The Dangers of Travel
As data professionals, we might carry lots of information with us that relates to our organization. Will we get caught up in government issues as we cross borders?
The Oracle PL/SQL Results Cache
Oracle offers a results cache in the database (from 11.2 onwards) and in PL/SQL (again, from 11.2 onwards) which can greatly reduce execution time of repeated statements when insert/update/delete activity is not heavy. The mechanism in PL/SQL, however, may not work as expected with global temporary tables. Using a slightly modified example, Jonathan Lewis looks at what you might see when using this option.
An Out of Date CAP
The CAP Theorem talks about the properties of distributed systems, and how you can really only have two of them in any system.
SQL Prompt Tips #2 - Casing Options
A quick tip to help you set your object names to your preferred case in T-SQL code.
Stairway to Advanced T-SQL Level 8: Functions to Generate Date and Time values
When you build applications that store records in SQL Server you will most likely have to store date and time values as part of the data. To manage all the different date related tasks you might need to perform Microsoft has introduced a number of date functions. In this stairway I will be exploring those date and time functions.
Maintaining a grouped running MAX (or MIN)
If you're on SQL Server 2012 or greater, you definitely want to become familiar with all of the extensions to the windowing functions first introduced in SQL Server 2005 – they may give you some pretty serious performance boosts when revisiting code that is still running "the old way." Aaron Bertrand explains.
SQLXML Bulk Loader: The Sequel
SQLXML isn't exactly new technology, and parts of it aren't pretty, but if you need to heave vast quantities of XML data into a SQL Server database then you may come to appreciate the raw speed of which it's capable. Adam Aspin shows how to configure the SQL XML Bulk Loader tool for optimal data loading performance.
On Learning from Experience and Misfortune
Phil Factor on learning from mistakes. Preferably other people's.
Optimizing Your Query Plans with the SQL Server 2014 Cardinality Estimator
This paper provides an overview of the primary changes made to the cardinality estimator functionality by the Microsoft query processor team, covering how to enable and disable the new cardinality estimator behavior, and showing how to troubleshoot plan-quality regressions if and when they occur.
Blogs
Webinar: Navigating the Database Landscape in 2026
By Steve Jones
For a number of years, we’ve produced the State of the Database Landscape report,...
Claude AI Convinced Me Not to Build an iPad App
By Steve Jones
I coach volleyball and I do a lot of stat stuff on paper. I...
A New Word: Dolorblindness
By Steve Jones
dolorblindness – n. the frustration that you’ll never be able to understand another person’s...
Forums
Data Warehouse Toolkit meets Star Schema: The Complete Reference
Is there a good syllabus for reading these two together? (Yes, it's called the...
GPX distance and time analysis in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item GPX distance and time analysis...
The DBA is Dead; Long Live the DBA
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The DBA is Dead; Long...
Question of the Day
Changing the AG Listener
In SQL Server 2025, if I want to remove an IP from a listener, what do I do?
See possible answers