Advice I Like: The Main Thing
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. – from Excellent Advice for Living We can summarize this advice as focus on what’s important. I...
2025-03-21
11 reads
Blog Posts
Tally Table Alternatives: #SQLNewBlogger
We published an article recently at SQL Server Central on Tally Tables in Fabric from John Miner. In it he showed how this can be efficient. A day after...
2025-03-21 (first published: 2025-03-12)
6,964 reads
T-SQL Tuesday #184 Mentoring and Sponsorship
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday blog party is hosted by Deborah Melkin – Data Platform MVP, WIT co-lead and WITspiration founder. Deb’s invitation is to blog about mentoring and sponsorship. What...
2025-03-21 (first published: 2025-03-11)
6,660 reads
Sic Transit Gloria Community
When Covid took out the PASS organization, I had someone say to me, “Well, that’s the end of the data community.” My response was pretty simple, “Nope. The community...
2025-03-20
17 reads
DATEADD Truncates the Number Parameter: #SQLNewBlogger
This was an interesting thing I saw in a Question of the Day submission. I hadn’t thought about the issue, but apparently DATEADD truncates values rather than rounding them....
2025-03-19
137 reads
Deploy at Low Priority
Learn how to deploy schema changes in an always-online SQL Server environment without a maintenance window. This utility reduces blocking and improves deployment success.
The problem
I attempted to deploy a...
2025-03-19 (first published: 2025-03-07)
204 reads
Mistakes IT Shops Without a DBA Make
We get it. There’s no budget for a DBA on staff, or even a contract support firm like Dallas DBAs. You are not alone! There are thousands of firms...
2025-03-19 (first published: 2025-03-07)
609 reads
Our SQL Server is Slow! What Do I Do First?
Don’t Panic! It’s a vague but common complaint, frequently with no additional details. Before blindly restarting SQL Server, let’s walk through quick checks that don’t require deep DBA skills....
2025-03-19
258 reads
Using SQLFluff
I thought I didn’t care about linting, and lately, I haven’t written a lot of SQL, but for the SQL I do write, I have SQLFluff to help me...
2025-03-18
278 reads
A Couple Quick GENERATE_SERIES Tests
I had someone reach out about generate_series() recently, saying they hadn’t realized this was a new feature in SQL Server 2022. They were wondering if it was better than...
2025-03-17 (first published: 2025-03-05)
376 reads
Blogs
Why your data still can’t answer a simple question
Every organization I talk to has the same problem dressed up in different clothes....
T-SQL Tuesday #197 Invitation – An impactful session or two from a conference
By DataOnWheels
I am delighted to host this month’s T-SQL Tuesday invitation. If you are new...
Did You Really Name That Default?
By alevyinroc
Ten years (and a couple jobs) ago, I wrote about naming default constraints to...
Forums
The day-to-day pressures of a DBA team, and how we can work smarter with automation and AI
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The day-to-day pressures of a...
CMS server query & temp tables
I am annoyed. We have a CMS server that has hundreds of servers saved...
The Problem Isn't Always Your Query or Schema... Sometimes It's Hidden Assumptions
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Problem Isn't Always Your...
Question of the Day
Identity Defaults
What happens when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest
(
id int IDENTITY(10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
See possible answers