Natural Language Query for SQL Server
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Oracle Performance Tuning: Practical Techniques Every DBA Should Master
As database professionals, we’ve all been there – that dreaded moment when users start complaining about slow queries, and suddenly everyone’s looking at you with that « fix it now » expression. Oracle performance tuning can feel overwhelming, especially …
Who’s Hiring Microsoft Data People? October 2025 Edition
Is your company hiring for a database position as of October 2025? Do you wanna work with the kinds of people who read this blog? Let’s make a love connection. I think YOU should apply. If your company is hiring, leave a comment. The rules: Your commen …
Which Should You Use: VARCHAR or NVARCHAR?
You’re building a new table or adding a column, and you wanna know which datatype to use: VARCHAR or NVARCHAR? If you need to store Unicode data, the choice is made for you: NVARCHAR says it’s gonna be me. But if you’re not sure, maybe you think, “I sh …
Unlocking High-Concurrency Inserts in SQL Server with OPTIMIZE_FOR_SEQUENTIAL_KEY
Introduction High-concurrency systems always look impressive on paper. You throw in dozens of CPU cores, crank up memory, design a schema with lightweight inserts, and proudly tell yourself, “This thing is going to fly.” And to be fair, under low load …
Unlocking the Power of FULL OUTER JOIN in SQL: Performance, Use Cases & Examples
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Set MAXDOP in Azure SQL DB or You’ll Get This Cryptic Error.
Max Degrees of Parallelism (MAXDOP) tells the database engine, “If you decide to parallelize a query, go parallel with this many worker threads.” (It’s a little more complex than that – there is also a coordinating thread, plus a single plan might have …
Memories of Andrew Clarke, by Simon Galbraith
Simon Galbraith is the co-founder of Redgate and one of the creators of Simple Talk. Here, he pays tribute to Andrew Clarke. You can also read Tony Davis’ memories of Andrew here. His eyes have been darting towards the door sporadically since I bumped …
Here Are the YouTube Channels We Both Loved.
Last week, I announced that we’ve hit 50,000 YouTube subscribers, and I celebrated by letting y’all submit your favorite YouTube channels in the comments, and 5 of you would win my Fundamentals & Mastering Class Bundle. You did not disappoint. Firs …
Building a Dynamic Countdown Timer in Power BI
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How to Use SQL Server Features to Cut Web App Latency in Half
A customer taps “Buy Now” on your web app. Half a second passes. The screen hesitates before the confirmation appears. To the customer, it feels like a small delay. To your business, that hesitation can mean an abandoned cart, a lost sale, and at scale …
Power BI TMDL View: Benefits, Security Risks & Best Practices
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Building a Simple SQL/AI Environment
Al is everywhere….almost. In my day-to-day role as a DBA, I don’t really have the opportunity or need to use AI in any meaningful way. I don’t need it to write code for me, or explain how SQL Server works. My AI use is limited to the summaries return …
We Hit 50,000 YouTube Subscribers! Let’s Run a Contest.
This is kinda amazing to me: our YouTube channel has broken the 50,000 subscriber mark! That’s wild to me because I don’t put “please like and subscribe” type stuff in the videos, and I don’t try to build viral content. I just show up every week and pu …
Microsoft Now Recommends You Set Max Memory to 75% and Min Memory to 0%.
Somehow I missed this a few years ago, and I bet a lot of y’all did too. Note the new “Recommended” column in the memory settings documentation: These recommendations are also set by the SQL Server 2022 setup wizard if you choose the recommended settin …