Using a Staging Environment for Tracking Down Bugs
A discussion why having a staging environment with data that mirrors production is vital to tracking down issues.
Being able to...
2011-06-08
2,136 reads
Help With SQL
Using Nightly Populated Tables For Faster SQL Queries
A discussion about nightly populated tables and how they have reduced SQL Server load.
What’s more important – speed or data accuracy/quality...
2011-06-05
1,292 reads
Avoiding OR Conditions with Joins
Why OR conditions in join statements should be avoided and an example fix.
OR conditions and join statements – some things just...
2011-06-03
2,808 reads
SQL Exercise During Candidate Interview Process
A discussion of how BPS uses a SQL exercise for candidates and why it is helpful.
At the Boston Public Schools,...
2011-06-01
2,709 reads
SQL Query Run Time Estimation
A followup to a post about subqueries with an estimation for how long it would take for the query to...
2011-05-30
3,416 reads
Using Views for Faster SQL Query Development
A discussion of how views give a more denormalized means for querying against normalized tables.
Ad-hoc reports are frequently requested at...
2011-05-28
843 reads
Random Ordering of Results using NEWID
A discussion of how NEWID can be used to help randomize the results returned from a SQL query.
A scenario I...
2011-05-26
1,143 reads
Efficiency of Subqueries and OR conditions in SQL
A discussion of how joins significantly outperform subqueries and how this is more evident when OR conditions are involved.
SQL queries...
2011-05-25
949 reads
Double digits in posts!
Thank you to everyone reading this site - Please enjoy your stay!
HelpWithSQL has hit double digits in posts! I hope everyone...
2011-05-24
615 reads
SQL Joins and Subqueries
A discussion about SQL joins and subqueries with information about how to format join statements properly.
In any non-trivial task, developers...
2011-05-22
1,104 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