Junk Drawer
Dale Newman created open source project called Junk Drawer. It's goal is to make the majority of Excel or text file importing a one step, no-brainer process without using the Import Wizard.
Fixing Cache Bloat Problems With Guide Plans and Forced Parameterization
Imagine it. You've been asked to fix a dire performance problem with a SQL Server database. You find a severe case of 'Cache Bloat' due to ad-hoc queries, but you can't fix the code itself. What should you do? Specify forced parameterization? Perhaps a better idea would be to use guide plans.
SQLSaturday #269: SQL South West, Exeter, UK
SQL South West user group are running their second SQL Saturday on March 21st and 22nd and have another spectacular schedule of technical content from SQL Server professionals from the UK, Europe and USA including SQL Server MVPs and Microsoft staff. All the session details and how to register for the full-day pre-con sessions or the free-to-attend Saturday:
DBA Dreams
Louis Davidson on the small dreams that DBAs can nurture, each day, to elevate the drudgery of a seemingly banal task into a celebration of purpose.
Downtime
Most of us are working to prevent downtime in our systems. However Netflix thinks a little forced downtime is good for the software developers and infrastructure people.
The SQL TABLE Type: Beyond Table-Valued Parameters
Follow along as this starter article on the SQL TABLE Type walks you through the various ways it can be used in T-SQL.
Avoid using NOLOCK on SQL Server UPDATE and DELETE statements
Occasionally I come across UPDATE and DELETE statements where the target SQL Server table is referenced with the NOLOCK hint. Does this hint help or hurt performance in this case?
SQL Saturday #269 - Exeter, UK
SQL Saturday is coming to Exeter on March 22, 2014. Join Red Gate's David Atkinson and the rest of the speakers at this free day of SQL Server training and networking, organized by SQL South West.
Geeky Entertainment
As a break from work, this week Steve Jones wants to know what you wish for. Are there comic book, science fiction, or technological thrillers you'd like to see made into movies?
Blogs
Learning from Mistakes: T-SQL Tuesday #194
By Steve Jones
We’re a week late, once again my fault. I was still coming out of...
Stupid Things I Did With AI: ASCII Art
By Steve Jones
I ran across this article recently (https://www.gatesnotes.com/meet-bill/source-code/reader/microsoft-original-source-code) and it has a great opening piece...
Simple Talks Podcasting in 2026
By Steve Jones
I’m in the UK today, having arrived this morning in London. Hopefully, by this...
Forums
Learning From Breakage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Learning From Breakage
Python in Action to Auto-Generate an Optimized PostgreSQL Index Strategy
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Python in Action to Auto-Generate...
Adding and Dropping Columns I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Adding and Dropping Columns I
Question of the Day
Adding and Dropping Columns I
I have this table in my SQL Server 2022 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CityList] ( [CityNameID] [int] NOT NULL IDENTITY(1, 1), [CityName] [varchar] (30) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOI decide to add two new columns for the StateProvince and Country. What code should I use? See possible answers