Converting and Using Text Dates as SQL Server Dates
This tip describes some T-SQL techniques for converting a mmddyyyy string to a SQL Server date, handling rows with missing date strings, and comparing converted date strings.
Using the T-SQL PERCENTILE Analytic Functions in SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008
Percentiles give meaning to measurements by telling you the percentage of the population being measured who get higher or lower values. They are now easier to calculate in SQL, and are useful for reporting; but are the new analytic functions faster and more efficient than the older methods? Dwain Camps demonstrates, and investigates their relative performance.
Hack Us
A challenge from United intrigues Steve Jones. How many other companies would make a challenge like this?
Storing a Binary File in a Database
In this article you will see how to convert a file to a binary stream and insert it into SQL Server with SQLCLR.
SQL Monitor Custom metric: Average I/O stalls
This is a good general indicator of performance problems. High stall times indicate I/O problems, which can be attributed to busy physical disks or queries that return large data sets to the client.
Webinar: How to safely manage application and database changes with continuous delivery
Join Brian A. Randell, Grant Fritchey and Steve Jones in this panel discussion to hear tips, ideas and share your questions on managing application and database deployments with continuous delivery. This Free webinar will be on May 27th at 4PM BST, register while space is available.
The Cascading (CROSS) APPLY
An old trick nowadays but one which is still underused here on SSC is the cascading CROSS APPLY – where output from one CROSS APPLY is used as input for another.
Optimizing Batch Process in SQL Server
SQL Server batch processes are usually run from SQL Agent in the background. Often, the responsibility for creating these tasks belongs entirely to the developer. Dennes Torres demonstrates that DBAs can advise and assist with this type of batch job to help reduce their impact on the working system.
Blogs
Narrow Task Decomposition in AI Pipeline Agents
A nightly load into sales_fact fails. Ask an orchestrating agent to break down the...
Car Update: August 2026
By Steve Jones
It’s been some time since I provided a car update, so I decided to...
Microsoft Fabric OneLake Shortcuts: When to Use Them and When Not To
By James Serra
An architecture scenario Imagine separate Sales, Finance, Shared Data, and Executive Analytics workspaces. Sales...
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Question of the Day
Backing Up a DMK
In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?
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