Programming
Programming is an important skill, perhaps extremely important for the future. Steve Jones thinks that's true.
Understanding SQL Server Query Optimization Statistics
In this article, you will learn what query optimisation statistics are and how SQL Server query optimizer uses statistics. You will also learn how to create and manage statistics, and what are the different ways to determine when statistics were last updated in SQL Server.
Reporting on Data
Reporting is an important skill for many data professionals. Steve Jones has a few things you might consider working on as a data professional.
SQL Saturday #230 Rheinland
SQL Saturday is a training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server. This event will be held Jul 13 2013 at Grantham-Allee 20, Sankt Augustin, Cologne/Bonn, Rheinland, 53757 , Germany.
Identify and Correct SQL Server Forwarded Records
Forwarded records in SQL Server can cause performance issues on heap tables because the record outgrows the page and the database engine uses pointers to reference the data. The best practice is to have a clustered index on every table, however, sometimes there are cases when a clustered index is not needed.
Your Frame of Reference
How you examine and approach a problem might have a large impact on how you solve it. Steve Jones notes that it's important that all of us look at the problem from the point of view of the customer, as well as our own view.
Exploring In-memory OLTP Engine (Hekaton) in SQL Server 2014 CTP1
The continuing drop in the price of memory has made fast in-memory OLTP increasingly viable. SQL Server 2014 allows you to migrate the most-used tables in an existing database to memory-optimized 'Hekaton' technology, but how you balance between disk tables and in-memory tables for optimum performance requires judgement and experiment.
New SQL Monitor Custom Metric: Untrusted Check Constraints
This metric returns the number of check constraints that have their is_not_trusted flag set to 1 in the sys.check_constraints table. Untrusted constraints force SQL Server to construct less efficient query plans, because it doesn’t know enough about the kind of data contained in the table. This can point to a data integrity issue which should be investigated.
A Better Conference
Is there a better way to put together a conference or event? Today Steve Jones speculates on how events are run and how we might change things.
Blogs
ISACA AI Material/Exam Prep Discount (May 18 – June 30, 2026)
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If you are considering any of the ISACA AI certs like the Advanced Artificial...
A Fabric solution can be very cost effective
By ChrisJenkins
Are you currently using Microsoft Fabric or considering migrating to it? If so, there...
Track SQL Server Configuration Changes Using the Error Log
By SQLPals
Track SQL Server Configuration Changes Using the Error Log If you...
Forums
We Are Eating Our Own Seed Corn
Comments posted to this topic are about the item We Are Eating Our Own...
Before Using AI with Business Data, Read This
Artificial intelligence tools are quickly becoming part of daily business operations, from document analysis...
Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines That Don't Break at Scale
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Designing SQL Server ETL Pipelines...
Question of the Day
Detecting Deadlocks Quickly
In the Database Engine, when a deadlock is detected, what does the detection interval shrink to (in time)?
See possible answers