The SQL Developer Experience: Beyond RDBMS

Microsoft has built an amazing platform with Azure SQL Database and has recently announced an offer to use this for free. Read about the capabilities and options with this cloud database platform.

You Always Have a Software Pipeline

If you build software for customers, you have a pipeline. It might not be good, but you have one. Steve recommends you work to make sure this is a repeatable, reliable pipeline.

New Microsoft Sandbox Uses Natural Language LLMs for SQL Queries

Modern Development

In some ways, development tasks haven't changed much in decades, but in others the way we build software has changed a lot, especially with regards to data.

Parsing a Pairs of Values in a String While Preserving Order

Learn how you can parse a series of parameters that are passed in a string of tuples, meaning pairs, of values and preserve order without using STRING_SPLIT with the ordinal parameter.

Stairway to Columnstore Indexes Level 12: Clustered or Nonclustered?

The previous levels of this stairway describe details, features, and limitations of columnstore indexes in SQL Server. But they do not answer what should be the first question for every database professional: should columnstore indexes be used in my databases; on what tables should they be used; and should they be clustered or nonclustered columnstore indexes?

Decision Tree - Credit Card Fraud Detection

Credit card fraud detection is an important application of machine learning techniques, including Decision Trees. The goal is to identify and detect fraudulent transactions and separate them from valid transactions to prevent financial loss and protect user accounts.

How Much Code Can You Review?

Code reviews are a part of many developers' lives, but is there a limit to what you can do effectively?

The Basics of Using GENERATE_SERIES()

This article shows how GENERATE_SERIES can be used with a few practical examples and a warning on parameters.

Alternatives To SQL Server 2022 Built-in function GREATEST

If you haven’t already heard, SQL Server 2022 introduced a new built-in system function called GREATEST. Simply put, it is to a set of columns, variables, expressions etc. what the MAX function is to a set of values (i.e., rows) of a single column or expression.