Hard Data v Gut Feel
Data is more important than gut feel, or at least, Steve Jones thinks it should be more important. Today he talks about using data to support decisions.
Network Load Testing Using iPerf
Tim Radney of SQLskills shows how to measure your network so you have more ammo to take to your network team when there is a performance issue.
The DBA Tax
Are you a DBA tax on your company? Or an asset that's worth the cost. Steve Jones talks about trying to be the latter and not the former.
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.
Blogs
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...
KDA: Echoes of Deception - Case 6
By Zikato
A cryptic message, a book cipher hidden in art provenance records, and a trail...
Forums
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...
BIT_COUNT II
Comments posted to this topic are about the item BIT_COUNT II
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