Black Friday Doorbusters Are Open Now, Closing Monday!
You’ve been telling yourself, “One of these days, I’ll finally take Brent’s classes.” Get ready, because that day is here: my Black Friday sale runs all November long, and it’s my lowest prices all year! SQL Server 2025, 2022, and 2019 all dramatically …
Static Versus Dynamic Bulk Insert Imports of Multi-File Datasets
The post Static Versus Dynamic Bulk Insert Imports of Multi-File Datasets appeared first on SQLServerCentral.
Regular Expressions in SQL Server 2025
Microsoft is introducing Regular Expression(regex) functions in its upcoming SQL Server 2025 to enable pattern-based searching and manipulation. This allows searching and manipulating data directly using T-SQL language and eliminates the need of progra …
[Video] Office Hours at Sea
This Office Hours episode comes to you from Virgin Voyages’ newest cruise ship, the Brilliant Lady, sailing through the Western Caribbean. We were originally scheduled to do the Eastern Caribbean, but Tropical Storm Melissa had other ideas, so they rew …
SQL ConstantCare® Population Report: Fall 2025
In this quarter’s update of our SQL ConstantCare® population report, showing how quickly (or slowly) folks adopt new versions of SQL Server, the data is very similar to last quarter: SQL Server 2025: exactly 1 server being monitored, heh. God bless y’a …
The Version Store Won’t Clear If ANY Database Has Open Transactions.
Short story: what the title says. This is especially problematic for folks who merge multiple databases onto the same server. All it takes is one badly-behaving application to leave its transactions open, and suddenly it causes the rest of the database …
Docker Advice for SQL Server in Production
Introduction Nowadays, with the widespread adoption of microservices across major companies, using Windows Server to host SQL Server remains the gold standard. However, there are still certain scenarios—or even specific environments—where deploying SQL …
Managing Underused Indexes in SQL Server Availability Groups – Part 2
The post Managing Underused Indexes in SQL Server Availability Groups – Part 2 appeared first on SQLServerCentral.
How Implicit Transactions Hurt SQL Server Performance Without You Knowing
Introduction In the world of SQL Server performance troubleshooting, developers and DBAs often chase the usual suspects: bad indexes, poorly written queries, outdated statistics, or parameter sniffing. These are the headline-grabbers that fill blog pos …
Query Plan Pop Quiz Answers 2 and 3: I’ve Got Good News and Bad News.
In the Query Plan Pop Quiz, questions 2 and 3 asked you about what the sizes of arrows on query plans meant. The good news is that almost all of you got Question 2 right, but the bad news is that the vast majority of you got Question 3 completely incor …
How to Build an AI-Powered T-SQL Assistant with Python & SQL Server
If you’re a SQL Server DBA or developer looking to harness AI for your everyday scripting workflows, this article will walk you through building an AI-powered T-SQL assistant using Python and SQL Server. We’ll cover how to index your scripts with embed …
SQL EXISTS Use Cases and Examples
The post SQL EXISTS Use Cases and Examples appeared first on SQLServerCentral.
TempDB Filling Up? Try Resource Governor.
TempDB is one of the banes of my existence. Anybody, anybody who can query your server can run a denial-of-service attack in a matter of seconds just by filling it up with a simple query: DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #big_problem; CREATE TABLE #big_problem (fi …
Database Ledger in SQL Server 2022
Protecting data from unauthorized access is a major challenge for organizations today. SQL Server 2022 introduces Database Ledger, a new feature that enhances data security. It protects data from attackers and high-privileged users like DBAs, system ad …
T‑SQL BULK INSERT vs OPENROWSET: CSV Imports, File Access Gotchas, and A PowerShell Script
The post T‑SQL BULK INSERT vs OPENROWSET: CSV Imports, File Access Gotchas, and A PowerShell Script appeared first on SQLServerCentral.