Getting Out of Character
In this article, Joe Celko gives us a history of the different character sets that are used in computing and how that can pertain to your usage in relational databases. Some of these you may have never heard of!
PASS Data Community Summit 2023 registrations are open!
In 2023, connect, share & learn with like-minded peers, speakers, and industry leaders during the full week of data celebrations. Summit happens in person, from November 14th to 17th in Seattle. Check out the blog post and learn more.
Finding Your Own Career
Learning to find the career that's important to you can be a challenge. Today Steve has some advice.
How to Improve Database Design to Speed Up SQL Queries
This article examines some basic database design principles that help ensure your queries can execute more quickly.
7 ways businesses can improve the quality and speed of database releases
This article explains how these ‘ephemeral databases’ can be used to improve development and testing processes in ways that reduce the number of bugs entering the deployment pipeline, drive up the quality of database releases, and so improve the reliability and speed of database deployments to production.
Star Schema vs Snowflake Schema Considerations
Sometimes people say to avoid the snowflake schema and stick to a clean star schema. Why is that? Is something wrong with creating a snowflake schema?
How to Find the SQL Server Instance Startup Time
Learn a number of methods to view or programmatically get the SQL Server instance startup time.
Database Branching and Merging without the Tears
Armed with a schema comparison engine and an object-level directory of the source for every recent version of the database, you'll be able to remove a lot of the uncertainty around merging database changes back into development.
Blogs
Flyway Tips: AI Deployment Script Descriptions
By Steve Jones
With the AI push being everywhere, Redgate is no exception. We’ve been getting requests,...
A New Word: Fawtle
By Steve Jones
fawtle – n. a weird little flaw built into your partner that somehow only...
Post-quantum key exchange – Insurance policy for your packets
AWS recently added support for Post-Quantum Key Exchange for TLS in Application Load Balancer...
Forums
Where Your Value Separates You from Others
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Where Your Value Separates You...
Fixing the Error
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fixing the Error
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Encoding Functions
Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...
Question of the Day
Fixing the Error
On SQL Server 2025, I have a database that has this collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. I decide I want to run this code:
SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C*3068 and good night', '*') AS 'A Classic';
I get this error:Msg 9844, Level 16, State 4, Line 24 The char/varchar input type uses an unsupported collation. Only a UTF8 collation is supported with char/varchar input type in UNISTR function.What is the easiest way to fix this error? See possible answers