Stairway to U-SQL Level 14: Local U-SQL Scalar Functions with C#
Learn how U-SQL leverages C# to support flexible scalar functions in your scripts.
Tempdb size resets after a SQL Server service restart
Have you ever checked the size of the SQL Server tempdb after restarting SQL Server to find that it's reset? Simon Liew explains this behaviour.
Validate Integer and Decimal Values in SQL Server
Bhavesh Patel shows how to validate specific use-cases for integer and decimal values in SQL Server.
Comparing and Synchronizing Two Folders with Azure
In this article, we will compare two folders using PowerShell, the command prompt and other tools.
Azure SQL Database - Dynamic Data Masking
A number of security-related features are built into Azure SQL Database, including Transparent Data Encryption, Row-Level Security, and Azure SQL Database Auditing. Their availability reflects the consistent effort by Microsoft to provide functional parity between Azure SQL Database and SQL Server instances running in Azure virtual machines as well as in your on-premises environment. Another example of this trend is support for Dynamic Data Masking, covered in this article.
SQL Server Temporal Tables: How-To Recipes
Tables that return the value of the data in the table at a particular point of time have been with us since the first relational database, but have always required special queries and constraints, and can be tricky to get right. System-versioned Temporal Tables, new in SQL Server 2016, make such tables behave like any other. How do you create one, or modify an existing table? How can you get an In-Memory Optimized OLTP table to be Temporal? Alex Grinberg shows how.
Combining R and SQL Server to diagnose performance bottlenecks
Using clustering algorithms to analyse index usage data from SQL Server’s DMVs & simplify complex performance investigations.
The Rate of Change of Data
Phil Factor argues that the database should be the primary source not only of the current data values, but also of the volatility of the data, its rate of change. Surely, then, it makes sense for the database to control the caching strategy.
Blogs
Catching Up On SQLOrlando
By Andy Warren
Somehow two years have elapsed since my last update; hopefully it won’t be that...
Advice I Like: Pyramid Schemes
By Steve Jones
If someone is trying to convince you it’s not a pyramid scheme, it’s a...
Using Prompt AI for a Travel Data Analysis
By Steve Jones
I was looking back at my year and decided to see if SQL Prompt...
Forums
Database file shrink issue.
Hi experts, I have a 3+ TB database on a 2019 sql server which...
The North Star for the Year
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The North Star for the...
Multiple Escape Characters
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Escape Characters
Question of the Day
Multiple Escape Characters
In SQL Server 2025, I run this code (in a database with the appropriate collation):
SELECT UNISTR('%*3041%*308A%*304C%*3068 and good night', '%*') AS 'A Classic';
What is returned? See possible answers