External Article

SQL Server 2008 Sparse Columns Identifying Columns For Conversion

SQL Server 2008 has introduced a new way to store data for columns that contain excessive NULL values called Sparse Columns. What this means is that when you declare a column as Sparse and any time a NULL value is entered in the column it will not use any space. Is there a way to identify what columns would make a good candidate for this without having to analyze each column individually?

Technical Article

SQLSaturday #10 - Tampa 2009

Looking for free SQL Server training?
Join over 250 SQL Server professionals in Tampa on January 24th, 2009 for SQL Saturday #10. Featuring 6 tracks and more than 36 SQL Server presentations, it's the biggest and best free SQL event available. Visit www.sqlsaturday.com to see event details and to register.

Blogs

Shifting Mindsets: Why FinOps is Essential for Cloud Efficiency

By

As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...

March 2026 SQL Server Security Updates

By

On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...

How Fabric Mirroring Transformed with SQL Server 2025

By

When mirroring was first released for Azure SQL Database, it used Change Data Capture...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Multiple Deployment Processes

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes

How to Use sqlpackage to Detect Schema Drift Between Azure SQL Databases

By Kunal Rathi

Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...

Upgrading Admin Queries

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Upgrading Admin Queries

I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?  

See possible answers