Time and Space: How to Monitor Drive Space in SQL Server
How to monitor drive space in T-SQL and calculate when your drives will run out of space.
Getting Started with Stretch Database Functionality in SQL Server 2016 - Part 2
Arshad Ali explains and demonstrates the impact of enabling the Stretch database feature on backup and restore operations. He also discusses ways to pause, resume, and disable this feature altogether when not needed.
Documenting Your PowerShell Binary Cmdlets
Whereas it is easy to provide inline documentation for a normal scripted PowerShell cmdlet or function so as to provide comprehensive help at the command-line or IDE, the same isn't true of binary cmdlets written in C#. At last, there is an open-source utility to assist with this that is being actively maintained and updated. At last, binary cmdlets need no longer be the poor cousins of scripted cmdlets in their documentation
Having fun with PARSENAME (SQL Spackle)
PARSENAME is perhaps the most infrequently used built-in documented function in SQL Server. SQL Server Microsoft Certified Master Wayne Sheffield shows why this nifty function ought to be included in your SQL toolbox.
Security Convenience
Security is always a hot topic, and Steve Jones notes that we should be specific when we work with security.
Wherever I Lay My Hat: Release Management in TeamCity with Redgate DLM
Where you have multiple services, applications and databases in your environment, and perhaps with high levels of scrutiny and governance, you'll probably want a Release Management system for deploying database and application code together: You can, alternatively, use a separate Release Management component. But for simpler applications, you can use your existing build system such as TeamCity to deploy changes. Using a database deployment example, Richard Macaskill shows how.
Tracking Professional Athletes
Today Steve Jones looks at the use of tracking sensors to gather spatial data on professional athletes for later analysis.
SQL Server 2016 : Availability Group Enhancements
Aaron Bertrand reveals details about the changes to Availability Groups that will ship in the next major version: SQL Server 2016.
Comparison of SQL Server Serializable and Snapshot isolation levels
Both Serializable and Snapshot isolation levels exclude concurrency issues such as Dirty Reads, Non-repeatable Reads and Phantoms. However the way in which they deal with such issues is quite different. In this article, Sergey Gigoyan explains the main differences between the two.
SQL Family Feud Survey - Technical questions
The first 100 people get to decide the data set. Give us the first thing you think of.
Blogs
AI Helps Me with My Sloppiness
By Steve Jones
I type fairly well. Well, I type fast, but I do wear out a...
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How We Handled a Vendor...
Cognitive Coverage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Cognitive Coverage
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers