SQL Server 2016 SP1 – A significant change to licencing
A lot has been written about the change of licencing in SQL 2016 SP1. Here's my two-pence worth.
2017-05-17
10 reads
Matthew McGiffen DBA
Splitting Strings on SQL Server 2016
A small change, but a great one, in SQL 2016 is native support for splitting strings.
This has to be about...
2017-05-09
781 reads
Tuning Parallelism on SQL Server
Thoughts on how to think about parallelism in SQL Server - and how to tune it.
2017-04-18
13 reads
Working with Data in Always Encrypted
In this post we’re going to create some encrypted columns in a table in a test database and look at some of the practicalities and limitations of working with...
2017-04-10
9 reads
Understanding Keys and Certificates with Always Encrypted
This post attempts to explain in simple terms what keys are involved in Always Encrypted, how they get used, and the implications of those facts.
2017-04-03
9 reads
SQL Server 2016 – Always Encrypted and the GDPR
The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is coming, bringing new rules about the protection of Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
For...
2017-03-28
5,637 reads
SQL 2016 – Clone Database with Query Store
This is a quickie post to introduce the new DBCC command CLONEDATABASE.
Okay so this isn’t technically a SQL Server 2016...
2019-04-26 (first published: 2017-03-20)
2,357 reads
SQL Server Query Store
Query Store was, probably without doubt, the most anticipated and talked out new feature in SQL 2016. Certainly by the...
2019-04-26 (first published: 2017-03-13)
6,341 reads
SQL Server 2016: The Coolest New Feature – Live Query Stats
This is the first in a series of blog posts about how great SQL Server 2016 is, and why you should...
2017-02-23
1,476 reads
Blogs
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
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...
Forums
Why the following cmds in sequence do not work
I need to delete rows from both the temporal main and history tables. The...
When SQL Server Central Went Down
Comments posted to this topic are about the item When SQL Server Central Went...
The String Distance I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The String Distance I
Question of the Day
The String Distance I
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned by this code:
SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
Assume preview features are enabled. See possible answers