Why Not Just Use VARCHAR(MAX)?
A while ago I was looking into some odd errors that were cropping up in an application, when I spotted that all the columns in a table were defined...
2025-06-30
60 reads
Blog Posts
A Six Week Break
Today is my last day of work for six weeks. I start my sabbatical Monday, or maybe this afternoon, and will be gone. I may or may not blog,...
2025-06-27
66 reads
Advice I Like: Focus on what’s important
Don’t let someone else’s urgency becomes your emergency. In fact, don’t be governed by the urgent of any sort. Focus on the important. The urgent is a tyrant. –...
2025-06-27 (first published: 2025-06-13)
450 reads
Build a Snapshot Backup Catalog in Pure Storage with SQL Server 2025’s Native REST API
I’m really excited to share some new functionality in SQL Server 2025 combined with some innovations in FlashArray’s REST API.
In this post, I’m going to show you how to...
2025-06-27
119 reads
Speaking at the 2025 PASS Data Community Summit
I will be back in Seattle this year attending the 2025 PASS Data Community Summit. This will mark my fourth year attending the Summit (I also attended one year...
2025-06-27
46 reads
Starting Points for Quantum Computing Learning
I didn't have these in my slides for the Techno Security & Digital Forensics Conference, but brought them up the web browser during the presentation. If you're looking at...
2025-06-27 (first published: 2025-06-09)
373 reads
The Book of Redgate: Motivation
Another of our values is this: Motivation isn’t about carrots and sticks. Constant oversight and the threat of punishment are incompatible with great, fulfilling work. We believe in creating...
2025-06-27
77 reads
Using a GenAI to Help Brent
Brent had a query exercise recently about train stations moving in some order and having overrides to this order in emergencies. I suppose he’s been traveling a lot lately...
2025-06-27
24 reads
2 Tips to a Working Schedule
When I watched the following video from Justin Sung, I realized that I am often guilty of the two problems he cites with regards to making my schedule work...
2025-06-26
34 reads
Monitoring SQL Server Performance with the Pure Storage FlashArray OpenMetrics Exporter
I’m excited to share a new open-source project I’ve been working on that combines two of my favorite areas: SQL Server and Pure Storage FlashArray performance monitoring. If you’ve...
2025-06-26
37 reads
Blogs
5 Starter Projects for Your AI and Data Engineering Portfolio
Reading tutorials is fine. Shipping something is better. If you are trying to break...
The Book of Redgate: Taking Breaks
By Steve Jones
We work hard at Redgate, though with a good work-life balance. One interesting observation...
Database AI Agents: The Read-Only Rule
By Arun Sirpal
Fourth in a series on Ai and databases. What Read-Only Advisory Actually Means A...
Forums
Pro SQL Server Internals
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SQL ART: Who's Blocking Who? Visualising SQL Server Blocking With Spatial Geometry
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL ART: Who's Blocking Who?...
Running SQLCMD II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Running SQLCMD II
Question of the Day
Running SQLCMD II
I run this command to start SQLCMD:
sqlcmd -S localhost -E -c "proceed"At the prompt, I type this (the 1> and 2> are prompts):
1> select @@version 2> goWhat happens? See possible answers