Stairways

To keep up to date with all the technologies in SQL Server, the DBA or developer who wants to stay ahead is faced with the struggle of constant learning. How do you keep up while avoiding information overload, unnecessary detours and dead-ends?

The SQL Server Stairways is our solution to this problem. Designed to smooth out even the steepest learning curve, each Stairway is a SQL tutorial series focused on a single topic and is arranged into no more than a dozen easily-navigable tutorials that we call 'steps'. Each step is the length of a typical magazine tutorial, and emphasizes practical, hands-on learning, with just enough background theory to help you understand the topic at a deeper level.

Using straightforward language and avoiding jargon and marketing babble, each Stairway tutorial series is designed to take you from zero knowledge of a particular SQL Server topic to a level of practical understanding that will allow you to start using that feature in a production environment. The learning gradient is steady and manageable, but also brisk. You won't be wasting time.

Happy climbing!

Stairway to SQL Server Extended Events

Stairway to SQL Server Extended Events

Erin Stellato, a Principal Consultant with SQLskills.com, explores the use of Extended Events as a diagnostic data collection tool or SQL Server. She describes how to define efficient low-overhead event sessions that exploit fully the vast number of events, as well as the powerful filtering and data collection options, offered by this new event collection infrastructure. She also demonstrates simple techniques to analyze event data and identify and troubleshoot the causes of poor SQL Server performance, such as long-running queries that consume vast amounts of CPU and I/O resources. It is time to embrace Extended Events and understand all that it has to offer, and Erin's stairway is the perfect place to start.

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2015-12-01

6,771 reads

Stairway to Columnstore Indexes

Stairway to Columnstore Indexes

SQL Server 2012 and later offer a very different type of index from the traditional b-tree, the in-memory columnstore index. These indexes use a column-based storage model, as well as a new 'batch mode' of query execution and can offer huge performance increases for certain workloads. But how are they built, how do they work, and why do they manage to have such a dramatic impact on performance? In this stairway, Hugo Kornelis explains all, with his usual mix of concise description and detailed demonstration.

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2015-01-22

12,393 reads

Stairway to Advanced T-SQL

Stairway to Advanced T-SQL

This stairway will contain a series of articles that will expand on the T-SQL foundation that you learned in the prior two T-SQL stairways, Stairway to T-SQL DML and T-SQL Beyond the Basics. This stairway should help readers prepare for passing the Microsoft Certification exam 70-461: Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012.

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2014-12-11

23,265 reads

Stairway to SQL Server Security

Stairway to SQL Server Security

SQL Server has everything you need to secure your server and data against today’s sophisticated attacks. But before you can use these security features effectively, you need to understand the threats you face and a few basic security concepts. This first stairway level provides a foundation so that you can take full advantage of the security features in SQL Server without wasting time on features that do nothing to protect against specific threats to your data.

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2014-05-19

7,196 reads

Stairway to SQLCLR

Stairway to SQLCLR

The possibilities for programming SQL Server platform were greatly enhanced with the addition of the SQLCLR subsystem. This allows code written in any .NET language to be incorporated into your SQL Server instance and called from a stored procedure or function. You can also create your own data types or aggregates for specialized purposes. This Stairway series will teach you how to get started writing your own CLR code and integrating it into SQL Server.

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2013-12-27

14,754 reads

Stairway to Biml

Stairway to Biml

Biml is a markup language that enables you to quickly represent a variety of database related models and constructs, including SSIS packages, models, permissions and more. This stairway helps you get started using the language to represent your objects.

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2013-07-09

7,568 reads

Stairway to SQL Server Replication

Stairway to SQL Server Replication

SQL Replication can solve many problems in running database-driven applications. The publication/subscriber model isn't completely easy to understand, the complexities of scripting and monitoring replication systems takes some thought. Here, at last, is a series of articles that takes care to produce a jargon-free approach to SQL Server Replication of all types.

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2012-12-26

10,591 reads

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Question of the Day

RegEx Functions IV

I have this data in a table in a SQL Server 2025 database:

EmailAddressID EmailAddress
7              dylan0@ADVENTURE-WORKS.COM
8              Diane1@ADVENTURE-WORKS.COM
If I run this query, which row(s) are returned?
SELECT top 10
 *
 FROM person.EmailAddress
 WHERE REGEXP_LIKE(EmailAddress, '^D', 'i')
 AND BusinessEntityID IN (7,8)

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