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!
SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services) is available in two modes, tabular and multidimensional. The new tabular model is easier for those companies who are not already invested in the traditional, multidimensional model. In this stairway, Thomas LeBlanc will teach you how to create tabular models used for reports and dashboards.
2018-06-13
13,257 reads
Azure SQL Database is Microsoft’s fully managed cloud relational database service in Microsoft Azure. With many companies moving to cloud based solutions Azure SQL Database is a leading option for the data tier that many consider.
The aim of this stairway course is to give you a comprehensive practical guide on how to begin creating Azure SQL Databases whilst trying to convey some very important practical knowledge on the way. This stairway course assumes that you have absolutely no knowledge of Azure and after completing it you will become comfortable with creating logical SQL servers, databases, correct security configuration around firewalls and logins hence allowing you to connect to the database via SQL Server Management Studio.
2018-06-05
7,431 reads
This is a series designed to help you learn more about Machine Learning Services using both R and Python. We will cover the architecture, installation, configuration, and use of Machine Learning Services to run complex analysis on your data.
2018-04-25
4,353 reads
This series looks at row based access control in SQL Server 2016+ as implemented in the Row-Level Security feature.
2017-10-27
3,678 reads
In addition to the data that our clients and customers store in a database, there is a tremendous amount of meta data, 'data about data', that describes how the database is set up, configured, and what the properties are for the various objects. This stairway aims to demystify and explain how you can query and use this meta data to more effectively manage your SQL Server Databases.
2016-07-15
4,544 reads
As Microsoft continues to expand the Azure platform, they have enhanced its ability in ways that are quite different from what we've come to expect from SQL Server. Learn about the new language from Microsoft, U-SQL, designed to work with Data Lakes and Big Data in Azure.
2016-06-07
6,440 reads
This stairway will examine Dynamic Data Data Masking, introduced in Azure SQL Database and SQL Server 2016. This should allow you to implement Dynamic Data Masking in your application, understanding the implications of the various masks used on different datatypes.
2016-03-15
3,962 reads
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.
2015-12-01
6,355 reads
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.
2015-01-22
12,030 reads
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.
2014-12-11
21,158 reads
Truncate Table Pitfalls Truncating a table can be gloriously fast—and spectacularly dangerous when used carelessly....
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The new vector datatype in SQL Server 2025 requires a number dimension parameter. What is the maximum number of dimensions supported?
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