Check Twice, Update Once
An update to the Microsoft Best Practices Analyzer tool intrigues Steve Jones as it seems to have been enhanced to better help DBAs manage SQL Server.
Restricting SecurityAdmin on SQL Server 2005/2008
Members of the securityadmin role can escalate to sysadmin rights. Here's how to restrict them back to 2000 levels.
DMVs for Query Plan Metadata
Before you can tackle any performance issues with a working database, you need to know which queries to work on first: The ones that are taking the most time in total, and which are the most expensive in terms of cache, CPU and disk. Although SQL Server Management Studio can help, it isn't long before you need an armoury of DMVs to provide you the statistics to find the culprits.
How Old Are Your Database Statistics?
Unlike fine wine, database statistics do not improve with age. I recently helped out with a client who was having...
Parsing an ADO result set into a comma separated string in SSIS
This article describes a way to parse a result set in SSIS using For each loop container, variables and SQL task.
Where Are the Programmers?
Today Steve Jones has a little fun with titles in technology, and what we might start to call ourselves instead of DBAs.
What Every DBA Ought to Know About SQL Server Cursors (and Their Alternatives)
Cursors provide a means of processing through a set of records row-by-row. However, many companies have a policy against using cursors in their SQL Server standards. This article examines the problem with cursors and alternatives to using them.
Conditional WHERE Clauses and Boolean Algebra
Utilize simple boolean algebra and nullable parameters to implement conditional WHERE clauses without dynamic SQL.
Streaming Profiler Data Through StreamInsight
Using the Trace Management objects API it is possible to capture the events happening on SQL Server or indeed Analysis Services. I got to thinking that this would be a good thing to stream out in real time in StreamInsight and do some analysis “In Flight”. So here is a short video of me doing just that.
I Love the SQL Community
Steve Jones talks about the SQL Community and why it's so great. Hint: it's the people.
Blogs
PlanTrace: Stop Reading Redshift EXPLAIN Plans. Start Seeing Them
PlanTrace: Stop Reading Redshift EXPLAIN Plans. Start Seeing Them Introducing PlanTrace — a free, browser-based...
A Cloud Dependency Failure from Amazon
By Steve Jones
I went to sleep while reading a Kindle book on my phone. I know...
Deploying AI in logistics (the unfiltered version)
A conversation with Jan Laš, CIO at HOPI, about what deploying a data agent...
Forums
SPAM Issues May 2026
We suffered a SPAM attack from May 1-6, which unfortunately corresponded with time off...
SQL Password enforcing
Hi to all We have situation at a client where someone is illegally changing...
SQL Password enforcing
Hi to all We have situation at a client where someone is illegally changing...
Question of the Day
Creating a JSON Document III
I have this data in a table called dbo.NFLTeams
TeamID TeamName City YearEstablished ------ -------- ---- --------------- 1 Cowboys Dallas 1960 2 Eagles Philadelphia 1933 3 Packers Green Bay 1919 4 Chiefs Kansas City 1960 5 49ers San Francisco 1946 6 Broncos Denver 1960 7 Seahawks Seattle 1976 8 Patriots New England 1960If I run this code, how many rows are returned?
SELECT TOP 2
json_objectagg('Team' : TeamName)
FROM dbo.NFLTeams;
See possible answers