The Scary DBA

Blog Post

Apology

I’ve been somewhat light in my blogging of late. Unfortunately, I just haven’t hit any interesting or difficult problems lately...

2009-12-22

534 reads

Blog Post

XQuery For Idiots

I’m still struggling with learning XQuery. My latest little revelation was small, but vital.
The difference between:
@inXML.nodes('/rss/channel/item')and
@inXML.nodes('/rss[1]/channel[1]/item')Is the difference between a...

2009-11-30

1,754 reads

Blog Post

SQL Server XQuery For Idiots

I’m still struggling with learning XQuery. My latest little revelation was small, but vital.
The difference between:
@inXML.nodes('/rss/channel/item')and
@inXML.nodes('/rss[1]/channel[1]/item')Is the difference between a...

2009-11-30

1,557 reads

Blogs

How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later)

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How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later) Updated...

The flight recorder: Replaying what an AI agent did on my SQL Server

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“What exactly did it do on my server?” is the first question a DBA...

Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference — Barcelona 2026

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Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...

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Forums

Let's Talk Certifications

By Grant Fritchey

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications

The Hidden Security Risks of Role Combination in SSAS Tabular

By Pablo Echeverria

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hidden Security Risks of...

The Empty Aggregate

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Empty Aggregate

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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]
GO
What 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