Performance Surprises and Assumptions: STRING_SPLIT
SQL Server 2016 RC0 introduces a new native string splitting function, STRING_SPLIT. In this article, Aaron Bertrand compares its performance to existing methods.
A SQL Server Patching Shortcut
This post on SQL Server patching illustrates a quick and simple way of safely extracting SQL Server installation files in advance of patching a SQL Server instance.
The 2015/2016 Simple-Talk Awards
Once more Simple-Talk invites its readers to vote on the top nominations for the Simple-Talk Awards. Find out who or what has been nominated for each of this year's nine categories, and cast your vote to decide the winners - voting closes tomorrow!
Code smells versus transgressions
The oddest SQL practices can be done deliberately for good reason, but are there any that are always wrong, that are so bad that that their use should be prohibited as a matter of policy?
Move an Existing Log Shipping Database to a New Monitor Server
How to move a log shipping database to a new monitor server without removing and rebuilding the log shipping setup.
Bad Cardinality Estimates from SSMS Plans – Redux
Aaron Bertrand shares some insight about early changes to Plan Explorer that help to provide you with the most accurate information we can.
The Database Transaction Unit (DTU) Decoded
In an Azure SQL Database, you pay for a certain number of DTUs, but what are these? Steve Jones explains.
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
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