Building Better Software
Steve Jones discusses the idea of building software better, and why that's a challenge for many of us.
Find a String in a String in SQL Server
Learn how you can find data in a string and extract it, no matter where it's located.
Getting Started with JSON Support in SQL Server 2016 – Part 2
Arshad Ali talks about using OPENJSON to read and parse JSON data and looks at how to convert it to tabular format.
The Slack Integration
Slack has become a popular phenomenon in the technical world, especially for software developers. Should we join in?
Disabling SQL Server Optimizer Rules with QUERYRULEOFF
Daniel Farina shows how to disable the optimizer rules by using QUERYRULEOFF, an undocumented hint.
The Data Driven Event
In a couple of days, Microsoft is holding Data Driven, an event that will highlight SQL Server 2016.
SQL GROUP BY Basics
It sometimes pays to go back and look at what you think you already know about SQL. Joe Celko gives a quick revision of the GROUP BY and HAVING clauses in SQL that are the bedrock of any sort of analysis of data, and comes up with some nuggets that may not be entirely obvious.
Deep Dive into Changing Database Collation
Changing Database Collation Through Primary keys, Foreign Keys, Default and Check Constraints and more.
Testing times with SMO
SMO gives every appearance of being a great example of over-reliance on automated testing at the expense of manual exploratory testing.
Blogs
PlanTrace Now Supports PostgreSQL
PlanTrace Now Supports PostgreSQL The same plan analysis you know from...
A New Word: the Kinder Surprise
By Steve Jones
the kinder surprise – . the point in your early adolescence when you realize...
Crash-Consistent Snapshot Cloning - Hyper-V Edition
If you’ve been following my T-SQL Snapshot Backup series, most of what I’ve covered...
Forums
SSRS Is Dead. Here Are Your Real Options
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SSRS Is Dead. Here Are...
The Distance Metric
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Distance Metric
The New Wave of Security Threats
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The New Wave of Security...
Question of the Day
The Distance Metric
In the new VECTOR_DISTANCE() function in SQL Server 2025, the first parameter is the distance_metric. What is this?
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