We Are Not a Meritocracy
Today Steve Jones reminds us that talent and technical skills are not necessarily enough to advance your career and that you ought to remember to work on other types of skills that you may want to improve.
Do IF statements cause recompiles?
I heard this one over at SSC a while back. “Avoid IF statements in stored procedures as they result in...
Upgrading Data Tier Applications in SQL Server 2008 R2
Changes are inevitable and like many other things in life your application will change over time. The question is how to upgrade an already deployed Data Tier Application to a newer version; what are the different methods available for upgrade and what considerations should you take?
SQLServerCentral Webinar Series #6: Gathering and Interpreting Server Metrics including SQL Monitor
In this webinar, MVP and noted author, Grant Fritchey shows you how to better keep track of what is happening on your instances by gathering information on performance from SQL Monitor and then using that to interpret the impact on your databases. Dec 14, 2010.
The Low End
Today Steve Jones talks about those products we consider "low-end." Products like Access or VB. Are they a problem for us?
Can You Dig It? – Parallelism in the Plan Cache
Sharon PruittIn the lead in to this post, I talked about how the plan cache can...
Monitor User Connections in SQL Server
This article explores the causes and remedies for applications failing due to too many open connections to SQL Server.
How Do You Work When You are Not at Work?
Things have evolved since the days of essential pagers and landline connections. Or have they? Brad ponders how the nature of remote working is evolving, and invites you help others learn from your experiences.
iPads for Christmas
A contest from Red Gate and Steve Jones could get you a copy of SQL Monitor and an iPad for Christmas. Steve Jones talks about how you can enter, and perhaps win an iPad for yourself this holiday season.
TSQL Challenge 45 - Evaluate mathematical expressions presented using
This challenge involves evaluating mathematical expressions presented using Roman Numerals and return the result of each expression.
Blogs
Identity Columns Can’t Be Updated: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I’m not sure I knew identity column values could not be updated. I ran...
Rolling Back a Broken Release
By Steve Jones
We had an interesting discussion about deployments in databases and how you go forward...
A bespoke reporting solution doesn’t have to cost the earth
By ChrisJenkins
You could be tolerating limited reporting because there isn’t an off the shelf solution...
Forums
Can someone please explain what happens?
I have mentioned this several times over several years. Can someone please help me...
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT) returns null when nothing is found instead of 0
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT Component) AS Found FROM tblComponents WHERE(Component NOT LIKE '%[a-z]%') AND(LTRIM(RTRIM(Component)) = 'GM13622')...
Remotely Engineer Fabric Lakehouse objects: The Fabric Modern Data Platform
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Remotely Engineer Fabric Lakehouse objects:...
Question of the Day
Creating JSON III
In a SQL Server 2025 table, called Beer, I have this data:
BeerIDBeerName 1Becks 2Fat Tire 3Mac n Jacks 4Alaskan Amber 8KirinI run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG(
BeerID: BeerName )
FROM beer;
What are the results? See possible answers