Advanced T-SQL: Replacing Slow Cursors with Window Functions
This article looks at replacing a cursor with a window function to improve performance.
2026-08-03
5,364 reads
Performance and Tuning
Database Animations: You’ve Heard of Page Splits. Here’s What They Really Mean.
You've heard that page splits are bad, and they're an indication that your table design is making your storage work too hard. You've heard that the right answer to fix it is adjusting fill factor lower, or doing regular index maintenance.
2026-08-03
Finding Bad Queries
Recognizing queries that might perform poorly is a skill that will help you, and your AI assistant, produce better code in production.
2026-08-03
115 reads
Fixing P1 Queries
Steve asks if we should focus on the slowest queries or tackle other issues in our systems. Or if we should even have to make these decisions.
2026-07-31
94 reads
Implicit Conversions Cripple SQL Server
Learn about implicit conversions, which can dramatically affect the performance of your workload.
2026-07-17
3,218 reads
Why Your Index Isn't Being Used? - Reading Execution Plans to Find the Real Culprit
Built the index, but SQL Server still scans the whole table? Learn how to read execution plans and find exactly why your index is being ignored.
2026-05-18
2,950 reads
There Are Days When I Feel Like Giving Up on the Plan Cache and Query Store.
In theory, SQL Server performance monitoring is pretty simple: 1. Review the server’s top wait types, 2. Find the queries causing those wait types, 3. Fix those queries, or improve the way the server reacts to them (indexes, settings, etc.). But in practice, step 2 is awful because:
2026-05-13
How Multi-Column Statistics Work
The short answer: in the real world, only the first column works. When SQL Server needs data about the second column, it builds its own stats on that column instead (assuming they don’t already exist), and uses those two statistics together – but they’re not really correlated.
2026-04-29
Every Database Has Problems
The magic way to get better performance from your system is to write better code from the start.
2026-04-22
154 reads
SQL Server Long-Running Query Detection: How to Find and Monitor Slow Queries
Monitoring and alerting can be overwhelming tasks, especially for those new to the world of managing production data. One common challenge for any data professional is the identification and management of queries that run for longer than they should.
2026-03-09
Blogs
Narrow Task Decomposition in AI Pipeline Agents
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
Car Update: August 2026
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
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Managing Incidents and Fighting Fires
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Backing Up a DMK
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Backing Up a DMK
Question of the Day
Backing Up a DMK
In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?
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