The SQLskills Black Friday Super Sale!
Starting at 4pm PST on Thursday, November 28th, SQLskills will be offering our lowest prices ever for our signature Blackbelt bundle with more than 158 hours of top-quality training.
Giving Thanks
My last two months have been packed full of activity. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to be with PostgreSQL friends in New York, Greece, and Seattle. In between, it was a treat to be back in Pittsburgh for the first SQL Saturday since before the pandemic. The strength of the database community at each event […]
Announcing SQL Server 2025
Bob Ward announces the next version of SQL Server, now in private preview.
New SQL Server 2022 Functions
There were a number of T-SQL functions added in SQL Server 2022. Today Steve asks if you are using any of these in your work.
Skipping Columns (& other tricks) Using BCP Format Files (SQL Spackle)
BULK INSERT and BCP are powerful, high performance tools for importing text files. SQL Server MVP Jeff Moden gives us several nifty tips in this introduction to BULK INSERT and BCP Format Files including "Skipping Columns" and the sequestration of bad rows while still loading all the good data.
Transactions
By now, pretty much everyone has heard the stories about the first computers. They were huge, cost a fortune, required incredible amounts of air conditioning, and perhaps more importantly, ran batch jobs submitted on punched cards and magnetic tape. But even before we had these dinosaurs, there were E.A.M (electric accounting machine) units.
Boring or Scripting
There is no shortage of mundane tasks at work. Steve Jones notes that you might not want to depend on those to fill your day in the future.
Should That Be One Update Statement or Multiple?
Let’s say we have a couple of update statements we need to run every 15 minutes in the Stack Overflow database, and we’ve built indexes to support them:
How Do You Patch 100 Database Servers?
The challenges of managing lots of system are significant and there aren't easy solutions, but Steve has a few thoughts on what you can do.
Microsoft SQL announcements at PASS Data Community Summit 2024
Read a summary of the data platform announcements from Microsoft at the PASS Data Community Summit 2024 last week.
Blogs
Troubleshooting SQL Server – Starting with the Error Log
By gbargsley
We’ve all been there. Someone walks up and asks, “Is SQL Server having issues?”...
From OLTP to Analytics: Bridging the Gap with Modern SQL Architectures
By Chris Yates
In the beginning, there was OLTP – Online Transaction Processing. Fast, reliable, and ruthlessly...
Free Online Sessions – Building the €100 DWH and Indexing for Dummies
I’m giving two online sessions soon on virtual events that are free to attend....
Forums
The Security of Old Tech
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Security of Old Tech
Revisiting SQL Server Window Functions- A Practical Walkthrough
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Revisiting SQL Server Window Functions-...
Tables with a SPARSE Column and Consumption
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Tables with a SPARSE Column...
Question of the Day
Tables with a SPARSE Column and Consumption
True or False: Tables with a SPARSE column consume more space than regular columns if most values are NOT NULL.
See possible answers