Comparing Two Execution Plans
This is a short look at a technique that I discovered recently in Management Studio (SSMS). The technique is to compare two graphical execution plans in the tool to understand what they are doing and how two different queries might affect a particular system, both with the image and with the properties' data behind the […]
Black Friday returns to SQLServerFast
November approaches again. For Europeans, that is a month like any other, for Americans, November means: Black Friday, with huge discounts!
Unpivoting Multiple Sets of Columns in SQL Server using CROSS APPLY
Learn how to unpivot data or sets of data with SQL Server queries using CROSS APPLY.
Advanced SQL Server installation using Powershell DSC
Introduction In the previous article, we learned how to install a SQL Server instance with basic parameters like InstanceName, Features, SourcePath, SQLSysAdminAccounts, etc using Powershell DSC. In this article, we'll discover how to enhance our SQL Server installation with additional configurations. We'll cover things like setting up service account credentials, custom installation directories, configuring TempDB […]
Having Data Modeling Standards
Today Steve talks about data modeling and how standards can transfer knowledge between developers.
Azure DocumentDB: Working with Microsoft's NoSQL Database in the Cloud
Coding for the new NoSQL JSON database service that supports SQL queries.
T-SQL Fundamentals: Controlling Duplicates
When people start learning a new field, for example T-SQL, it’s tempting to spend very little time trying to understand the fundamentals of the field so that you can quickly get to the advanced parts.
SQL Window Functions Series: RANK() and DENSE_RANK()
Welcome to the fascinating world of SQL window functions! Today, we'll explore in detail: RANK() and DENSE_RANK().
Blogs
The First Steps: Understanding the Basics of FinOps
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps professional, I’ve seen firsthand how cloud costs can quickly spiral out...
Monday Monitor Tips: AI Query Analysis
By Steve Jones
AI is everywhere. It’s in the news, it’s being added to every product, management...
AI: Blog a Day – Day 8: RAG – Retrieval Augmented Generation
By Vinay Thakur
RAG — Retrieval Augmented Generation. we have covered so far — embeddings, vectors, vector...
Forums
India's top water testing laboratory is FARE LABS Pvt. Ltd.
FARE Labs Pvt. Ltd., a water testing facility accredited by the NABL, tests drinking...
would it be so terrible to install ssms on a few user desktops?
Hi, ssms is free here. I can think of other reasons to do this...
I'm thinking about submitting some articles
I've written some documentation on using different Markdown types of files on GitHub. It's...
Question of the Day
Restoring On Top I
I am doing development work on a database and want to keep a backup so I can reset my database. I make some changes and want to restore over top of my changes. When I run this code, what happens?
USE Master BACKUP DATABASE DNRTest TO DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' GO USE DNRTest GO CREATE TABLE MyTest(myid INT) GO USE master RESTORE DATABASE DNRTest FROM DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' WITH REPLACESee possible answers