Ruthless
Managing your time is a skill that is important in your career. Steve Jones talks a little today about why you might want to develop this skill.
Why Tape is Good
I write an editorial about why I thought tape still had a place in backups . There were some interesting responses that said disk works well for them and they wouldn’t go back to tape. I used to think the density was a big deal, along with cost, but maybe...
Creating a Linked Server - SQL School Video
Linked Servers allow SQL Server to access data on other systems, SQL Server, Oracle, Access, Excel, and others. MVP Andy Warren shows how to set one up in this SQL School video.
Dynamic SQL Merge
This article by new author Glen Schwickerath uses dynamic SQL and SQL Server 2008's MERGE statement to create a useful stored procedure tool for synchronizing tables.
Managing Risk
Evaluating risk is something we do every day. Steve Jones talks a bit about using this to make ourselves better.
Dealing with Difficult Forum Users - The Flip Side
Earlier I talked about dealing with the difficult forum user from the perspective of providing help. Now let us look at from the flip side of the coin. You are asking for help and you aren't getting what you want or need. The first thing you have...
SQL Server consolidation strategies and best practices
Learn about the benefits of SQL Server 2008 consolidation on Windows 2008, with details on the different consolidation strategies available to organizations.
Duplicate Records using SQLCMD
We have an article here from Renato Buda that shows how to delete duplicate records from your tables. SQLCMD is used with variables that make it easy to write a general purpose script for any table.
The Disappearing DBA
During a "difficult period", a developer often sinks from view. When things are going well, suddenly they are the gunslinger, the hotshot. The DBA often looks on wistfully. For him, the "fame trajectory" seems to work in reverse.
Exploring SQL Server 2008’s Filtered Indexes
One of the most interesting features in SQL Server 2008 is filtered indexes. This article starts with a quick explanation and then digs into the details and results.
Blogs
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
dataMinds Saturday 2026 – Slides
At Saturday the 21st of February I’m presenting an introduction to dimensional modelling at...
Forums
AllocationType as ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
is it true we cant debug c# scripts in ssis anymore under vs
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers