Holiday Fun for Your Career
The Advent of Code is live, and Steve finds it to be a fun way to take a break during your day.
SQL Server Data Masking: a comparison with Gallium Data
Introduction In SQL Server 2016, Microsoft introduced a new feature called dynamic data masking, which allows you to mask the values of certain columns and keep that data hidden from certain users, without having to modify your applications. Let's take a look at how SQL Server does data masking, and compare it to the way Gallium Data […]
When to Use a Database
While relational developers and administrators might always want to use a database, that might not be the case for those that analyze data. Steve suggests you help them see the value of a database platform.
Top Query Search in SQL Monitor
SQL Monitor v12.0 has added a new Query Text Search feature to allow users to search the text of the most expensive queries that executed on a SQL Server instance over a period. Here's what it does, and how it works.
Trusting STRING_SPLIT() order in Azure SQL Database
Learn about the changes to the STRING_SPLIT function in Azure SQL Database that allows you to specify ordinal position of the output.
Building a Production Database
Lessons learned from building a database caught Steve's eye, and he has a few comments.
On-Demand: 2021 Accelerate State of DevOps webinar
Redgate is a proud sponsor of this year’s Accelerate State of DevOps Report, by the DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) team at Google Cloud. Watch our lastest webinar to find out how the future of DevOps will effect you.
SQL Server RETURN and OUTPUT Clause in Stored Procedures
In this article we look how to use RETURN and OUTPUT in a SQL Server stored procedure to get a return value after execution.
Creating Markdown Formatted Text for Results from T-SQL
Markdown documents are becoming increasingly more popular and relevant with the emergence of notebooks. Markdown is a markup language for creating formatted text. It is widely used in tools for collaboration, tools for creating documentation and notebooks. Formatting is easy to understand, readable, simple to adopt, and agnostic. I can use a markdown document on […]
Blogs
Using AI for Git Hooks
By Steve Jones
Recently I had someone internally ask about whether SQL Source Control supports Git Hooks....
Flyway Tips: AI Helps with Commit Messages
By Steve Jones
At Redgate, we’re experimenting with how AI can help developers and DBAs become better...
Startup scripts in SQL Server containers
I was messing around performing investigative work on a pod running SQL Server 2025...
Forums
SQL Agent job running gMSA cannot backup to NAS target
I'm running a group MSA for the database engine and SQL Agent in a...
sys.query_store_query question
All, My query is as follows: SET DATEFORMAT dmy SELECT p.query_id, DATEADD(MICROSECOND,-rs.max_duration,rs.first_execution_time) AS starttime,...
Encoding Strings
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Encoding Strings
Question of the Day
Encoding Strings
I have this code in SQL Server 2025. What is the result?
DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!'; DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX); SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(@message); SELECT @encoded AS EncodedResult;See possible answers