Display More Than 8000 Characters (SQL Spackle)
SQL Server MVP Jeff Moden shows us a quick and dirty bit of SQL Spackle to display the content of VARCHAR(MAX) and NVARCHAR(MAX).
Where's the Printer Friendly Option?
Steve reminisces about the older technology of putting words on paper, often from the web.
Storing and Retrieving the Initialization and Configuration Data for Applications
All developers hit the problem of how and where to store and set their configuration, profile, or initial data. A long time ago, it was generally decided that simple text files containing key/values were best, stored with the application. After all, you are relying on being able to entice busy people to get the permanent settings right for their requirements, folks who are generally not interested in your elegant computer science constructs. Not only that, but the settings must be parsed very quickly and efficiently, otherwise a process that uses the tool will slow to a crawl.
Why customers love SQL Prompt
SQL Prompt has long been a customer favorite thanks to its ability to boost productivity. Discover how fellow database professionals are leveraging SQL Prompt to accelerate their coding speed and improve code quality.
Cleaning Up Your Database
How many of us clean up our databases and is it worth it? Steve has a few thoughts.
Exploring Time Travel and Row Level Concurrency: Data Engineering with Fabric
Learn how updates and concurrency can work in Fabric with Delta Parquet data.
Casino night is back at PASS Summit 2024!
Back by popular demand, casino night from SQL Server Central will return to PASS Summit this year. Casino night will take place on November 5 after the welcome reception. Tickets will be allocated at random via a lottery.
Microsoft Fabric and PySpark: Coding tricks to improve your solutions
PySpark has some unconventional syntaxes which provide power to the development process, making it easier.
Converting Old Running Total Code to Window Functions
This article looks at the old style of calculating a running total and how to convert that to code that uses a window function.
Effective Engineering
Platform engineering is a new area of focus for some, but it's already being seen as passé by some. Steve notes that there isn't a magic bullet for building better software. It comes about by us working together.
Blogs
Post-quantum key exchange – Insurance policy for your packets
AWS recently added support for Post-Quantum Key Exchange for TLS in Application Load Balancer...
Plan your 2026
By Brian Kelley
If you don't have a plan, you'll accomplish it. That's not a good thing.
Another Change
By Steve Jones
Today Redgate announced that we are partnering with Bregal Sagemount, a growth-focused private equity...
Forums
Where Your Value Separates You from Others
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Where Your Value Separates You...
Fixing the Error
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fixing the Error
T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Encoding Functions
Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...
Question of the Day
Fixing the Error
On SQL Server 2025, I have a database that has this collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. I decide I want to run this code:
SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C*3068 and good night', '*') AS 'A Classic';
I get this error:Msg 9844, Level 16, State 4, Line 24 The char/varchar input type uses an unsupported collation. Only a UTF8 collation is supported with char/varchar input type in UNISTR function.What is the easiest way to fix this error? See possible answers