SQL Art: I Made a Christmas Card In SSMS
A little Christmas fun for you using the spatial features in SQL Server and SSMS.
Steps for Installing AlwaysOn Availability Groups - SQL 2019
With SQL Server 2012 Microsoft introduced the AlwaysOn Availability Group feature, and since then many changes and improvements have been made. This article is an update to another article, and will cover the prerequisites and steps for installing AlwaysOn in your SQL Server 2019 environment. Prerequisites Before implementing your AlwaysOn Availability Group (AG), make sure […]
The DBA's Twelve Days of Christmas
On the first day of Christmas my new DBA sent to me A table with a primary key On the second day of Christmas my new DBA sent to me Two Foreign Keys, and A table with a primary key On the third day of Christmas my new DBA sent to me Three stored procs […]
SQL Server Change Tracking to Optimize Data Refreshes for Reporting
You’re a developer responsible for maintaining a SQL Server database used to feed data to Power BI. You realize that some tables don’t have a modifiedDate column and some do. Also, you know the data is updated by the application as well as other processes which makes the modifiedDate unreliable. This is because it may not always be updated when data changes. You need a way to track data changes to ensure only changed rows are updated on reports in Power BI.
What's Your Area of Expertise?
We might be smart in one area, but not others. That's worth remembering.
Get ChatGPT’s Advice On Your Queries with sp_BlitzCache.
First off, I understand if you read the headline and you have a knee-jerk reaction. I totally understand that there are a lot of people out there who hate AI, and believe me, I hate most uses of it. Lots of its advice can be misleading at best, and absolute garbage at worst.
The Microsoft SQL Year in Review
Microsoft gives a year in review from the SQL Server and Azure SQL teams. Steve sees a lot of accomplishments from this past year.
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: The || Operator
I have been working in various computer languages for a long time. When I saw that the || operator was coming, I was a bit confused as to why we needed this, and how it would work. After all, this is a part of other languages. I decided to dig in a bit. This is […]
Your Value from a Conference
Today Steve asks what value you get from attending conferences or other events.
Blogs
The DIY Cost of Masking Test Data For Smaller Organizations
By Steve Jones
One of the things I’ve tried hard to do in database development situations if...
T-SQL Tuesday #196 – Two risky career decisions I made
By DataOnWheels
The T-SQL Tuesday topic this month comes James Serra. What career risks have you...
T-SQL Tuesday #192: What career risks have you taken?
This T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by the one and only James Serra – literally...
Forums
XACT_ABORT being set to ON by web services
We have two "identical" instances of an ASP.NET web service (or so I have...
OPENQUERY Flexibility
Comments posted to this topic are about the item OPENQUERY Flexibility
A Full Shutdown
Comments posted to this topic are about the item A Full Shutdown
Question of the Day
OPENQUERY Flexibility
Which of these are valid OPENQUERY() uses?
See possible answers