Antipathy for Entity Attribute Value data models
EAV models have their uses but the costs are often hidden and if not hidden, more than anticipated.
The Data Scientist
Phil Factor on why Data Science is about much more than just clever visualizations and big data.
The Optimists
A develop should be a glass-half-full kind of guy, at least according to Steve Jones. This editorial was originally published on April 15, 2008. It is being re-run as Steve is on holiday.
VARCHAR (MAX), NVARCHAR (MAX) and NTEXT Data Types
Despite NTEXT and TEXT being deprecated in SQL Server for some time they are still both used in production systems. In this article, I will briefly demonstrate the difference between a VARCHAR (MAX), NVARCHAR (MAX) and the NTEXT data types, and the impact on performance from using NTEXT/TEXT.
The Growth of Storage
This week Steve Jones asks you to predict the future of hardware. When will we have laptops that rival the specs of today's large SQL Server servers.
Working With Multi-Select Parameters for SSRS Reports
Multi-select parameters give your users control over their reports while reducing the number of reports they have to work with. This example demonstrates how to create a multi-select parameter list and pass the values to a stored procedure that will then populate the report.
Fun with ACID
What is ACID and why should we care? A look at the principal that drives all database and DB management software design: A.C.I.D.
Serious Security
The password issue has Steve Jones concerned. So many of us that use computing devices don't do a good job of securing our information.
Free eBook: SQL Server Execution Plans
Every Database Administrator, developer, report writer, and anyone else who writes T-SQL to access SQL Server data, must understand how to read and interpret execution plans. This book leads you right from the basics of capturing plans, through how to interrupt them in their various forms, graphical or XML, and then how to use the information you find there to diagnose the most common causes of poor query performance, and so optimize your SQL queries, and improve your indexing strategy.
Blogs
Prime Day Recommendations
By Steve Jones
It’s Prime Day. A few of my recommendations, since I want to do some...
Fabric for Operational Reporting & SQL Endpoint Trap
With Fabric Mirroring, Microsoft is promoting a nice and appealing story for operational reporting...
Crawl, Walk, Run with Agentic Development of Power BI Assets
If you’ve been watching AI roll through the data community and thinking, “this seems...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
Finding 'bad' characters
Hi All I am trying to find 'bad' characters that users might type in....
Extreme DAX: Take your Power BI and Fabric analytics skills to the next level
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Extreme DAX: Take your Power...
Question of the Day
Multiple Values Inserted
I have this code on SQL Server 2022. What happens when it runs all at once?
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.Commission GO CREATE TABLE dbo.Commission (id INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1) CONSTRAINT CommissionPK PRIMARY KEY , salesperson VARCHAR(20) , commission VARCHAR(20) ) GO INSERT dbo.Commission ( salesperson, commission) VALUES ( 'Brian', 12 ), ( 'Brian', 'None' ) GOSee possible answers