The Old Way or the New Way
Learning to adapt the way we work is important for advancing our career, but this can be harder than we expect.
Creating a Simple Development Harness with SQL Compare and SQL Data Generator
There is no single, correct approach to developing and testing your SQL batches and routines. It depends on the requirement. For simple tasks, like modifying and testing a view or stored procedure, SQL Compare and SQL Data Generator, combined, provide a useful, lightweight development harness.
What If You Really DO Need to Shrink a Database?
You’ve heard that shrinking a database is bad because it introduces both external and internal fragmentation, it causes blocking, it causes transaction log growth while it runs, and it’s slow and single-threaded. You understand that if it’s just a matter of 10-20-30% of a database, and the database is only 100-200GB, you might as well just leave the space there, because you’re gonna end up using it anyway.
Access external data from Azure Synapse Analytics using Polybase
Learn how you can use Polybase technology in Azure Synapse to load data into your warehouse.
Exploring the SQL Compare Options
Phil Factor dissects and disentangles the various SQL Compare options.
How to Expand a Range of Dates into Rows using a SQL Server Numbers Table
In this article we look at different T-SQL code examples that can help you build a range of date rows based on a starting and ending date.
SQL Server 2012 does not come up after service pack upgrade SP4
A failed SQL Server Service Pack upgrade is fixed with a trace flag.
The Computing Revolution
Steve reflects on some of the ideas of how Microsoft imagines the future of computing.
SQL Server TempDB Tutorial
In this article we cover many different questions about the SQL Server TempDB database to give a better understanding of what is and what it is used for.
Blogs
A New Word: los vidados
By Steve Jones
los vidados – n. the half-remembered acquaintances you knew years ago, who you might...
In-Person CISA Training – April 13-16, 2026
By Brian Kelley
I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...
EightKB 2026
EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...
Forums
Vectors in SQL Server 2025
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Vectors in SQL Server 2025
Odd Sequences
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Odd Sequences
Everything is the right question away
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Everything is the right question...
Question of the Day
Odd Sequences
What values are returned from this code?
CREATE SEQUENCE NumericSequence
AS NUMERIC(5,1)
START WITH 1.0
INCREMENT BY 0.1;
GO
SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR NumericSequence
GO
SELECT NEXT VALUE FOR NumericSequence
GO See possible answers