Don’t Change Anything
Being responsible for data integrity as well as the cleaning of data can be a problem for an organization. Steve Jones reminds us today that we should be careful about changing the data we work with.
New and Improved Functionality in SSIS 2008
While it does not bring revolutionary changes, the release of SQL Server 2008 delivers functionality, scalability, and performance improvements to SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). Here is a comprehensive listing of new and enhanced features of SSIS with a short description of each.
Understanding Dynamic Management Views and Functions in SQL Server 2008
Performance monitoring and optimization is an inseparable part of a DBA's activities. To optimize a poorly performing system/query or to troubleshoot the performance issues you need to know the root cause. Prior to SQL Server 2005, we had several system tables to monitor the state of the system.
Answering to the Business
As data professionals, or IT workers, we often have a lot of insight into how much our services cost and the options that are available. But many times the rest of the company does not. Steve Jones thinks we could be more transparent, and possibly help them to be more efficient.
Down Tools Week
Sometimes it's important for a developer or DBA to be given the opportunity to 'shake up their brain'. What falls out is almost always worth having.
Working with Queues in SQL Server
This article shows sow to create a queue from a SQL table to serve each operator exactly one item from the queue that has not been picked up by any other.
Celko's SQL Stumper: Eggs in one Basket
Joe Celko returns with another stumper to celebrate Easter. Unsurprisingly, this involves eggs. More surprising is the nature of the puzzle: This time, the puzzle is one of designing a database rather than a query. DDL as well as the DML.
SQL Server Indexed Views
Views can be an effective tool for speeding up your selects and simplifying complex queries. Learn what indexed views are, where you might want to use them, how to create them, and what constraints exist with their use.
TSQL Challenge 27 - Identify overlapping weekly schedules of Nurses
This challenge is related a scheduling problem in the home health care industry. The task is to look into the schedules of nurses and identify any overlapping schedules.
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