Experimenting with Go-SQLCMD
Steve takes a look at go-sqlcmd, the newest evolution of the sqlcmd command line tool.
2023-04-21
7,879 reads
Tools for development
Azure Automation With Visual Studio Code
Microsoft combined the power of two powerful tools by announcing the public preview of Azure Automation Visual Studio Code Extension. This article will show you how to get started.
2023-02-22
5,839 reads
7 DB Forge SQL Studio Features Discovered in Less Than 2 Hours
dbForge SQL Studio gives you a few advantages over SSMS. See what Kenneth discovered during his first use of the tool.
2022-04-27
4,676 reads
Performance Tuning Using Free Tools, Part 2
You can do essential performance tuning on your SQL Server databases using a FREE toolkit!
2022-01-14
5,538 reads
2021-03-30
441 reads
Tool Limits
Today Steve asks about the tools you use for your job and if they help or hurt your productivity.
2021-03-19
175 reads
Your Favorite IDE
SSMS is, well, it's what we mostly have from Microsoft. It's been around a long time, but it is getting regularly released. There are new versions about every quarter, and there are bug fixes and minor enhancements. Azure Data Studio appears to be where Microsoft would like most of us to move, but I, and […]
2020-12-04
299 reads
The Separation of Tools
SSMs and ADS are the new tools for SQL Server and the data platform, both of which are now available separately from SQL Server.
2020-11-02
513 reads
Other IDEs
Most of us use SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) to manage our SQL Server instances or to write database code. However, Microsoft does give us database options with Visual Studio, VS Code, and Azure Data Studio. It does seem as though Microsoft would prefer more of us move to ADS, but I'm not sure I'm […]
2020-06-17
299 reads
Microsoft SQL Server Utilities and Tools
Useful free and paid utilities and tools for Microsoft SQL Server - complete list of 275 Utilities
2020-06-02 (first published: 2020-05-26)
38,606 reads
Blogs
Learn Better: Pause to Review More
By Brian Kelley
If you want to learn better, pause more in your learning to intentionally review.
Azure SQL Managed Instance Next-Gen: Bring on the IOPS
By John
If you’ve used Azure SQL Managed Instance General Purpose, you know the drill: to...
SQL, MDX, DAX – the languages of data
By DataOnWheels
Ramblings of a retired data architect Let me start by saying that I have...
Forums
Two foreign keys to the same table. Can't cascade deletes.
Not sure if this is really a relational theory question but it seems about...
Connecting Power BI to SSAS and effective user not working
Hi everyone, Below is a consolidated summary of what we validated Architecture & data...
High Availability setup - has anyone seen this method?
Hi all, I recently moved to a new employer who have their HA setup...
Question of the Day
Encoding URLs
I have this data in a SQL Server 2025 table:
CREATE TABLE Response ( ResponseID INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT ResponsePK PRIMARY KEY , ResponseVal VARBINARY(5000) ) GOIf I want to get a value from this table that I can add to a URL in a browser, which of these code items produces a result I can use? See possible answers