You Better Learn to Work at Scale
We are managing more and more systems and databases all the time. To Steve Jones, that means we must be able to work at scale.
Using T-SQL to Perform Z-Score Column Normalization in SQL Server
In data mining, we sometimes need to perform techniques such as Z-score normalization on numeric data type columns to prevent one column from skewing or dominating the models produced by the machine learning algorithms. Dallas Snider explains how to perform this in SQL Server with T-SQL code.
Why Developers Need to Understand Execution Plans
If you can examine and understand execution plans, you can achieve better understanding of the database system and you will write better database code. Grant Fritchey shows you how.
Data Mining Part 23: Security
In this chapter we will talk about security recommendations for SQL Server Data Mining.
Data Mining Part 23: Security
In this chapter we will talk about security recommendations for SQL Server Data Mining.
Grant Fritchey Reviews Minion Reindex
Grant Fritchey reviews Midnight DBA's Minion Reindex, a highly customizable set of scripts that take on the task of rebuilding and reorganizing your indexes.
Time for Learning
How do you find time for learning? More importantly, Steve Jones asks if you find time for actual use of your knowledge.
Finding Encrypted Data in a SQL Server Database
The easiest way to determine if there is encrypted data in a database is to get that information from whoever wrote the application. Aside from that, there are a few things you can look for which would suggest that you have encrypted data in a given database.
Which Problem Are You Solving?
This week Steve Jones talks a bit about problem solving and how you should approach the issue.
Blogs
Automated SQL Server Benchmarking with HammerDB and Docker: A Complete Testing Framework
I’m excited to announce the release of a new open-source project that fully automates...
T-SQL Snapshot Backups on Availability Group Secondary Replicas
One of my favourite features of SQL Server 2022 was the T-SQL Snapshot Backups....
The Book of Redgate: Hours
By Steve Jones
I have said and written this many times: Redgate Software is the type of...
Forums
Optional Parameter Plan Optimization in SQL Server 2025: Fixing the Kitchen-Sink Search Procedure
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Optional Parameter Plan Optimization in...
AI Experience Gap that we keep talking about
Comments posted to this topic are about the item AI Experience Gap that we...
Question of the Day
ORDER BY alias
There is a table tmp_tab:
CREATE TABLE tmp_tab ( id int, val int );
INSERT INTO tmp_tab VALUES (1, 1), (2, NULL), (3, 3), (4, 4), (5, 5);You want to order the rows ids by the following expression:
ISNULL(val, id) + 1Which of the following queries produces the expected ordering and why? (Select all correct) See possible answers