2026-04-01
205 reads
Uncategorized
Answering Questions On Dropped Columns
Answering a couple of questions from the previous posts about dropping columns.
2026-03-18
2,116 reads
How to Help Copilot Encourage Good Database Standards
I know a lot of y’all lag behind on upgrading SSMS, but v22.3 just introduced something that you need to be aware of. It’s going to impact any of your users who DO upgrade their SSMS, or who use Github Copilot. There’s something that you can do in order to improve Copilot’s code quality and make it match your preferred coding standards.
2026-03-06
2026-03-04
3,499 reads
SQL Server 2025 CREATE EXTERNAL MODEL and AI_GENERATE_EMBEDDINGS Commands Explained
Now that SQL Server 2025 has finally been released to the public, I was finally able to test and learn a lot about this command (named CREATE EXTERNAL MODEL), and I want to share my knowledge with you here. If you’re new to the world of AI, don’t worry, we’ll start with the basics and evolve to where this command fits in!
2026-02-25
I Just Don’t Understand Why You Don’t Update SSMS.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, SQL Server Management Studio was included as part of the SQL Server installer.
2026-02-20
Optimism Without Illusion or Why AI Needs Blunt Technologists
There is a temptation, especially in technology, to mistake momentum for maturity.
2026-02-07
154 reads
How Database Professionals Sent a Million Emails a Day from SQL Server
This is part of a look back at the history of SQL Server Central as a part of our 25-year celebration in Feb 2026. "They want how much?" That was a question I got from Andy one afternoon as we discussed how we were going to manage the growth of SQL Server Central. I had […]
2026-02-06
2,437 reads
You Have Homework
I'm very humbled and honored to be able to type this next sentence. My friend, Buck Woody, sometimes gives me book recommendations. Except, with Buck, you have to understand, it's not really a recommendation. It's an assignment. There'll be a test later. You had best have studied. Failing, well, let's not discuss that, it's too […]
2026-01-31
108 reads
Let’s Build a Better KILL. What Do We Need to Consider?
When there’s a performance emergency, a lot of us perform the same manual tasks over and over. We run sp_BlitzWho or sp_WhoIsActive, look for blocking, long-running or out-of-control queries, and kill them.
2026-01-07
Blogs
A Last Minute Trip to the EU
By Steve Jones
My life has some crazy travel stretches for sure. Between speaking, office visits, customer...
Part 3 of 3: Tuning DiskANN — R, Alpha, L, Beam Width, Recall and Latency
In Part 1, we saw how ‘Vamana’ represents vectors as nodes, connects them with...
Automated SQL Server Benchmarking with HammerDB and Docker: A Complete Testing Framework
I’m excited to announce the release of a new open-source project that fully automates...
Forums
Optional Parameter Plan Optimization in SQL Server 2025: Fixing the Kitchen-Sink Search Procedure
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Optional Parameter Plan Optimization in...
AI Experience Gap that we keep talking about
Comments posted to this topic are about the item AI Experience Gap that we...
Question of the Day
ORDER BY alias
There is a table tmp_tab:
CREATE TABLE tmp_tab ( id int, val int );
INSERT INTO tmp_tab VALUES (1, 1), (2, NULL), (3, 3), (4, 4), (5, 5);You want to order the rows ids by the following expression:
ISNULL(val, id) + 1Which of the following queries produces the expected ordering and why? (Select all correct) See possible answers