Optimism Without Illusion or Why AI Needs Blunt Technologists
There is a temptation, especially in technology, to mistake momentum for maturity.
How Database Professionals Sent a Million Emails a Day from SQL Server
This is part of a look back at the history of SQL Server Central as a part of our 25-year celebration in Feb 2026. "They want how much?" That was a question I got from Andy one afternoon as we discussed how we were going to manage the growth of SQL Server Central. I had […]
How Filters and Sorting can Derail SQL Pagination Performance
In my previous tip, Pagination Performance in SQL Server, I showed how to make SQL pagination more predictable – turning O(n) into O(1). I materialized and cached row numbers to page through instead of calculating them on every request. It wasn’t the whole story, though; real pagination queries rarely get to sort without filtering. Users always want more control, and filtering can threaten that predictability.
Database Deployment with Terraform - Modules
Deploy resources in Azure using reusable code with Terraform modules.
Tame Those Strings Part 6 - Bending Results
Continuing with Steve Jones series on string manipulation, this article looks at an interesting facet of the SELECT operator.
Tame Those Strings Part 8 - Quoting
Continuing Steve Jones' series on string manipulation in T-SQL, this article examines how quotations are handled in T-SQL.
Tame Those Strings Part 9 - Dynamic SQL
Steve Jones continues his series on string manipulation. This articles examines the issues of quotes when implementing dynamic SQL.
Expensive CPUs
Adding non-core database features to a system can expand its capabilities, but it can also be an expensive use of your hardware and software licenses.
Blogs
Are you getting value from your reporting?
By ChrisJenkins
Do you spend so long manipulating your data into something vaguely useful that you...
The Book of Redgate: SQL Server Central
By Steve Jones
It was neat to stumble on this in the book, a piece by me,...
Git forked
Forgive me for the title. Mentally I’m 12. When I started my current day...
Forums
Microsoft Security Changes and SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Microsoft Security Changes and SQL...
Expanding into Print
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Expanding into Print
Downtime Caused by the Postgres Transaction ID Wraparound Problem
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Downtime Caused by the Postgres...
Question of the Day
The String Distance I
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned by this code:
SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE('Steve', 'Stan')
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