Another Way to Look at Trees
An alternative to tree traversal, and ultimately more efficient way to look at organizational structures is presented.
Swallowing the Camel
There is a paradox in the nature of the abstractions that many developers want when dealing with databases. They will strain at the gnat, but swallow a camel (Matthew 23:24). Whereas they will recoil with horror when a DBA suggests that an abstraction layer based on views, functions and procedures in a separate database schema […]
The Ten Commandments for DBAs
What should a good DBA do? Steve Jones came across a list he likes that showcases those things that should guide your efforts on a daily basis.
Survey: Using Online Accounts
Using online accounts for license management has some advantages, Red Gate is researching how to implement this for our tools in a way that improves the experience for all involved. To say thank you for your participation, there's a chance to win a $25 Amazon certificate.
Who Broke the Build?
Continuous Integration and automatic builds are fantastic tools for software teams, but only if developers take responsibility for their code. Karsten Kempe explains how to use Team Foundation Server to drive better continuous integration, and walks through a simple open-source tool he built to make nightly builds more transparent, and more valuable.
Data Vices
Steve Jones asks about what you might change about yourself at work for this Friday's poll.
Splitting Strings Based on Patterns
Splitting strings based on patterns supported by LIKE and PATINDEX can be an interesting way to address a wide variety of problems.
DBAs vs Developers: A Sad Tale of Unnecessary Conflict
For many developers, does DBA really stand for Don't Bother Asking? David Poole thinks it is time to end the unnecessary conflict between developer and DBA, and explains how to deal professionally with the inevitable friction between development and operation activities in IT.
The DBA Team Wants You!
There's a new contest going on, giving you the chance to win some software, SQL training, and a vacation, all at once.
SQL Server Hybrid High Availability and Disaster Recovery
This article summarizes the factors to consider and provide an overview of various options for HA and DR in cloud based SQL Server deployments.
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...
Forums
Searching for my own posts
I have a really stupid question... Is there an easy way to search for...
How to Work with On-Premises AI Models to Generate T-SQL Code
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Work with On-Premises...
Escaping Strings
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Escaping Strings
Question of the Day
Escaping Strings
The STRING_ESCAPE() function requires 2 parameters in SQL Server 2025. The first is a string of text and the second is the type of escape rules being used. What are the options for the second parameter?
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