Sometimes a request from a user who doesn't appreciate the limitations of the technology can jolt you into discovering that an application feature that was, until recently, difficult to achieve is suddenly relatively easy. Dino was asked to allow the user to take photographs and associate them with an item of work. After he'd recovered from the shock, he decided that it was achievable, and now describes how he went on and did it.
Sometimes DBAs become resistant to change. When they lose focus on their full purpose they may have DBA syndrome.
Aaron Bertrand runs some tests to challenge an assertion that CHARINDEX is always faster at pattern matching than LEFT and LIKE.
When we administer a SQL Database, we always have to work with files. This new article shows how to handle them using PowerShell.
Asking questions in an interview is important, but there can be issues. Steve Jones talks a little about how to approach this.
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.
By Steve Jones
While wandering around the documentation looking for some Question of the Day topics, I...
By Arun Sirpal
Third part in my Ai series with databases. When building AI solutions within the...
By Steve Jones
This month we have a very interesting invitation from Koen Verbeeck. He has hosted...
Please I am hoping for some feedback Specifications: Windows Server 2022 SQL Server 2022...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How Do the Experts Become...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments...
As of June 2026, what is the best version of TLS to use with SQL Server?
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