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)
224 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)
1,493 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
47 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
8 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)
375 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
8 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
47 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)
597 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
20 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
13 reads
Blogs
Vibe Coding a Login Tracking System
By Steve Jones
A customer was asking about tracking logins and logouts in Redgate Monitor. We don’t...
4 CPE Opportunity (Virtual) for Charity
By Brian Kelley
Every year, the South Carolina State Internal Auditors Association and the South Carolina Midlands...
Data Céilí 2026 Call for Speakers!
Data Céilí 2026 Call for Speakers is now live! Data Céilí (pronounced kay-lee), is...
Forums
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: The || Operator
Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...
Your Value from a Conference
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Your Value from a Conference
UNISTR Basics
Comments posted to this topic are about the item UNISTR Basics
Question of the Day
UNISTR Basics
What does this code return in SQL Server 2025+? (assume the database has an appropriate collation)
SELECT UNISTR('Hello 4E16754C') AS 'A Classic';
A: 
B: 
See possible answers