Converting MS Access Reports to SQL Server Reporting Services Reports
Siddharth Mehta walks through how to automatically migrate reports from MS Access to SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) without having to rebuild anything from scratch.
Learning from Microsoft
Microsoft has changed their engineering to do amazing things in the cloud, especially with SQL Server. We could all learn from this.
Exploring SQL Server 2016 Dynamic Data Masking – Part One
Greg Larson looks at how to hide the value of sensitive data by applying Dynamic Data Masking.
Data Mining Part 36: Verifying the accuracy of the model
In this new chapter we will show how to verify the accuracy of the mining models.
IDEs sweet but beguiling
IDEs are wonderful, but tend to lull you out of the good habits of thinking up front about how the code you write will be monitored and tested. So argues Phil Factor.
The Dangers of Algorithms
How we implement algorithms can change the way the world works with our software. Steve Jones wonders if we should be disclosing the algorithms themselves.
Redgate Instant Clone Beta
Redgate is in an early research phase of a tool that helps provision production-like databases for dev and test in a way that saves both time and storage. The team involved are looking for volunteers to provide feedback on the product as it's developed. If you think you'd be interested in trying out the tool, sign up for the beta program now.
SQL Server Performance Troubleshooting with SQL Monitor 5
Any SQL Server monitoring tool must gather the metrics that will allow a DBA to diagnose CPU, memory or I/O issues on their SQL Servers. It should also provide a set of accurate, reliable, configurable alerts that will inform the DBA of any abnormal or undesirable conditions and properties, as well as specific errors, on any of the monitored servers. This article provides an in-depth guide to the monitoring and alerting functionality available in one such tool, Redgate SQL Monitor. It focuses on the latest edition (5.0), which includes several key new features, such as performance diagnosis using wait statistics, the ability to compare to baselines, and more.
Database Design Follies: NULL vs. NOT NULL
It sounds simple enough. Either your column will always have a value or it may not. Yet somehow such a seemingly simple decision can become a never-ending debate where database schema begins to resemble superstition and designing effective tables seems more contentious than you expected it to be.
Blogs
Learn about Modern Microsoft Apps in San Diego
By Steve Jones
I wrote about learning today for the editorial: I Can’t Make You Learn. I...
How To Deploy Fabric SQL and Azure SQL Databases with Azure DevOps
By ReviewMyDB
Fabric has CI/CD built in, but if you've tried to use it for database...
A New Word: Attriage
By Steve Jones
attriage – n. the state of having lost all control over how you feel...
Forums
SSRS Reminded Me of the Time Microsoft Retired TMG
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SSRS Reminded Me of the...
Getting results from a Procedure to join to a query
I have a need to execute a stored procedure and return the results to...
Upgrade 2016 Standard to 2022 Express
Title pretty much says it all - can this be done? I've tried several...
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT II
In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:
UserID UserPermissions 15 23 37 4 NULLWhat is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount from dbo.UserPermission where UserID = 4;See possible answers