Using Indexes to Reduce Blocking in Concurrent Transactions
New author Nilav Ghosh brings us a performance tuning article to help your queries run better. This article examines how indexes can help reduce blocking.
Explanation of SQL Server IO and Latches
This article is a whistle-stop tour of my exploration of latches; their different types, their purposes, why they are required and where they fit into the SQL database engine, in the hope it will be interesting and useful to you.
Time for Learning
Today Steve Jones talks about the time required to increase your skills and debates about what time you need to invest each year to gain knowledge.
What is your default database set to?
Some people set their default database to the database they use most often. This can cause issues when a restore fails.
Window Functions in SQL
SQL's windowing functions are surprisingly versatile, and allow us to cut out all those self-joins and explicit cursors. Joe Celko explains how they are used, and shows a few tricks such as calculating deltas in a time series, and filling in gaps.
Runtime Code
Do you test your code? What about code that is generated by applications and executed at runtime. Is that tested well? Steve Jones wonders.
Overview of the Different In-Memory OLTP Index Types
In-Memory table or what Microsoft refers to as In-Memory OLTP, or Hekaton is a new type of table is available with SQL Server 2014. In this article Greg Larsen discusses the different types of indexes you can place on your In-Memory tables, and how those indexes support different search criteria.
SQL in the City Seminar Portland 2013 –Deployment Stairway
Join Red Gate for a free seminar on November 15 (the day before SQL Saturday Oregon). Steve Jones and Grant Fritchey, SQL Server MVPs, will present best practices for SQL Server version control, continuous integration and deployment, in addition to showing Red Gate tools in action.
Using the SQL Server Distributed Replay feature
This tip will guide you through a simple example to illustrate how you can use the SQL Server Distributed Replay feature to replay a simple SQL Server trace file that contained two sessions executing statements concurrently.
Cloud Storage. Make it the present instead of the future.
In which Phil Factor wonders why all the different cloud storage offerings are so different, sparse in their features, crude and incompatible
Blogs
A New Word: on tenderhooks
By Steve Jones
on tenderhooks – adj. feeling the primal satisfaction of being needed by someone, which...
Ramblings about data communities and your contributions, no excuses
By DataOnWheels
I have been active in the data community throughout my career. I have met...
SQL Server Journey till 2025 (brief)
By Vinay Thakur
Quick Summary for Microsoft SQL Server till 2025, I am fortunate to be part...
Forums
how do i map the "current" object entry in for each to one variable
hi, in an ssis for each loop over an object variable called MyListVariable, i...
Simulating Mercury’s Orbital Motion Using Pure T-SQL (NASA 2025 Dataset)
SQL Server is typically viewed as a transactional or analytical database engine. However, it...
Azure SQL Database | CREATE EVENT SESSION [Blocking_Capture] ON DATABASE
Hello, Is there a way in Azure SQL Database to change the 'Blocking Process...
Question of the Day
String Similarity I
On SQL Server 2025, when I run this, what is returned?
SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE_SIMILARITY('SQL Server', 'MySQL') See possible answers