A SQL Server Bug and Data Security
A bug in SQL Server needs patching right away if you use TDE. Some data security issues concern Steve as well.
The Flash DBA
Does it make sense for a DBA to be a job that moves from project to project? Steve Jones has some thoughts.
When sp_HelpText is not so helpful!
A note of caution on the use of sp_helptext to script out objects.
SQLCLR in Practice: Creating a Better Way of Sending Email from SQL Server
SQLCLR is now considered a robust solution to the few niche requirements that can't be met by the built-in features of SQL Server. Amongst the legitimate reasons for avoiding SQLCLR, there is the fear of getting bogged down in code with special requirements that is difficult to debug. Darko takes a real example, extending the features of sp_send_dbmail, to demonstrate that there need be few terrors in SQLCLR.
Help from Cortana
Lots of work is going into making software more helpful. This week Steve Jones wonders what you want from these assistants.
Insert Stored Procedure Results Into New Table Without Using OPENQUERY
OPENQUERY arrives with a lot of baggage. Try this alternative technique to inserting stored procedure results into a new table.
The Best of Both Worlds: Using Excel and Power BI Together
Excel and Power BI work well together. This allows you to use the two tools together to provide for many types of business workflow and BI practices. You can publish an Excel file to Power BI to share with others, analyse a Power BI dataset in Excel or import either an Excel workbook or Excel data to Power BI. You can gain the workgroup power and business-orientation of Power BI without losing the ease and versatility of Excel. Saurabh shows how.
SQL Server 2016 SSIS Basics - Install SQL Server Data Tools
Step-by-step instructions for downloading and installing SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) for SQL Server 2016.
The Avalanche of Cloud Computing
Today Steve Jones talks about the tipping point of cloud computing.
Purging Old Database Mail Items
Are you purging the old database mail items stored in msdb? In this tip, Greg Larsen shows you how to purge database mail.
Blogs
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
dataMinds Saturday 2026 – Slides
At Saturday the 21st of February I’m presenting an introduction to dimensional modelling at...
Forums
AllocationType as ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
is it true we cant debug c# scripts in ssis anymore under vs
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers