Syntactic Sugar
Syntactic sugar doesn't necessarily help a platform, but makes it easier or more fun to work on.
Reading, Writing, and Creating SQL Server Extended Properties
There is a great gulf between wanting to document your database properly with extended properties and actually doing it. Extended Properties have many uses but they aren't easy to use. Phil Factor is on a mission to make it easier for ordinary mortals to use extended properties as intended, to aid the database development process.
Data Preservation
Today Steve Jones talks about the challenges of preserving data across long periods of time, decades perhaps.
Extended Events for Tracking Backup and Restore Progress
Microsoft has introduced new extended events in SQL server 2016 which will give us detailed information about restore and backup process.
Spills SQL Server Doesn’t Warn You About
Table variables get a lot of bad press, and they deserve it. They are to query performance what the TSA is to air travel. No one’s sure what they’re doing, but they’ve been taking forever to do it.
Provisioning
This week Steve Jones is asking about the timeframe for you to get a new SQL Server instance? Is it substantial? Do you really know? Answer this week.
Managing Packages Using Windows PowerShell
Windows hasn't had a package manager in the style of the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) of Linux distributions. Apt-get is a great way of installing packages and other software. We have Chocolatey, of course which has a growing library of software and even allows you to automatically update software. Now PowerShell has an 'official' way of using any system, such as NuGet, Chocolatey, GitHub or PSget. It is definitely useful and likely to mature into an indispensable tool for Windows users. Nicolas explains wh.
The Future of Auditing
Auditing is a weak point in SQL Server according to Steve Jones. He looks at a few of its flaws.
Capacity Planning Using Performance Data
Erin Stellato discusses the types of performance data needed to help with capacity planning.
Blogs
Flyway Tips: AI Generating Migration Script Names
By Steve Jones
AI is a big deal in 2026, and at Redgate, we’re experimenting with how...
The Book of Redgate: Get the right stuff done
By Steve Jones
Another of our values: The facing page has this quote: “We admire people who...
Runing tSQLt Tests with Claude
By Ed Elliott
Running tSQLt unit tests is great from Visual Studio but my development workflow...
Forums
No Defaults Passwords Ever
Comments posted to this topic are about the item No Defaults Passwords Ever
Introduction of OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY = ON
Hi, We have low latency high volume system. I have a table having 3...
The Long Name
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Long Name
Question of the Day
The Long Name
I run this code to create a table:
When I check the length, I get these results:
A table name is limited to 128 characters. How does this work?