How to fix SQL Server deadlocks with monitoring
Learn about deadlocks and how you might better troubleshoot the issues involved.
The 2015/2016 Simple-Talk Awards: Winners Announced
The 2015/16 Simple-Talk Awards have concluded, the votes have been counted and recounted, and the winners have now been announced.
Hunting in Packs
Waterfall is the practice most destructive to developer productivity? Nonsense, according to Phil Factor. Lack of basic team coordination skills comes much higher in the list.
The Data Dewey Decimal System
Steve Jones looks at the idea of cataloging our data sets in order to make it easier for
Getting Started with Temporal Table in SQL Server 2016 – Part 1
With the new temporal table feature, SQL Server 2016 internally manages two tables: a base table, which contains the latest data all the time, and a history table, which contains a history of all of the changes. Arshad Ali looks at the new feature, how it works, and how to either create a new table with this feature or enable it for an existing table.
Finding Special Characters within Character Strings
Special Characters can lead to many problems. Identifying and reporting on them can save a lot of headache down the road.
The Comeback of Migrations-Based Deployments
With database deployments, not all script-based processes are equal. Some use change scripts in a free-and-easy way, and some, which are normally called ‘migrations-based approaches’, have more discipline around them. In this article, Redgate Product Manager Elizabeth Ayer covers ‘migrations’, and shows some of the benefits that have come with new tooling which is specifically designed to assist the change script processes.
Naming Is Hard
Naming objects and variables in software can create contention in a team. While there are good conventions and standards, ultimately a team just needs to agree on something.
Exploring SQL Server 2016 Dynamic Data Masking – Part Two - Masking and Exporting Data in Existing Tables
Dynamic Data Masking allows you to obscure your confidential data column values at the database engine level for both new and existing SQL Server data. Being able to alter the definition of an existing column to add a masking rule makes it very simple to obscure your existing column values without even changing your application code.
Blogs
Who Are You Doing It For?
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But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed...
Presenting Twice in May 2026
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I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Finding the Next Sequence Value: #SQLNewBlogger
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I saw a question asking about the next sequence value and decided to try...
Forums
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...
An Unusual Identity
Comments posted to this topic are about the item An Unusual Identity
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