GPX distance and time analysis in SQL Server
In this article we do a comparative analysis of the distance covered by two athletes during a race using the data of their GPX files.
The DBA is Dead; Long Live the DBA
There have many many times when a company or individual has thought that DBAs aren't needed. Steve doesn't think that has ever been true, nor will it be anytime soon.
Common Misconceptions About Microsoft Certification Exams
An experienced exam writer explains common misconceptions about Microsoft certification exams, question design, preparation, and real-world expectations.
Optimism Without Illusion or Why AI Needs Blunt Technologists
There is a temptation, especially in technology, to mistake momentum for maturity.
How Database Professionals Sent a Million Emails a Day from SQL Server
This is part of a look back at the history of SQL Server Central as a part of our 25-year celebration in Feb 2026. "They want how much?" That was a question I got from Andy one afternoon as we discussed how we were going to manage the growth of SQL Server Central. I had […]
How Filters and Sorting can Derail SQL Pagination Performance
In my previous tip, Pagination Performance in SQL Server, I showed how to make SQL pagination more predictable – turning O(n) into O(1). I materialized and cached row numbers to page through instead of calculating them on every request. It wasn’t the whole story, though; real pagination queries rarely get to sort without filtering. Users always want more control, and filtering can threaten that predictability.
Tame Those Strings Part 6 - Bending Results
Continuing with Steve Jones series on string manipulation, this article looks at an interesting facet of the SELECT operator.
Tame Those Strings Part 8 - Quoting
Continuing Steve Jones' series on string manipulation in T-SQL, this article examines how quotations are handled in T-SQL.
Tame Those Strings Part 9 - Dynamic SQL
Steve Jones continues his series on string manipulation. This articles examines the issues of quotes when implementing dynamic SQL.
Blogs
Monday Monitor Tips: AI Query Analysis
By Steve Jones
AI is everywhere. It’s in the news, it’s being added to every product, management...
AI: Blog a Day – Day 8: RAG – Retrieval Augmented Generation
By Vinay Thakur
RAG — Retrieval Augmented Generation. we have covered so far — embeddings, vectors, vector...
AI: Blog a Day – Day 7: Vector and Vector Databases
By Vinay Thakur
Continuing from Day 6 we learned Embeddings, Semantic Search and Checks, on Day 7...
Forums
I'm thinking about submitting some articles
I've written some documentation on using different Markdown types of files on GitHub. It's...
Not Just an Upgrade
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Not Just an Upgrade
Restoring On Top I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Restoring On Top I
Question of the Day
Restoring On Top I
I am doing development work on a database and want to keep a backup so I can reset my database. I make some changes and want to restore over top of my changes. When I run this code, what happens?
USE Master BACKUP DATABASE DNRTest TO DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' GO USE DNRTest GO CREATE TABLE MyTest(myid INT) GO USE master RESTORE DATABASE DNRTest FROM DISK = 'dnrtest.bak' WITH REPLACESee possible answers