Performance Surprises and Assumptions : GROUP BY vs. DISTINCT

Aaron Bertrand acknowledges that DISTINCT and GROUP BY are usually interchangeable, but shows there are cases where one performs better than the other.

Byte Me: Compilation Vacation

Questions About the Use of PowerShell That you were Too Shy to Ask

Let's forget the actual PowerShell code for a moment: Why is PowerShell important? Why should I use it? Where did it come from? Why did it take so long to arrive? These and many other basic questions are answered in William Brewer's latest addition to the series that answers those seemingly simple questions that you were too shy to ask in public.

How to Recover a SQL Server Login Password

I will describe a simple method anyone can use to obtain lost password information for a SQL Server login.

In Search of Elasticity

An Evaluation of the Azure SQL Database Ecosystem.

Why Object Databases will always be Tomorrow's Technology

For many years now we always seem to have been on the verge of the revolution in object databases, without it ever quite transpiring. Why is this?

Getting Started with Azure SQL Data Warehouse - Part 1

As the demand for data analytics grows so does the need for a technology or platform to process large amounts of different types of data in timely manner. Azure SQL Data Warehouse is a new enterprise-class, elastic petabyte-scale, data warehouse service that can scale according to organizational demands in just a few minutes. Read on to learn more about this data warehouse-as-a-service offering from Microsoft.

Approaching Politics in IT

The news cycle seems to be dominated by discussion of politics. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, the talk of politics is inescapable and is probably going to lead to you being displeased with your fellow man. Luckily, we work in IT, so we can avoid politics. BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Politics goes way beyond […]

Lots of Learning at SQL Bits

Steve Jones is getting excited about learning at SQL Bits 2017.

New CREATE OR ALTER statement in SQL Server 2016 SP1

Ahmad Yaseen explains what SQL Server 2016 SP1's new CREATE OR ALTER statement does, and how to use it.