Temporary Staging Tables
Watch this week's video on YouTube
SQL Server Spool operators are a mixed bag. On one hand, they can negatively impact performance when writing data to disk in tempdb. On...
2019-05-07
20 reads
Pausing / Resuming Azure SQL DW
Before writing about pausing (and resuming) Azure SQL Data Warehouse (DW) it makes sense to discuss the architecture of this product. At a high level it involves a control...
2019-05-07
131 reads
T-SQL Tuesday #114 – Puzzle Party
A few years back I started running regular SQL workshops in my workplace. Teaching beginners the basics of querying databases with SQL, as well as more advanced topics for...
2019-05-07
131 reads
Power BI Interview Questions – Volume 01 – Overview
Welcome to a brand new series that I have started with with Erin Ostrowsky [Blog | Twitter] that will focus on interviewing for a Power
2019-05-06
78 reads
Midlands PASS – Next Meeting and Summit Discount Code
Midlands PASS is an official PASS chapter located in Columbia, SC, USA. Here’s an update about our schedule, as well as the PASS discount code. No May or June...
2019-05-06
77 reads
Launching ADS from SSMS
If you haven’t heard, SSMS v18 went GA (Generally Availability) recently. You can download it from Microsoft, though if you have a preview version, you do need to uninstall...
2019-05-17 (first published: 2019-05-06)
580 reads
Query Store, Plan Forcing and Table Variables
This weekend I was in Stockholm in Sweden, talking Query Store and plan forcing with Steinar Anderson, when he mentioned the problems he had while forcing plans that had...
2019-05-06
167 reads
SQL Server Large Memory Pages
SQL Server Enterprise Edition can leverage large memory pages to reduce the amount of memory pointers required for larger SQL Server deployments. Reducing the number of pointers makes the...
2019-05-20 (first published: 2019-05-06)
513 reads
db_owner in msdb == sysadmin
This doesn’t require much in the way discussion. This isn’t exactly a huge issue since I don’t think granting db_owner ... Continue reading
2019-05-22 (first published: 2019-05-06)
551 reads
Exporting an .ISPAC from the SSIS Catalog via the SSIS PowerShell Provider
In my last blog post I showed that using the SSIS Provider could be an easier option for deploying an .ISPAC file, vs. the PowerShell script method shown in...
2019-05-06
22 reads
Blogs
Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference — Barcelona 2026
By James Serra
Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...
Au Revoir for now
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
Forums
Let's Talk Certifications
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications, which is...
The Hidden Security Risks of Role Combination in SSAS Tabular
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hidden Security Risks of...
The Empty Aggregate
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Empty Aggregate
Question of the Day
The Empty Aggregate
I have this table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerOrder] ( [OrderID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NULL, [total] [money] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOWhat is returned from this code? (answers are for the sum and then the count)
SELECT SUM(total) AS sum,
COUNT(total) AS count
FROM dbo.CustomerOrder;
See possible answers