UNION ALL Optimization
Paul White digs into row goals as he explains some interesting and inconsistent behavior with UNION ALL queries in SQL Server.
Guilty of Over-Customising
Am I guilty of over-customising software? Read this and let us know what you think.
The Value of Surveys
Phil Factor on the perils of trying to squeeze good insights out of bad surveys.
Two Approaches to Addressing Circular References in SSDT
Both options have their advantages and disadvantages. Neither is universally right for all situations. Understand the differences before picking the model that works for your situation.
Guide to enhancing privacy and addressing GDPR requirements with the Microsoft SQL platform
A new whitepaper published today gives Microsoft SQL customers technical guidance for how to approach GDPR compliance with Microsoft SQL technologies.
Scala and Apache Spark in Tandem as a Next-Generation ETL Framework
Scala and Apache Spark might seem an unlikely medium for implementing an ETL process, but there are reasons for considering it as an alternative. After all, many Big Data solutions are ideally suited to the preparation of data for input into a relational database, and Scala is a well thought-out and expressive language. Krzysztof Stanaszek describes some of the advantages and disadvantages of a scala-based approach to implementing and testing an ETL solution.
Understanding OPENJSON and FOR JSON in Azure and SQL 2016
An example of exporting and importing table data with JSON in Azure and SQL Server 2016.
Statistics in SQL: Pearson’s Correlation
Some people will assure you that you can't do any serious statistical calculations in SQL. In the first of a series of articles, Phil factor aims to prove them wrong by explaining how easy it is to calculate Pearson's Product Moment Correlation.
SQL Server is Getting Smarter
SQL Server is becoming more capable all the time, requiring fewer human resources for basic management.
How to partition data in Tabular SSAS
Partitioning data is a standard SQL Server administration practice. Partitions enable independent administration of different slices of data. When a SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) tabular data model is developed and processed, data is read from the source system and loaded into the tabular data model configured in In-Memory processing mode. Every time the model is processed, the entire data set may not require re-processing. Only certain slices of data containing changes may require re-processing which can be achieved by partitioning data into logical slices. In this post, Siddharth Mehta looks at how to partition tables in Tabular SSAS.
Blogs
Au Revoir for now
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
The SUM of Nothing: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I caught this interesting item over on Pinal Dave’s blog: Eleven Interview Questions that...
Forums
Building a SQL Server Fleet Audit That Leadership Actually Reads
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building a SQL Server Fleet...
Smart AI Agents and Data Security
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Smart AI Agents and Data...
RegEx Functions IV
Comments posted to this topic are about the item RegEx Functions IV
Question of the Day
RegEx Functions IV
I have this data in a table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
EmailAddressID EmailAddress 7 dylan0@ADVENTURE-WORKS.COM 8 Diane1@ADVENTURE-WORKS.COMIf I run this query, which row(s) are returned?
SELECT top 10 * FROM person.EmailAddress WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(EmailAddress, '^D', 'i') AND BusinessEntityID IN (7,8)See possible answers