Stairway to SQL Server Security

Stairway to SQL Server Security Level 2: Authentication

Authentication is the first step in letting a principal get access to an instance of SQL Server, essentially resolving the question, Who are you? In this stairway level you’ll learn about the basics of authentication and the authentication options available. This level covers logins and users and you’ll learn about the password policies that can help strengthen SQL Server authentication.

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Reusing Query Results in SSMS

Every time you need to reuse the query results from SSMS, for example to populate another table, or to search for matching rows in another table, it will inevitably mean a lot of manual tweaking to the get the results into the right format. Louis Davidson uncovers three SQL Prompt gems that can remove all this pain.

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Question of the Day

BIT_COUNT I

In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:

UserID  UserPermissions
15
23
37
What is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount
from dbo.UserPermission
where UserID = 3;

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