Teaching a dog to sing
To survive the inevitable downturns in the IT industry, Phil Factor argues that a IT manager needs to take time to maintain technical skills. It is not enough to understand development; you have to be able to do it.
Real-time Operational Analytics in SQL Server 2016 - Part 1
Arshad Ali takes a look at traditional analytics architecture, the challenges it faces, and how the newly introduced Real-time Operational Analytics feature overcomes those challenges.
A Case FOR Cursors...
We've all heard that definitive statement: "Avoid using cursors." But, in my opinion, what really should be conveyed is: "Avoid using row-by-row operations when possible."
Impressive Accomplishments
What things impress you most about potential candidates. This week Steve Jones asks the question to try and understand what types of activities data professionals might consider.
How to tell what SQL Server version you are running
Gerg Robidoux demonstrates a couple of methods for determining which version of SQL Server you're running, as well as what service pack or hotfix is installed.
Azure SQL Database – How to Choose the Right Service Tier
So you've decided to use Azure SQL Database. You head for the portal and are suddenly faced with a number of questions. Sure, the choices you make have a number of repercussions, but what are they? Murilo Miranda provides a simple guide to get started.
Practicing Deployments
Amateurs practice until they can get something right. Professionals practice until they don't get things wrong. How should we handle our deployments?
Introduction to SQL Server Stretch Database
In many cases Azure SQL Database offers an economically and functionally viable alternative to SQL Server deployments. However, there are also scenarios where we might discover that rather than serving as a replacement, it provides synergy, working side by side with your on-premises databases. One of technologies that illustrate this paradigm is Stretch Database, introduced in SQL Server 2016. Marcin Polichtdescribes its basic characteristics and reviews its implementation steps in this article.
Resolving an Error When Creating an Availability Group Listener
In this post, I’m going to talk an issue that I found when creating an availability group listener by using SQL Server Management Studio's Add Listener. This article helps you to resolve the issue.
Minimizing impact of widening an IDENTITY column – part 4
Aaron Bertrand continues his series on widening an IDENTITY column, showing how he would attack the problem directly.
Blogs
Who Are You Doing It For?
By Brian Kelley
But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed...
Presenting Twice in May 2026
By alevyinroc
I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
Forums
DB Design Methods
I've read a few posts regarding what we use to design DB models and...
Auto Update Statistics not triggering on filtered indexes
I've got a table with 186,703,969 rows, about 300GB of data. There are several...
What is the difference between SQL Server and SQL Database?
I created a SQL Database in Azure Portal but I've just noticed it also...
Question of the Day
An Unusual Identity
What values are returned when I run this code?
CREATE TABLE dbo.IdentityTest2
(
id NUMERIC(10,0) IDENTITY(10,10) PRIMARY KEY,
somevalue VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.IdentityTest2
(
somevalue
)
VALUES
( 'Steve')
, ('Bill')
GO
SELECT top 10
id
FROM dbo.IdentityTest2 See possible answers