Is SQL Server Mature?
This Friday Steve Jones is wondering if the SQL Server platform does the job well enough for most people, or are there holes that need to be filled with new features.
SQL Authentication Via AD Groups Part II: Who has what access?
In a previous article, we discussed how to liberate the DBA from SQL Logins with AD Groups. A good point was raised: How can the DBA know who has what access? Here is a solution.
Interpreting Missing Index Recommendations
Pinal Dave explains how missing index hints are like restaurant appetizers.
Handling Inconvenient Requests
Brad gives a little guidance on how you might want to respond to inconvenient requests with an eye on doing yourself a favor.
Using a Derived Table to Compare Data with Values from a Previous Year
Comparing year on year sales is a fundamental requirement in much commercial analysis - here you learn how to do this in SQL
Understanding your Azure EA Billing Data and Building a Centralized Data Storage Solution
Many organizations are moving to Azure and other cloud providers. Understanding how resources are being used and what is spent is very important. In this article, Feodor explains his solution for automating the collection of the Enterprise Agreement billing from Azure into an Azure SQL Database where it can be analyzed.
CI and CD Aren't Magic
The techniques for Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) don't make software better by themselves. It takes some investment and work by your staff as well.
Rolling up multiple rows into a single row and column for SQL Server data
Do you need a way to roll-up multiple rows into one row and one column. You know you can roll-up multiple rows into one row using Pivot, but you need all of the data concatenated into a single column in a single row. this tip looks at a simple approach to accomplish this.
Finding a String Anywhere in Another String
Optimize searching for a string within another string with this string storage and indexing technique.
Have You Been Hacked?
Security is a big deal, and Steve Jones wonders if most data professionals would be aware that they had been hacked.
Blogs
Finding Balance: Things Will Come Up
By Steve Jones
I have a presentation on finding balance in your career that got quite a...
Who Are You Doing It For?
By Brian Kelley
But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed...
Presenting Twice in May 2026
By alevyinroc
I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Forums
How to change the FDLaunch Error log file location
The file FDLAUNCHERRORLOG gets created in the default <instance>\MSSQL\Log folder. So far, I've found...
what data type i should use for roversion col and can i use less than greater
can i use Rowversioncol ( in my database it's synonyme timestamp is used) to...
Radius Latitude Longitude
I have a table with latitude longitude in the format. 45.123456 , -111.123456 ,...
Question of the Day
A Fun Computer Quote
Which movie featured this quote?
"All programs have a desire to be useful."Happy April Fools! See possible answers