Automatically Gathering Server Information Part 2
The second part of Steve Jones's series on having SQL Server automatically report information to a DBA.
Automatically Gathering Server Information Part 1
The first part of Steve Jones's series on having SQL Server automatically report information to a DBA.
Using WMI
Get started with using WMI (Windows Mgmt Instrumentation) by seeing two good scripts to start with, one to reboot the server, another to list all the services.
Date Time Values and Time Zones
Dinesh looks at the date functions, how to work with time zones (or not), and does a brief comparison to see how you do similar tasks in Oracle.
Dealing With Changing Data
As Chris points out, in most applications these days you end up having to go with optimistic locking, which presents a few challenges. Chris works through the list of options. If you're building web/disconnected apps and need anything besides last update wins, this one is for you.
Finding Real Dependencies
Sysdepends is a neat idea, but in practice it's not always accurate. This article talks about why it's not always reliable and presents some code (recursive even!) that will let you find all the dependencies by querying the system tables.
Two Best Practices!
This article presents two best practices. One is about how to construct good table aliases, the other is about using ANSI join syntax. Good stuff!
Best Practices in an Adhoc Environment
This short article looks at some mistakes developers should avoid when they also have the task of designing the database, database objects, or TSQL used to access it.
Duplicate Indexing Woes
Why would you ever create duplicate indexes? Does that even make sense? Steve Jones isn't sure, and that's for another day, but it sure caused him some problems. Follow along and find a solution for tracking these down.
Full Text Indexing - Text Parsing Routine
Full text indexing is interesting, but not always easy for the user to apply well. Chris has some ideas about to make that
Blogs
Stupid Things I Did With AI: ASCII Art
By Steve Jones
I ran across this article recently (https://www.gatesnotes.com/meet-bill/source-code/reader/microsoft-original-source-code) and it has a great opening piece...
Simple Talks Podcasting in 2026
By Steve Jones
I’m in the UK today, having arrived this morning in London. Hopefully, by this...
SSMS 22 still inserting tabs instead of spaces
I’m not trying to start up a debate whether you should use tabs or...
Forums
Cumulative Update 23 - KB5074819 - Database Mail - No longer working.
Hi there, Has anyone else had any trouble with Database Mail in Cumulative Update...
Script Task execution error with HTTP request
I have a script task that tries to execute a HTTP request, which seems...
SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer Edition
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Standard Developer...
Question of the Day
URL Safe or Not?
If I use BASE4_ENCODE() in SQL Server 2025, is the output URL Safe by default?
See possible answers