Editorials

SQLServerCentral Editorial

Self-Service Databases

When I first started work as a software developer, I knew that getting an environment set up where I could compile a project might take a few hours or a few days. The complexities of how people built software projects, the dependencies, and more were handled in a very immature manner. These days I can […]

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2022-11-16

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SQLServerCentral Editorial

Losing Skills Because of Automation

When I was younger, it seemed that everyone I worked with in technology knew how to build a computer. Most knew how to work with a BIOS, were comfortable with command lines, and could assemble complex compiler directives into a Make file. Over time, it seems many people, especially Windows and MacOS users, became focused […]

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2022-11-11

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SQLServerCentral Editorial

Life Organization

For years, those of us in technology have often worked outside of the core working hours for the rest of our organization. Whether this is being on-call, staying late, or coming in when asked. It's not uncommon for many developers and Ops staff to work 60, 70, or more hours to get things built/deployed/supported for […]

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2022-11-04

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Blogs

Automated SQL Server Benchmarking with HammerDB and Docker: A Complete Testing Framework

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I’m excited to announce the release of a new open-source project that fully automates...

T-SQL Snapshot Backups on Availability Group Secondary Replicas

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One of my favourite features of SQL Server 2022 was the T-SQL Snapshot Backups....

The Book of Redgate: Hours

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I have said and written this many times: Redgate Software is the type of...

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Forums

ORDER BY alias

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Optional Parameter Plan Optimization in SQL Server 2025: Fixing the Kitchen-Sink Search Procedure

By vgupta

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AI Experience Gap that we keep talking about

By Pat Wright

Comments posted to this topic are about the item AI Experience Gap that we...

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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) + 1
Which of the following queries produces the expected ordering and why? (Select all correct)

See possible answers