Common SQL Server Problems: Invalid Length
This is another part in my series designed to offer guidance around common issues in SQL Server. Today, let’s talk about the all-too-common error: invalid length.
Tame Those Strings! Part 4 - Numeric Conversions
The fourth part of Steve Jones's series on programming and manipulating strings in T-SQL dealing with numeric conversions.
Tame Those Strings! Part 5 - Using STUFF
The fifth part of Steve Jones's series on programming and manipulating strings in T-SQL dealing with STUFF.
Tame Those Strings! Part 7 - Proper Casing Strings
Need to proper case names? Want a quick way to reformat a series of words? This article examines a SQL approach to quickly proper casing all words in a field.
Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition in Kubernetes: A Cost-Effective Alternative to RDS
This article shows how you can deploy SQL Server Developer Edition in an AWS Kubernetes configuration.
Database Development with AI in 2026
This seems like the appropriate first BrentOzar.com blog post in the year 2026, eh?
You Have Homework
I'm very humbled and honored to be able to type this next sentence. My friend, Buck Woody, sometimes gives me book recommendations. Except, with Buck, you have to understand, it's not really a recommendation. It's an assignment. There'll be a test later. You had best have studied. Failing, well, let's not discuss that, it's too […]
Automating Database Cleanup for PostgreSQL Using Python
This article shows a technique for cleaning out older data from PostgreSQL tables using Python to follow a set of rules you create.
There Are a Lot of Databases
Steve notes today that there are many, many database platforms out there you can use for your next application.
Blogs
AI Helps Me with My Sloppiness
By Steve Jones
I type fairly well. Well, I type fast, but I do wear out a...
WITH clause gets a 26ai boost!
By way of background, a while back I did video called “My New Favourite...
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How We Handled a Vendor...
Cognitive Coverage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Cognitive Coverage
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers