SQL Server Heaps, and Their Fragmentation
In SQL Server, heaps are rightly treated with suspicion. Although there are rare cases where they perform well, they are likely to be the cause of poor performance. If a table is likely to have a large number of changes, then it can become fragmented due to way that space is allocated and forward pointers used. How does one detect this problem? Is it significant? How does one deal with it, if necessary? Neeraj Tripathi explains.
Early Adopters
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren that looks at those that run software early in its lifecycle.
Using SQL Prompt to Accelerate the Top 10 Most Common Database Scripts
There may be some people who enjoy repetitive typing, but Grant Fritchey doesn't. He's always preferred SQL Prompt. The standard snippets suit developers fine but aren't so DBA-oriented, so he set about asking the SQLServerCentral community what they typed in the most, and set about producing a set of DBA snippets with the results.
Shrinking the Budget
Most DBAs don't get involved with budgets at work, but we are affected by them. Steve notes you might want to understand how budgets work.
Installing SQL Server 2016
Greg Larson walks through the GUI installation process for SQL Server 2016 and explore these new installation options.
Webinar: Unit Testing in SQL Server with tSQLt
Join tSQLt developer, Sebastian Meine, and Steve Jones as they answer your questions and show you how to unit test T-SQL code.
Relational By Default
Should we consider the relational model the default and only after having a good reason look at a NoSQL platform? Steve Jones has a few comments.
SQL Prompt Tips #6 - Insert Semicolons
A quick SQL Prompt tip to automatically add semicolons to your code.
Is SQL Server killing your application’s performance?
When an application suffers from performance problems, it’s common to assume the database is at fault. Ben Emmett examines why this often isn’t the case, and shows how you can dig into a .NET application’s use of SQL Server.
Blogs
RANK() vs DENSE_RANK(): #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I saw an article recently...
Using CAT for Testing of Data Agents
In last months one of the scenarios where you can use AI has been...
Are you getting value from your reporting?
By ChrisJenkins
Do you spend so long manipulating your data into something vaguely useful that you...
Forums
Creating JSON II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Creating JSON II
Engineer Lessons
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Question of the Day
Creating JSON II
On SQL Server 2025, what happens when I run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG( N'City':N'Denver' RETURNING JSON) GOSee possible answers