External Article

How to Script Dimensions with data build tool (dbt) Macros

In this article, we’ll revisit the dimension models we created. We wrote the entire SQL statement for the dimension by hand, and the dimensions themselves were very rudimentary; they lacked a surrogate key and there were no audit columns (such as insert date and update date). We’ll show you how we can expand the dimensions using Jinja, but also how we can minimize development effort by baking reusable patterns into the Jinja code.

SQLServerCentral Article

Advanced SQL Server Page Forensics: Detecting Page Splits and Allocations with DBCC PAGE

Page splits are an often-overlooked performance killer in SQL Server. In this article, we take a forensic look at how serial inserts differ from mid-table inserts, revealing why inserting rows out of order causes hidden page splits, increased IO, and fragmentation. Using a wide-column table, we demonstrate both scenarios and decode their impact with page-level analysis.

SQLServerCentral Article

Deprecated but Forgotten: Why SQL Server’s Text, NText, and Image Data Types Still Haunt Your Systems

TEXT, NTEXT, and IMAGE columns have been deprecated for nearly two decades, yet they still silently haunt many SQL Server environments. This article explains their hidden limitations with practical demos and shows why migrating to VARCHAR(MAX), NVARCHAR(MAX), and VARBINARY(MAX) is critical for modern performance, maintainability, and future upgrades.

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Restoring On Top II

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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Question of the Day

Restoring On Top II

I have a database, DNRTest, that has a number of tables and other objects in it. The other day, I was trying to mock up a test and ran this code on the same server: 

-- run yesterday
CREATE DATABASE DNRTest2
GO
USE DNRTest2
GO
CREATE TABLE NewTable (id INT)
GO
Today, I realize that I need a copy of DNRTest for another mockup, and I run this: 
-- run today
USE Master
BACKUP DATABASE DNRTest TO DISK = 'dnrtest.bak'
GO
RESTORE DATABASE DNRTest2 FROM DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' WITH REPLACE
What happens?

See possible answers