Dynamic File Column mapping in SSIS.
An efficient and reliable method for reading CSV files with variable columns.
Machine Learning in the Database
Steve talks about Machine Learning Services in SQL Server and whether using this is a good idea.
Indexes That Have Not Been Used but Are Being Updated
Greg Larsen talks about how indexes that are not being used are costing you valuable resources and causing your update statements to run longer.
Using Power BI in a Hybrid Environment
This paper describes best practices for security, networking, and component architecture for building a hybrid business intelligence (BI) environment by using a combination of Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure, and on-premises data sources. Many organizations are taking advantage of the benefits of cloud computing such as lower capital expenditures and increased agility, while still maintaining data in on-premises data stores.
Be Prepared with Baselines
Analyzing performance often requires you to understand what is normal and what is not. Steve talks about the importance of baselines.
Improving SQL Server 2016 Large Database Performance
This article aims to save you days or weeks of troubleshooting when using SQL Server 2016 for large databases
Converting a Database to In-Memory OLTP
In-Memory OLTP was introduced with SQL Server 2014 as a way to improve transaction performance. There are several scenarios that are not supported, such as some data types, and Darko Martinovic describes the issues and provides workarounds. He also has provided a tool to assist in migrating disk-based tables to In-Memory optimized tables.
Better Comments
Is there a best way to comment code? Or maybe just different styles. Steve Jones asks what you think today.
I thought my database was collation agnostic
My struggles with a customer's database that used a different collation sequence. The easy way is never the right way, or is it?
Blogs
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...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
Forums
DB Design Methods
I've read a few posts regarding what we use to design DB models and...
Auto Update Statistics not triggering on filtered indexes
I've got a table with 186,703,969 rows, about 300GB of data. There are several...
What is the difference between SQL Server and SQL Database?
I created a SQL Database in Azure Portal but I've just noticed it also...
Question of the Day
An Unusual Identity
What values are returned when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest2
(
id NUMERIC(10,0) IDENTITY(10,10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.IdentityTest2
(
somevalue
)
VALUES
( 'Steve')
, ('Bill')
GO
SELECT top 10
id
FROM dbo.IdentityTest2 See possible answers