Fix Slow, Bloated MSDB: Purge Old History And Add Missing Indexes
After tempdb, msdb is often the most abused system database, growing unchecked until it tanks...
2026-02-02 (first published: 2026-01-30)
21 reads
Reality (And Limits) of Instant File Initialization for Transaction Logs in SQL Server 2022
If you’ve spent any time tuning SQL Server, you’ve probably heard “Turn...
2026-02-02 (first published: 2026-01-27)
33 reads
Dry-run xp_delete_file Before Actually Deleting Files?
xp_delete_file doesn’t really have a built-in dry-run option to preview which files it would remove. But there’s a simple workaround,...
2025-12-10 (first published: 2025-11-27)
460 reads
Writing Better Dynamic SQL
This updated and "sort" of a style guide is for SQL developers and, to some extent, DBAs, essentially anyone daring (and sometimes...
2025-11-18
287 reads
Set Theory vs. Batch Mode in SQL Server
Not long ago, a colleague of mine was completely shocked when he first heard about SQL Server’s Batch Mode feature. His immediate...
2025-10-15 (first published: 2025-09-23)
577 reads
Measuring and Improving SQL Server Query Plan Cache Efficiency
The query plan cache hit ratio in SQL Server indicates the percentage of queries that are executed...
2025-07-11 (first published: 2025-06-24)
614 reads
15 Characters or Less: The Challenge of SQL Server Listeners Name
There is a hard limit on how long your AlwaysOn listener name can be. That...
2025-01-27 (first published: 2025-01-14)
369 reads
How to clear the SSMS cache?
If you are reading this, it's probably because you too have this rare need to clear the SSMS cache for...
2025-01-13 (first published: 2025-01-10)
2,295 reads
Database Property LastGoodCheckDbTime to Get the Last Successful DBCC CHECKDB on a Database
As one of the preventive database maintenance tasks, performing database integrity checks on almost every database you...
2024-07-01 (first published: 2024-06-13)
546 reads
Search and Export Script for SQL Server Databases
Plainly speaking, this article is about searching for a specific value inside all tables and their columns of a SQL database and...
2024-04-24 (first published: 2024-04-09)
593 reads
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
By Steve Jones
One of the features we advocates have been advocating for is a better way...
Microsoft fixed the AVX instruction issue in SQL Server 2025 CU1. The container now...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years of SQL Server...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Decoded Value
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition...
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