Everything I Needed to Know Used to be Found in One Book
Books used to be the source of knowledge, but times have changed.
Stop Prompting Your AI Agent. Give It a Playbook.
Learn about how you can better prompt your AI Assistant in solving problems and producing code.
How to run SQL Server on Amazon Elastic Container Service
Learn how to efficiently run SQL Server using Amazon Elastic Container Service for a hassle-free Docker container experience.
Even When You Know What You're Doing, You Can Screw Up
There I was, walking around Amsterdam, radio in hand (OMG! He's talking about radios again!), automatically transmitting Active Packet Report System (APRS) signals every 90 seconds. Same radio I had used in Chicago a couple of weeks ago and in Poland last week. I was on the correct frequency and, as I say, I had […]
Database Mail in SQL Server 2022
This article covers the basics of getting Database Mail setup in SQL Server.
The New Software Team
Software teams are changing with AI and this might be an exciting time for developers if they take advantage of the capabilities available.
Local vs remote MCP servers – which should you choose?
Should you choose a local or remote MCP server? The best option depends on your security needs, performance goals, and deployment model. This guide explains the differences between local and remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, including privacy, scalability, latency, and integration trade-offs.
SQL Server 2022 Build List
This is a list of the builds for SQL Server 2022. There are other build lists available here. A list of all the builds that I can find and install on my Build VM. If you find a build not listed here, please let the webmaster know (webmaster at sqlservercentral.com). All builds are listed in reverse […]
Limit the Blast Radius
AI can go off the rails, as we see in a recent story about an LLM deleting a production database.
SQL Server 2016 Build List
A list of all builds for SQL Server 2016. Updated with CU2 for SP2 and CU10 for SP1.
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