Stairway to Columnstore Indexes Level 1: A First Look At Columnstore Indexes
This level introduces of you to the fundamentals of columnstore indexes, introdused in SQL Server 2012 to manage the indexing of very large tables.
A Beginner’s Guide to SQL String Functions
Get an introduction to many of the many ways you can manipulate and interact with strings using SQL. Read on for more!
Take the 2020 State of Database DevOps Survey – win a new iPad
Redgate’s 2020 State of Database DevOps Survey is open now. Share your views on Database DevOps today for a chance to win a new 65GB iPad Air. Plus, for every entry, Redgate will donate $1 to UNICEF. Take the survey now.
Better Protection from Hardware
Today Steve looks at a research project from Microsoft that provides some better protection from firmware security issues.
Monitor Current Analysis Services Activity
Although not every business has SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services) installed nor use it extensively, the ones who do also care about their database responsiveness. If it is slow, what else is running that may be causing the slowness? Are there any locks? What commands are being run, who is running them, from where? How […]
Test data provisioning for development – free whitepaper
Compare the most common approaches to provisioning test data to database development teams and see how they stack up.
Learn why traditional approaches like restore from backup are no longer suitable, and how successful organizations are implementing a combined data masking and data virtualization approach.
Update only Year, Month or Day in a SQL Server Date
In this tip we look at how to change specific parts of a date such as the Year, Month or Day for data stored in a SQL Server table.
SQL Server performance issue after an upgrade
Recently, I came across a problem where the client reported severe performance degradation of their OLAP system. Most of the reports that were running were either timing out or were returning data after a long time. The problem started right after the client had undergone an upgrade, that included the following, Software change, that includes […]
A Toolbox Every DBA Should Have
As a DBA it is important to have a toolbox that supports the work you do. You need to have a toolbox that allows you to work smarter instead of harder. Read on to learn about some key tools every DBA should have in their toolbox!
Controlling how SQL Prompt Formats your Code: The Knobs and Dials
Phil Factor explores and discusses the current state of the art in SQL Formatting, as done automatically by SQL Prompt.
Blogs
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but...
Monday Monitor Tips: Virtual Machine Usage and Cost
By Steve Jones
One of the things I’ve been requesting for a number of years is cost...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
SQL Server Still Wins
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Still Wins
DBCC CHECKDB Limits I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item DBCC CHECKDB Limits I
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers