My August Christmas Card
Do you ever get the Christmas card that features a beautiful picture of a family on the front, and a letter catching you up on their year on the...
2020-08-28 (first published: 2020-08-18)
219 reads
The Non-Cluttered Index
The Length Limitations of LEN()?
I was using LEN() to troubleshoot an issue I was having with a dynamically constructed string truncating while inserting into an NVARCHAR(MAX) column. Since I know that NVARCHAR(MAX) has...
2020-07-22 (first published: 2020-07-14)
1,371 reads
New Article For Simple Talk!
Hi All, While I haven’t been writing here, I have been writing. I have a new article that has just been published on Simple Talk, and I am developing...
2020-04-16
42 reads
Level Up!
Great news! I was accepted this weekend to speak at SQLSaturday Los Angeles! This officially counts as a level up for me for my deadlock resolution quest. The event...
2020-02-25
7 reads
My Deadlock Resolution Progress Report
As I wrote last month, I went through a period of feeling personally and professionally deadlocked, and flailed about for some time before I found the answer of making...
2021-04-28 (first published: 2020-02-21)
372 reads
How Do You Decide When Can Doesn't Mean Should?
An old proverb states, “Fire is a good servant but a bad master.” Put simply, it means that when controlled, fire is a life-sustaining element. We need it for...
2020-02-07
3 reads
Discover and Clean Up Schema Ownership
My colleagues and I take schema ownership seriously. The owner (with few exceptions) should always be “dbo”. Certainly, it should not be a user. Why? Because if the user...
2020-02-03
42 reads
When the DBA is Deadlocked
When I launched The Noncluttered Index last year, it was with the intention of writing at least twice a week. For a while, that was very doable. Then, work...
2021-04-23 (first published: 2020-01-14)
595 reads
Dropping Database Users and Logins: How it Can Go So Very Wrong, and How You Can Easily Fix It
I don't normally drop users and logins in production, but when I do, and it goes wrong, I do this.
2019-09-20
17 reads
Validating Replication (All or Just One Article)
You may sometimes have reports or other processes that are dependent on transactional replication being current. If that is the case, you will probably need a mechanism to check...
2019-08-09
10 reads
Blogs
SQL Inventory Dashboards: From Raw Data to Real Insight
Tired of inventory headaches? Stock shortages and gluts don't just cause stress; they cost...
Free SQL Practice: 9 Killer Resources to Boost Your Query Skills
So, you want to get your SQL skills razor-sharp without dropping any cash? You're...
DevOps Devour Hour Slides
By Steve Jones
Here are the slides from my talk today at the Redgate NYC Devour Hour:...
Forums
Isolation Level in Azure SQL Database
Hello, Can you please clarify the following: In Azure SQL DB both ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION/READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT are set...
Question of the Day
CONCAT_WS
What output do the queries produce?
SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL ON; SELECT CONCAT_WS ('-', NULL, NULL); SET CONCAT_NULL_YIELDS_NULL OFF; SELECT CONCAT_WS ('-', NULL, NULL);See possible answers