Reporting Services!
Mike takes a good first look at Reporting Services. We're trying to add some coverage of this interesting new product. This gives a good overview from a real user perspective.
Generate Next Numbers with SQL Server
Dinesh ran into a situation where a client had very specific requirements for generating keys. Take a look at the solution, can you better alternatives? Sometimes you just can't talk the client into changing!
How to Make Sure You Have Good Passwords
As Robin points out there is no built in way to make sure users have strong passwords when using SQL authentication. There are a couple changes you can make (with appropriate warnings!) that will allow you to do this. Read on to find out why and how.
Monitoring Failed Job Steps
New Author! We've run a couple articles on similar topics, this one takes a slightly different approach. It's a short article and has two scripts included.
Microsoft Action Pack Subscription
One of the biggest hurdles people new to the IT field face is getting access to all the software they need so they can learn. This new program from Microsoft offers a TON of software for under $400. Caveats apply (don't they always?) but it's worth the 5 minutes to read what it takes.
Review of Lumigent Entegra
We've been trying to catch up on reviews lately, Hai was kind enough to give Entegra a try and report back on it. The basic concept is that it lets you do extensive auditing without having to add triggers. If you're trying to find an auditing solution, this is worth considering.
Regular Expression Library
This isn't a SQL site nor can you easily do regular expressions from SQL. That said, sometimes regular expressions are EXACTLY what you need to solve a problem. The downside? They're tricky! This is a great resource to pass on to your development team.
Typed Data Objects
This is a tool to generate C# code based on a sql script. Source code is also available for download. It's free! One caveat is that the site is in Italian.
Optimizing Your Application - Part 2
This article is for developers (and is in C#), looks at how you can avoid requerying by storing data in a hashtable. Mainly code, but you may get a good idea or two from it.
Blogs
Advice I Like: Pyramid Schemes
By Steve Jones
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a...
Using Prompt AI for a Travel Data Analysis
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
FinOps for Kubernetes: Leveraging OpenCost, KubeGreen, and Kubecost for Cost Efficiency
In the era of cloud-native applications, Kubernetes has become the default standard platform for...
Forums
Database file shrink issue.
Hi experts, I have a 3+ TB database on a 2019 sql server which...
The North Star for the Year
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The North Star for the...
Multiple Escape Characters
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Escape Characters
Question of the Day
Multiple Escape Characters
In SQL Server 2025, I run this code (in a database with the appropriate collation):
SELECT UNISTR('%*3041%*308A%*304C%*3068 and good night', '%*') AS 'A Classic';
What is returned? See possible answers