2025-11-21
147 reads
SQL Server
SQL Automate - A DBA's Time-Saving Toolkit
SQLAutomate is a lightweight PowerShell tool that simplifies SQL Server deployment by automating both installation and post-installation configuration. Whether you're setting up one instance or dozens, this guide shows how to use SQLAutomate to save time and reduce manual work.
2025-06-06
10,006 reads
Analyzing Tempdb Spills and Usage Across Recursive Queries
This article examines how tempdb is affected by recursive queries, using a few different methods.
2025-05-23
2,084 reads
How to Safely Remove a SQL Server Data File Without Downtime
Learn how to safely remove a SQL Server .ndf data file without any downtime using DBCC SHRINKFILE (EMPTYFILE). This hands-on tutorial walks through real-world Azure-based setup, data redistribution, and storage cleanup — ideal for DBAs managing enterprise SQL Server environments.
2025-05-16
2,602 reads
Elements of the SQL Server Update Statement
Learn how to use the UPDATE statement, along with a few things to be aware of when changing data.
2025-04-11
1,620 reads
Determining Whether Home Addresses Fall Within a Tornado Polygon Using Spatial Functions
Geographic information systems (GIS) play a critical role in emergency response planning and risk assessment. One of the key challenges in this field is determining whether a specific location falls within an area of interest. This capability is especially valuable for property and casualty (P&C) insurers, who need to assess their insured property exposure when severe weather events such as tornadoes occur.
2025-03-04 (first published: 2025-03-03)
2,674 reads
Enhancing SQL Server Searches with Elasticsearch and Python
Learn how to get started with Elasticsearch with data in your SQL Server database.
2024-10-14
2,428 reads
Set up a Windows Server Fail-over Clusters (As a Precursor to High Availability in Standard Edition)
Setting up High Availability in SQL server has some prerequisites. One of these is that the database servers must be members of the same Windows Server Failover Cluster. In this article I show how to succesfully set up WSFC and activate Cluster Aware Updating
2024-06-28
6,818 reads
2024-03-29
8,366 reads
Machine learning K-Means applied to SQL Server data
This article shows how to use Python to access data in SQL Server and produce a K-Means analysis with a chart.
2024-01-08
3,143 reads
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UNISTR Escape
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SQL Art: I Made a Christmas Card In SSMS
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Question of the Day
UNISTR Escape
In SQL Server 2025, I run this command:
SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C\3068 and good night', '*') as "A Classic";
What is returned? (assume the database has an appropriate collation)
A: 
B: 
C: 
See possible answers