SQL Server Database Backup and Restore Failure Notifications
My SQL Server backups and restores fail infrequently, but when I find out it is too late. How can I find out sooner?
Keep Sharing
I was given a little reward the other day. My son came home telling me that the manufacturing company he works for wants to build some custom test equipment using Arduino-style controller chips. I've been experimenting, pretty darned lightly so far, with these over the last year. He starts asking me about which controllers I […]
Planning for a Bad Day
If you found out you were being laid off, would you be ready? Steve thinks you should be lightly planning for this to happen.
Unpivot Data Using Python
This article looks at manipulating data using Python to unpivot data received in a cross tab format.
Searching Flyway Migration Files using Grep and Regex
This article demonstrates a cross-RDBMS way of searching through a set of SQL migration files, in the right order, to get a narrative summary of what changes were made, or will be made, to one or more of the tables or routines within each migration file. Getting these summary reports, even from a set of SQL migrations, isn't difficult, but having a few examples makes it a lot quicker to get started.
Understanding Power BI Security Options - Row-Level, Column-Level and Object-Level Security
Microsoft Power BI is an interactive data visualization tool primarily designed with business intelligence in mind. Apart from being a visualization tool, it also has some built-in security features that we will discuss in this article.
How to Reduce the Need for Bookmarks Using Parameters in Power BI
Learn how to implement parameters in Power BI.
Securing All Your Connections
Microsoft is recommending more security for SQL Servers, including dev and test instances. Do you agree this is a good idea? Would you implement this?
First speakers announced for Summit 2023
Your first speakers in the lineup for PASS Data Community Summit 2023 have been announced! Check out the full details for this year's Pre-Cons and Learning Pathways, and find out why some of our speakers are particularly excited for what’s in store this year.
Paging Data in T-SQL
This article will show you how to page through a set of results using the OFFSET and FETCH options of the ORDER BY clause.
Blogs
Presenting Twice in May 2026
By alevyinroc
I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
SQL Server Journey Part 2: Modern Era (2017 – 2026) – AI/Cloud First
By Vinay Thakur
Following up on my Part 1 baseline, the journey from 2017 onward changed how...
Forums
Auto Update Statistics not triggering on filtered indexes
I've got a table with 186,703,969 rows, about 300GB of data. There are several...
What is the difference between SQL Server and SQL Database?
I created a SQL Database in Azure Portal but I've just noticed it also...
An Unusual Identity
Comments posted to this topic are about the item An Unusual Identity
Question of the Day
An Unusual Identity
What values are returned when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest2
(
id NUMERIC(10,0) IDENTITY(10,10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.IdentityTest2
(
somevalue
)
VALUES
( 'Steve')
, ('Bill')
GO
SELECT top 10
id
FROM dbo.IdentityTest2 See possible answers