10 New Features Worth Exploring in SQL Server 2016
Greg Larson gives an in-depth look at ten of the new features you can expect from SQL Server 2016.
Leave Developers Alone
Interruptions are the enemy of productivity for creative people, like software developers. Steve Jones talks today about the need for quiet time.
Top 10 Most Common Database Scripts
What are the scripts that a working DBA uses so often that they become part of the 'muscle memory'? Grant Fritchey asked the question on the forums of SQL Server Central. From the large response, Grant was able to pick out the ten most popular T-SQL commands, scripts, or fragments. It seems as if, despite the range of tasks we do, there are some common tools we use.
Masking Data
As DBAs we go to great lengths to ensure the security of our production data. But what happens when it moves off of a production server?
SQL Prompt Tips #3 - Snippet Placeholder $Paste$
Another quick tip for SQL Prompt, using the snippets to increase your productivity.
Using Power BI in a Hybrid Environment
This paper describes best practices for security, networking, and component architecture for building a hybrid business intelligence (BI) environment by using a combination of Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Azure, and on-premises data sources. Many organizations are taking advantage of the benefits of cloud computing such as lower capital expenditures and increased agility, while still maintaining data in on-premises data stores.
From Great Idea to End Result
IT is too slow. That was a quote that inspired this piece from Steve Jones that talks about the need for IT to be more flexible and agile in their efforts. That includes the data professional in their modeling.
Simple Mathematical Formulas using the M Language
The Power BI desktop designer is a great tool; however, the hardest part of any Business Intelligence project is gathering and formatting the data into reportable datasets. John Miner explains how having a deeper understanding of the M language will help a BI developer in cases where the menus can not.
SQL Safety Nets
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren. Andy talks about the things that help us out when we forget to handle some aspect of server administration. These safety nets can be handy, but should they be there? Should we have more of them? Join the discussion.
Blogs
The SUM of Nothing: #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I caught this interesting item over on Pinal Dave’s blog: Eleven Interview Questions that...
How to Move the SSMS Status Bar to the Top and Color-Code SQL Server Connections
By Hemantgiri
I use color-coded connections in SSMS to distinguish Production, Pre-Production, UAT, and Development. But...
Forums
Split Large Queries in Athena with a Simple Modulo Trick
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Split Large Queries in Athena...
Finding Trailing Spaces
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Finding Trailing Spaces
Question of the Day
Finding Trailing Spaces
I have some data in a SQL Server 2025 database. It looks like this for the dbo.Customer table:
CustomerID CustomerName PreferredName 1 Steve Steve 2 Andy Andy 3 Brian Brian 4 Allan Allan 5 Devin Devin 6 Steve Steve 7 Sally SallyI want to detect which names have a single trailing space. The CustomerName is a varchar() and the PreferredName is a CHAR(). Does this query detect the problem rows?
SELECT
CustomerID,
CustomerName,
PreferredName
FROM Customer
WHERE CustomerName <> RTRIM(CustomerName)
OR PreferredName <> RTRIM(PreferredName); See possible answers