)
357 reads
PostgreSQL Events – A Newbies Perspective: #PGSQLPhriday 014
For this month’s #PGSQLPhriday 014 blogging event, Pavlo Golub has asked a pretty simple question: What do you think about PostgreSQL events? Prior to this year, I’d never attended...
2023-12-01
60 reads
Using ThinOptics to Read Data
As I’ve aged, I find myself struggling to read many things in my life. It started with difficulties seeing menus, but moved on to other areas. During the pandemic,...
2023-12-01
48 reads
Cosmos DB – Monitoring performance
Cosmos DB has become my latest focus and I hope to start sharing more about ways you can use it. Cosmos DB doesn’t provide the same granularity of query...
2023-11-29 (first published: 2023-11-15)
235 reads
Is that the right question to ask?
This is not a “clickbait” title, but an important consideration when it comes to developing technical solutions. Let me give you an example between two questions for SQL Server...
2023-11-29 (first published: 2023-11-17)
244 reads
SQL Prompt Tips–Using $surroundtext$ in a Snippet
A user on the SQL Community Slack was asking about what the $surroundtext$ variable. This post looks at how this can be used in snippets. This is part of...
2023-11-29
81 reads
Force parameterization is powerful-feature
Force parameterization in Microsoft SQL Server is a feature designed to optimize query performance by converting literal values in Transact-SQL statements into parameters. This process helps in plan reuse,...
2023-11-27 (first published: 2023-11-13)
808 reads
Giving a Security Webinar this Wednesday
If you haven’t already signed up, on November 29, 2023, at 11 AM Eastern Standard Time, I’m presenting a webinar on how to harden SQL Server. Link to Register...
2023-11-27
10 reads
Blogs
SQL Server 2025 RegEx and AI
By Steve Jones
One of the language changes in SQL Server 2025 that I’ve seen a lot...
T-SQL Tuesday #192: SQL Server 2025 Backup Changes
By Steve Jones
I hosted this month, but I decided to put my own entry in as...
Why Databases Still Fascinate Me
By Chris Yates
I get asked a lot about why or how I began working with databases...
Forums
Columnstore index question
Hi experts, I’ve been going through several articles and videos about Columnstore indexes, but...
Transactional Replication
Recently stood up a 2022 Enterprise server. Have 8 publications with subscriptions on a...
Member was not found in the cube when the string
Hey, I've not done a cube for many years but I find myself supporting...
Question of the Day
Identify a Slipstream Installation
I get a new SQL Server instance from my build team. How can I tell if the instance was installed using a slipstream installation later?
See possible answers