One way to get an index seek for a leading %wildcard
In an effort to make leading wildcard searches sargable, Aaron Bertrand plays around with a trigram-type implementation in SQL Server.
Human and Machine Learning
Machine learning and AI are becoming more and more prevalent, which Steve Jones thinks is good.
Performance Dashboard Error: Could not find stored procedure
In this article, you will learn how to troubleshoot error when you try to launch the main Dashboard Report.
The Secure Medical Data Challenge
This week Steve looks at the challenges of security for medical data.
Encrypting SQL Server: Using an Encryption Hierarchy to Protect Column Data
SQL Server Encryption is an essential part of what is required for protecting data. Column-level encryption can be a very effective way of doing this. In the first in a series of articles on the theme of SQL Server Encryption, Robert Sheldon once more makes it all seem easy.
The Last Week for SQL Bits 2017 Discounts
This is the last week for a discounted registration to SQL Bits 2017. The price goes up after Mar 4, so register today.
Enumerate Windows Group Members
Here a quick script showing how to get all the Active Directory users in a AD group.
Using SQL SERVER and Cloud Hosted Databases with OBIEE 11g
If your organisation is committed to using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 10g/11g /12c as their BI solution, you aren't thereby committed to using Oracle throughout your organisation. You can use a range of data sources including SQL Server, and save a great deal of money by doing so. Sadly, Oracle will only support the use of the venerable SQL Server 2008 R2. Zafar Ali demonstrates how to connect OBIEE to the world beyond Oracle.
The Cloud is Just a Tool
Today Steve Jones argues the cloud is just another tool for us to use. Not required, not ignored, but considered.
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.
Blogs
AI Helps Me with My Sloppiness
By Steve Jones
I type fairly well. Well, I type fast, but I do wear out a...
WITH clause gets a 26ai boost!
By way of background, a while back I did video called “My New Favourite...
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How We Handled a Vendor...
Cognitive Coverage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Cognitive Coverage
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers