Using Extended Properties To Keep Everyone Informed
Use CMS and Extended Properties to store information about multiple servers, including the stakeholders who should know about any maintenance you are planning.
SQL Server Optimizer – Under the Hood Part 1
In this series of short articles, we lift the hood of the SQL Server Optimizer to examine a few of the many clever tricks used to optimize query performance. In Part I, we look at partial aggregate operators – an extremely clever way of downsizing certain large joins into much smaller (and faster) joins.
2013 in Review
Steve Jones looks back at 2013, starting with his predictions on Jan 1 and looking at how data and SQL Server impacted our community.
Set Up And Schedule a Server Side Trace
How to use Profiler to generate TSQL scripts that can be modified and automated to run as a server-side trace
The DBA's Big Data Holiday Wish List
Big data is now a standard part of information technology architecture for most large organizations. As a database administrator, with the holiday season upon us, I have the following items and notions on my holiday wish list. Here's hoping that I am gifted one or more of these; each one gives me something that I want or need.
Creating templates for use in BIDS (SQL Spackle)
Learn how to create and use templates in BIDS in this short SQL Spackle article.
Mining for Quitters
Google is trying to figure out who might quit the company, using their own custom application. Steve Jones thinks this is a great idea and wishes more companies would do it.
The Ultimate Tool List
This week Steve Jones looks at a few tools that can help your productivity and links to a few more.
Migrating SQL Server Database to Windows Azure - Deploying SQL Database
There are a few challenges associated with deployments of data services in Windows Azure, focusing in particular on SQL Database. In this article we turn our attention to an actual deployment and migration of locally stored data to SQL Database.
Blogs
Setting Up a Mac for Data Engineering and AI Work
If you work with data pipelines, SQL, notebooks, or machine learning models, a Mac...
Want to look at cloud reporting but not sure what the costs will be?
By ChrisJenkins
Have you been thinking about migrating your reporting to Microsoft Fabric or Snowflake but...
The Joyful Craftsmen and the Revolt BI join forces
The Joyful Craftsmen has become the new owner of Revolt BI. The merger creates...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
SQL Server Enum Implementation: A Single-Row View Strategy for Avoiding Magic Values
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Enum Implementation: A...
BIT_COUNT I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item BIT_COUNT I
Question of the Day
BIT_COUNT I
In SQL Server 2025, I have a table (dbo.UserPermission) that contains this data:
UserID UserPermissions 15 23 37What is returned when I run this code:
select bit_count(UserPermissions) as PermissionCount from dbo.UserPermission where UserID = 3;See possible answers