Introducing the Set-based Loop
Set-based programming doesn’t mean “no loops” or a single statement. Finding out the best ways to traverse a full hierarchy.
How to generate T-SQL scripts in SQL Server Management Studio with the collation settings
SQL Server collation is an important setting when creating database objects. One of the best ways to ensure that collation issues do not happen is to ensure that the collation settings are properly specified in the script that generates the database objects - Siddharth Mehta demonstrates how to do this.
A Software Warranty
Steve Jones says that developers should take responsibility for the code they deploy, perhaps with a warranty of sorts inside their company.
Taking Pictures from HTML
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.
Do you have DBA syndrome?
Sometimes DBAs become resistant to change. When they lose focus on their full purpose they may have DBA syndrome.
Pattern Matching : More Fun When I Was a Kid
Aaron Bertrand runs some tests to challenge an assertion that CHARINDEX is always faster at pattern matching than LEFT and LIKE.
PowerShell Solutions - Working with files
When we administer a SQL Database, we always have to work with files. This new article shows how to handle them using PowerShell.
Questioning the Interviewer
Asking questions in an interview is important, but there can be issues. Steve Jones talks a little about how to approach this.
Managing SQL Server Backup and Restore History Information
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.
Coming Attacks
What happens if we can't access the Internet? We should be prepared, at home and work. Steve Jones has a few comments.
Blogs
The SUM of Nothing: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I caught this interesting item over on Pinal Dave’s blog: Eleven Interview Questions that...
How to Move the SSMS Status Bar to the Top and Color-Code SQL Server Connections
By Hemantgiri
I use color-coded connections in SSMS to distinguish Production, Pre-Production, UAT, and Development. But...
Forums
Building a SQL Server Fleet Audit That Leadership Actually Reads
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Building a SQL Server Fleet...
Smart AI Agents and Data Security
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Smart AI Agents and Data...
RegEx Functions IV
Comments posted to this topic are about the item RegEx Functions IV
Question of the Day
RegEx Functions IV
I have this data in a table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
EmailAddressID EmailAddress 7 dylan0@ADVENTURE-WORKS.COM 8 Diane1@ADVENTURE-WORKS.COMIf I run this query, which row(s) are returned?
SELECT top 10 * FROM person.EmailAddress WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(EmailAddress, '^D', 'i') AND BusinessEntityID IN (7,8)See possible answers