Greg Larson explains that SQL Server provides a couple of different ways to delete backup and restore history. If you want to remove backup and restore information for all databases based on a date you can use the sp_delete_backuphistory system stored procedure. Or you can use the system stored procedure named sp_delete_database_backuphistory if you want to remove all backup and restore history for a specific database.
What happens if we can't access the Internet? We should be prepared, at home and work. Steve Jones has a few comments.
Data types are an important part of how tables and variables work. Did you know that constants have databases too?
This week Steve Jones looks at the idea of using AI and machine learning with your data to develop amazing new insight.
The ALL, SOME and ANY predicates aren't much used in SQL Server, but they are there. You can use the Exists() predicate instead but the logic is more contorted and difficult to read at a glance. Set-oriented predicates can greatly simplify the answering of many real-life business questions, so it is worth getting familiar with them. Joe Celko explains.
Steve Jones gave a keynote, and has a little fun this week with the topic of his talk.
Although SQL Server for Linux removes the concern that adopting SQL Server forces you to also adopt the Windows platform, it could also provide a useful alternative platform, and a more obvious alternative to Oracle. There are, however, several obvious concerns as to how such a product could ever achieve parity with the existing Windows-based product. Microsoft have made an interesting move with several ramifications, as Robert Sheldon explains.
There are times when you want some users to see part of a column value but not the whole thing, but you want other users to see the complete column value without any masking. The new SQL Server 2016 Dynamic Data Masking feature will allow you to define these different kinds of masking rules - Greg Larson explains.
Monitoring your systems is critical to ensuring security and stability. Steve Jones shares a few thoughts on where monitoring might go with more computer assistance in the future.
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I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
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