Avoid using constants in an ORDER BY clause
Phil Factor explains why an ORDER BY clause should always specify the sort columns using their names, or aliases, rather than using an integer to specify the position of a column in the SELECT list.
Power BI Dashboard vs Report vs Workbook
There are many different ways to present data using Power BI and this tip looks at these different methods such as Power BI Dashboards, Power BI Workbooks and Power BI Reports.
SQL ConstantCare® Population Report: Winter 2020
Ever wonder what’s “normal” out there for SQL Server adoption rates, hardware sizes, or numbers of databases? Let’s find out.
What’s New in SQL Monitor 10?
New release: SQL Monitor 10
SQL Monitor 10 has landed! You can now integrate SQL Monitor alerts with your ticket management system, so chosen alerts are automatically raised as tickets. New suppression options give you granular control over what alerts are raised during specific times, such as maintenance windows. And, you can now annotate the server activity graph with specific events, so you can measure their impact on your servers.
Discover the new features
Azure Data Studio and Deployment Notebooks
Azure Data Studio (ADS) is a cross-platform tool that you can use to run T-SQL queries much as you have done using SQL Server Management Studio. No, the databases do not need to be hosted in Azure; the tool works fine for on-premises SQL Servers as well. I’ve started using ADS more as I teach […]
Approaches to Import JSON in SSIS (SQL Server 2016+) Part 2
In this article, 2nd of 2-part series, we will look at the 3rd approach to import JSON, recap both parts of the series and form a conclusion.
What's the Cost of an Hour?
Outages can be expensive, and today Steve asks if you know just how expensive they are for your organization.
Free Fundamentals of Index Tuning Week: Part 3, Indexing for Joins
Previously we covered Part 1: Indexing for the WHERE Clause, and then we covered ORDER BY. Today, let’s tackle joins.
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