Microsoft Exercise
We have got a deal for you, Microsoft is concerned about the health of your company and is doing something about it.
Parse Data from a Field Containing Multiple Values using CROSS APPLY
It is possible for a field in a character-delimited text file to contain a list of further-delimited values instead of the customary single value. This article demonstrates how to load such a file into a staging table, then use a CROSS APPLY query to parse the list of values into a related table.
5 Questions to Ask When You Upgrade SQL Server
Whether you’re looking to go cutting-edge and hop on SQL Server 2019 as soon as it’s available, or whether you’re just trying to evacuate from SQL Server 2008 to anything that’s going to be supported after this summer, you’re probably doing upgrade projects. This is a good time to ask yourself 5 questions...
SQL Server and R with dplyr Package Examples for mutate, transmute, summarise, group_by, pipe and filter
In this second part of this tip series we take a look at the dplyr package for R that can be used to query data using the R Language with SQL Server and build data visualizations.
Cloud Pace
There are a couple big changes that the cloud brings to us. Steve has a few comments today.
Bloor scores SQL Provision 4.5 out of 5 for test data provisioning
In this independent review of SQL Provision, the Bloor analyst finds that SQL Provision’s combination of database cloning and data masking stands out with “clear advantages over competing approaches, such as data subsetting or synthetic data generation.”
SQL Server function to convert integer date to datetime format
In this tip we look at code you can use to convert an integer date into a datetime format. This is an issue you will face when working the history data for SQL Server Agent Jobs.
Unit Testing, Databases, and You
As database changes are added to the DevOps pipeline, unit testing of those changes becomes crucial. In this article, Adam Hafner describes unit testing and how it applies to databases.
The Worst Comments
Comments in code can be tricky, but certainly some are better than others. What are your bad examples?
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