Turn Out the Lights
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren that looks at the costs associated with our behavior.
How to Stop a SSIS Package Execution from Code
In this tip we look at a way to stop the execution of a SSIS data flow task that is running by executing an outside process to stop the data flow immediately.
Managing Data Masking Rules in Larger Teams using Source Control
What if you have several people in the team who are responsible for data security across your databases, and they need to work together to develop and maintain the data masking configurations, which must then be applied consistently as part of an automated provisioning process? How should they do it? The solution turns out to be simple: source control.
The Ongoing Costs of Building Software
There are lots of costs to building your own software, which Steve Jones notes might not be what you want to spend over time.
Create, Alter, Drop and Execute SQL Server Stored Procedures
In this tip we look at some examples of how to get started with creating, modifying and deleting SQL Server stored procedures.
Why you Should Avoid Using the @@IDENTITY Function
Phil Factor demonstrates why SQL Prompt has a 'Best Practice' rule (BP010) that checks for use of the @@IDENTITY function, and suggests less error-prone ways to get the latest identity values used in a table.
20 Years of Compare
When we started SQLServerCentral, there were originally 7 of us. We all decided to "invest" $50 to get the site going. With this seed money, we paid for a VM that hosted both SQL Server and IIS. This was enough money to run the site for 6+ months, and we set about building an online […]
Database Build Blockers: Mutually Dependent Databases
Phil Factor demonstrates a clever way to create 's...
Hiding What You Shouldn’t See
In this week's SImple Talk editorial Kathi Kellenberger looks at data that should be hidden and how to get security right within your organization.
Blogs
Monday Monitor Tips: Intelligent Alert Thresholds
By Steve Jones
At the recent Redgate Summit in Chicago, I demo’d (lightly) the ML based Alert...
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...
Forums
String_agg not working as needed
I'm trying to get this string_agg to put all the 'comments' into one result...
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
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