Phil Factor on the fill factor, pages splits and index fragmentation, and how SQL Monitor can help you decide if a custom fill factor for certain indexes might help alleviate performance issues.
It depends. The mantra of many DBAs and others in IT. Steve Jones reminds us why it applies.
Use T-SQL to analyse the usage of all variables and parameters in an SSIS project, including the identification of any unused variables and parameters.
Discover how to estimate the cost of a query. Read on to see an example of how to extract the Estimated Cost for execution plans stored in the procedure cache.
Could you spare 3 minutes to help us out at SQL Server Central/Simple Talk? Take this short survey, tell us about who you are and why you come to Simple Talk/SQL Server Central, and you could win a $50 Amazon voucher.
Introduction In response to my approach in the pop...
A reprint from the early days of SQLServerCentral as Steve is on vacation. Here is Steve Jones' Open Source Musings from February 3, 2005.
Table variables can cause performance issues with joins when they contain a large number of rows. In SQL Server 2019, Microsoft has improved how the optimizer works with table variables which can improve performance without making changes to your code. In this article, Greg Larsen explains how this feature works and if it really does make a difference.
Phil Factor demonstrates a cunning way to test stored procedures or functions, such as after refactoring, by storing the 'before' and 'after' results in views and then using SQL Data Compare to spot any discrepancies.
By Steve Jones
One of the language changes in SQL Server 2025 that I’ve seen a lot...
By Steve Jones
I hosted this month, but I decided to put my own entry in as...
By Chris Yates
I get asked a lot about why or how I began working with databases...
Recently stood up a 2022 Enterprise server. Have 8 publications with subscriptions on a...
Hey, I've not done a cube for many years but I find myself supporting...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Implementing PostgreSQL with Python for...
I get a new SQL Server instance from my build team. How can I tell if the instance was installed using a slipstream installation later?
See possible answers