Tip: Expanding a SQL statement
In all recent versions of the database you can call DBMS_UTILITY.EXPAND_SQL_TEXT to get the “true” version of a SQL that the database will run. It takes your SQL as...
2026-07-03 (first published: 2026-07-02)
24 reads
AI Helps Me with My Sloppiness
I type fairly well. Well, I type fast, but I do wear out a backspace key relatively quickly on most keyboards. That and a space bar. AI helps me...
2026-07-01
33 reads
WITH clause gets a 26ai boost!
By way of background, a while back I did video called “My New Favourite Join” on the LATERAL clause. The reason I like it is that it lets you...
2026-07-13 (first published: 2026-07-01)
557 reads
Mystery Backups: Estimating Disk Space When All You Have Are .BAK Files
How Do You Determine How Much Disk Space You Need If You’re Handed 18 SQL Server Backups and No History? Happy last day of June, dear reader. Today’s post...
2026-06-30
2 reads
Automatic Index Compaction
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend. Azure SQL’s new Automatic Index Compaction targets page density directly — so I tested it.
2026-07-10 (first published: 2026-06-30)
269 reads
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but I’d like to apply the Goldilocks principle to a database object-namely, a materialized view. You...
2026-06-30
22 reads
Monday Monitor Tips: Virtual Machine Usage and Cost
One of the things I’ve been requesting for a number of years is cost information. I could see this coming in 2015 with the move to the cloud and...
2026-07-13 (first published: 2026-06-29)
202 reads
Advice I Like: Respect
“Don’t aim to have others like you; aim to have them respect you.” – from Excellent Advice for Living This is an interesting piece of advice. It’s easy to...
2026-06-26
91 reads
Blue Sky Programming – The Optimism Trap
Many years ago, before I joined Oracle, I was working on a major modernisation project. We were replacing an existing non-Oracle system with an entirely new Oracle database application...
2026-06-27 (first published: 2026-06-26)
32 reads
Setting Up a Mac for Data Engineering and AI Work
If you work with data pipelines, SQL, notebooks, or machine learning models, a Mac with Apple Silicon is genuinely one of the best machines you can have as a...
2026-07-10 (first published: 2026-06-25)
321 reads
Blogs
Rambling about Data on Wheels – origins, branding, expansion
By DataOnWheels
I have been asked many times about how the name “Data on Wheels” came...
Think Twice Before Enabling Fabric’s Inbound Network Protection
Fabric inbound network protection involves two tenant-level controls: Private Link and Block Public Internet...
Match the Model to the Task, Not the App: An Orchestrator-Worker Pattern in Python
Most apps that call an LLM send every request to the same model. That...
Forums
AI Observability Challenges in FinOps as a DBA
Comments posted to this topic are about the item AI Observability Challenges in FinOps...
Migration Challenge: Excessive FULLSCAN Statistics Update Duration Blocking SQL
Hello everyone , I am planning to migrate a database from SQL Server 2014...
SQL Agent Job Automated Change Capture Process
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Agent Job Automated Change...
Question of the Day
Finding a Database Master Key
Where do I check for the existence of a Database Master Key (DMK) in SQL Server 2025?
See possible answers