Another new author! Gheorge shares some ideas about importing event logs and using OLAP to analyze the results. Not a bad idea at all. How many of use OLAP as often as we should? Read the article, see if it's something you want to try - and let Gheorge know what you think!
Red Gate asked if we would run a link to a short survey they are working on. Should only take a couple minutes and no personal information is required. They've been an advertiser with us since almost the beginning so we're glad to pass this along to our readers.
Joe has written some articles for us, he also some interesting comment on his site - this article looks at trapping errors such as timeouts or divide by zero.
Collations hard to sort out (I know, bad joke)? Mike did what a good DBA gets paid to do, figure out an easy way to fix something and remove the chance of a user mistake at the same time. Good explanation and a couple scripts show how to handle column level collations.
Alien imposter? No, not that complicated. Andy saw an actor on TV that according to some looks JUST like our own Steve Jones. Steve is a good sport about such things and provided several photo's so you could judge for yourself. Of course, there is a little more to the story - read the article to see!
Test to see how much you know about SQL Server security. If you're one of the members to pass the test (72% score or higher), you're entered into a contest to win a copy of AppDetective and one year's worth of support (over $1500 value)! You can only take the test question test once and it is not timed. After the test, you'll be given the answers and why one answer is more correct than another. Questions are randomly chosen from a pool.
This article shows you how to identify SQL Server performance problems and explains how the SERIALIZABLE transaction isolation level effected the performance of an OLTP application.
Do you know what the schema is? In Relational databases, there is the concept of a database and a table, but the schema sits between them. In SQL Server, this is known as the owner. But do we really need this additional layer? Has it ever caused you problems? Has it outlived its usefulness?
SQL Stripes is an application that helps you - the SQL Server DBA, to have complete control over your servers. From the high-level of monitoring essential components to the low-level of analyzing your various databases. SQL Stripes is an intuitive and easy to use application and is intended for SQL Server DBA who want to have an easier life. SQL Stripes is completely free! (Announcement, not reviewed)
New Web interface generator for multi-user SQL Server databases. Makes either complete DB interfaces with a single click, or web form fragments through model-based developer API. Sources available. Online showroom allows use and development; trial version available for download. (Announcement, not reviewed)
By Brian Kelley
I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...
EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...
By HeyMo0sh
Working in DevOps long enough teaches you two universal truths: That’s exactly why I...
Hi all, I just started using VS Code to work with DB projects. I...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fun with JSON II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Changing Data Types
I have some data in a table:
CREATE TABLE #test_data
(
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(100),
birth_date DATE
);
-- Step 2: Insert rows
INSERT INTO #test_data
VALUES
(1, 'Olivia', '2025-01-05'),
(2, 'Emma', '2025-03-02'),
(3, 'Liam', '2025-11-15'),
(4, 'Noah', '2025-12-22');
If I run this query, how many rows are returned?
SELECT t1.[key] AS row,
t2.*
FROM OPENJSON(
(
SELECT t.* FROM #test_data AS t FOR JSON PATH
)
) t1
CROSS APPLY OPENJSON(t1.value) t2; See possible answers