Are You a Good Engineer?
A thread about what it takes to be a good engineer has Steve commenting on those characteristics that are important to him.
2022-01-28
173 reads
Editorials
Defining DevOps
Many people ask about DevOps and what it entails. Steve has a few thoughts on the challenges of adopting DevOps in a company.
2022-01-26
149 reads
Knowing When to Respond
I ran into this quote on the Microsoft Learn site, which I thought was a great way to think about how to administer a system: "Without a baseline, every issue encountered could be considered normal and therefore not require any additional intervention." When I've had users file tickets or complain about things not working well, […]
2022-01-24
144 reads
2022-01-22
75 reads
The Need for 256GB
Today Steve wonders how many of you really need 256GB of RAM in Standard Edition.
2022-01-21
356 reads
Most of Us Are Vulnerable
Security is hard, and while data professionals might not be responsible for network issues, we ought to be aware that there could be vulnerabilities that might attack our systems.
2022-01-19
255 reads
It Isn't Worth Automating
Every year I'm responsible for a portion of the Database Weekly newsletters. I used to do half, but right now Kathi, Grant, and I are on a rotation. Our boss puts out a schedule each year, which tells me the weeks for which I am responsible. Each January I then set up a recurring appointment […]
2022-01-17
192 reads
T-SQL Requires the Right Approach
Some of the most problematic T-SQL code I’ve seen over the years originated because the developer approached T-SQL with techniques more suitable for developing applications. I often saw these issues in my consulting days and always took the opportunity to teach the customer instead of only fixing the problems. One reason is that SQL is […]
2022-01-15
234 reads
2022-01-14
310 reads
Coding for the Future
Writing code that solves problems and adapts to the future is a challenge, but it's something we should think about.
2022-01-12
280 reads
Blogs
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...
T-SQL Snapshot Backups on Availability Group Secondary Replicas
One of my favourite features of SQL Server 2022 was the T-SQL Snapshot Backups....
The Book of Redgate: Hours
By Steve Jones
I have said and written this many times: Redgate Software is the type of...
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