Optimizing a cursor based routine – Part 2
In the second part of his optimization series, Dave Ballantyne shows us how to add conditional logic to set based, more efficient T-SQL code.
Tempdb Space Usage in SQL Server
We all know how important tempdb is and know that tempdb gets recreated every time SQL Server is restarted. Here we dig a little deeper to focus on how space is used inside tempdb.
Cost of the Cloud
The cloud should bring with it lower costs, and better efficiency, but that's not necessarily the way things are. Microsoft has a great internal project that costs out the cloud for their departments, and this would be a great addition to the public or private clouds.
Optimizing a cursor based routine – Part 1
Learn how you can remove a cursor and optimize a routine that loops through a series of data and performs various calculations in this short article from Dave Ballantyne.
TSQL Challenge 59 - Playing Chess in TSQL – Part 2
Your job is to generate a string using Forsyth-Edwards Notation which represents the final position of pieces after performing a series of moves from the original position
Where Do You Go for Authoritative SQL Server Best Practices?
There is now a vast amount of SQL Server information and 'best practice' advice available on the Internet, in the form of innumerable blogs, community sites and forums. Finding an answer to your question is relatively easy, but finding the right, or best, answer is harder than ever.
Highlighting repeating groups in SSRS 2008 R2 charts
In a typical bar chart, the height of the bars represents the value of the data along the X axis and the Y axis represents the category of the data point. All these values can be classified in logical groups depending upon the logic used for analysis. One general requirement that arises in the case of repeating groups, is to highlight these groups without representing it on the X or Y scale. In this tip we will look at how to address this requirement.
Taking It to the Extreme: SQLCLR and Parallelism
Learn to use SQLCLR, parallelism and how to write better performing SQL code from MVP Adam Machanic in New York City on July 14-15. Early bird discounts available with the code "EARLYBIRD".
Blogs
Narrow Task Decomposition in AI Pipeline Agents
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
Car Update: August 2026
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
Forums
Searching for my own posts
I have a really stupid question... Is there an easy way to search for...
How to Work with On-Premises AI Models to Generate T-SQL Code
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Work with On-Premises...
Escaping Strings
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Escaping Strings
Question of the Day
Escaping Strings
The STRING_ESCAPE() function requires 2 parameters in SQL Server 2025. The first is a string of text and the second is the type of escape rules being used. What are the options for the second parameter?
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