Kudos to the Community
Steve Jones takes a day to thank everyone that donates their time to help others in the community.
The Great Forum Debate
Phil discusses the pros and cons of the traditional versus stack overflow-style model for forum debate, and wonders whether there is a database model that would support all these different forms of discussion, or cooperative work, so that we can simply fit the 'visualization' to the nature of the particular discussion.
TSQL Challenge 33 - Calculate list of bookings fully paid on the book
This problem is related to a reservation system where customers book a service and pay it in one or more transactions which may happen on different dates.
Operator of the Week - Lazy Spool
Continuing to illuminate the depths of SQL Server's Query Optimizer, Fabiano shines a light on the sixth major Showplan Operator on his list: the Lazy Spool. What does the Lazy Spool do that's so special, how does the Query Optimizer use it, and why is it so Lazy? Fabiano Amorim explains all.
The Phantom DBA
This week Steve Jones has a poll about the difficulties in getting the DBA position into companies. What's your current opinion of this profession?
SSAS: Explaining the State Transitions Viewer for Sequence Clustering
In SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008, Microsoft has added some fantastic visualizations around data-mining algorithms. These visual aids allow us to see exactly what a particular algorithm is predicting or describing—making a difficult subject easier to understand.
Concurrent processing in SSIS – Part 2
The second part of a series that looks at two additional techniques for processing data in parallel in Integration Services.
Dinosaur Databases
Do you work on a database system that's a dinosaur? A recent article called out RDBMSse as dinosaurs, but Steve Jones doesn't think that's correct.
I’m a SQL Server DBA, and I’m in Love with PowerShell
To learn PowerShell, Laerte Junior suggests that you just start using it. To encourage you to start, he provides a series of tips on using PowerShell with SQL Server to solve various everyday problems. With a little patience, a good IDE, and a bit of help and advice, "the lion is dead".
Blogs
Advice I Like: Pyramid Schemes
By Steve Jones
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a...
Using Prompt AI for a Travel Data Analysis
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
FinOps for Kubernetes: Leveraging OpenCost, KubeGreen, and Kubecost for Cost Efficiency
In the era of cloud-native applications, Kubernetes has become the default standard platform for...
Forums
Database file shrink issue.
Hi experts, I have a 3+ TB database on a 2019 sql server which...
The North Star for the Year
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The North Star for the...
Multiple Escape Characters
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Escape Characters
Question of the Day
Multiple Escape Characters
In SQL Server 2025, I run this code (in a database with the appropriate collation):
SELECT UNISTR('%*3041%*308A%*304C%*3068 and good night', '%*') AS 'A Classic';
What is returned? See possible answers