Where's the Printer Friendly Option?
Steve reminisces about the older technology of putting words on paper, often from the web.
Storing and Retrieving the Initialization and Configuration Data for Applications
All developers hit the problem of how and where to store and set their configuration, profile, or initial data. A long time ago, it was generally decided that simple text files containing key/values were best, stored with the application. After all, you are relying on being able to entice busy people to get the permanent settings right for their requirements, folks who are generally not interested in your elegant computer science constructs. Not only that, but the settings must be parsed very quickly and efficiently, otherwise a process that uses the tool will slow to a crawl.
Why customers love SQL Prompt
SQL Prompt has long been a customer favorite thanks to its ability to boost productivity. Discover how fellow database professionals are leveraging SQL Prompt to accelerate their coding speed and improve code quality.
Cleaning Up Your Database
How many of us clean up our databases and is it worth it? Steve has a few thoughts.
Exploring Time Travel and Row Level Concurrency: Data Engineering with Fabric
Learn how updates and concurrency can work in Fabric with Delta Parquet data.
Casino night is back at PASS Summit 2024!
Back by popular demand, casino night from SQL Server Central will return to PASS Summit this year. Casino night will take place on November 5 after the welcome reception. Tickets will be allocated at random via a lottery.
Microsoft Fabric and PySpark: Coding tricks to improve your solutions
PySpark has some unconventional syntaxes which provide power to the development process, making it easier.
Converting Old Running Total Code to Window Functions
This article looks at the old style of calculating a running total and how to convert that to code that uses a window function.
Effective Engineering
Platform engineering is a new area of focus for some, but it's already being seen as passé by some. Steve notes that there isn't a magic bullet for building better software. It comes about by us working together.
SQL Index Rebuild vs Reorganize Comparison
This tip covers the differences and similarities between SQL Server index rebuild and index reorganize operations.
Blogs
Finding Balance: Things Will Come Up
By Steve Jones
I have a presentation on finding balance in your career that got quite a...
Who Are You Doing It For?
By Brian Kelley
But as I've matured over the years, I came to realize that I needed...
Presenting Twice in May 2026
By alevyinroc
I will be presenting my latest session, Documenting Your Work for Worry-Free Vacations, in-person...
Forums
The day-to-day pressures of a DBA team, and how we can work smarter with automation and AI
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The day-to-day pressures of a...
Migrate SSRS Reports to PowerBI Report Server in SQL Server 2025
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Migrate SSRS Reports to PowerBI...
Identities and Sequences III
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Identities and Sequences III
Question of the Day
Identities and Sequences III
When thinking of the Identity property for auto incrementing columns and sequences for the same action, which can be used with the BIGINT data type?
See possible answers