SQLServerCentral Editorial

You Are An Inspiration

Hero, Champion, Inspiration. These are words that are bantered around about people regularly. Joe was a hero when he saved that puppy. Betty was the champion runner and won the race. Pat was an inspiration; they work so hard. Hero and champion are universally understood as positive things. Inspiration is typically used as a positive, […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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Fun with JSON II

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Changing Data Types

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Question of the Day

Fun with JSON II

I have some data in a table:

CREATE TABLE #test_data
(
    id INT PRIMARY KEY,
    name VARCHAR(100),
    birth_date DATE
);

-- Step 2: Insert rows  
INSERT INTO #test_data
VALUES
(1, 'Olivia', '2025-01-05'),
(2, 'Emma', '2025-03-02'),
(3, 'Liam', '2025-11-15'),
(4, 'Noah', '2025-12-22');
If I run this query, how many rows are returned?
SELECT t1.[key] AS row,
       t2.*
FROM OPENJSON(
     (
         SELECT t.* FROM #test_data AS t FOR JSON PATH
     )
             ) t1
    CROSS APPLY OPENJSON(t1.value) t2;

See possible answers