Columnstore Index Improvements in SQL Server 2025
Columnstore indexes are a powerful tool for storing analytic data directly in SQL Server. This feature has […]
T-SQL Programming
State Transition Constraints
About two decades ago, I introduced the concept of transition constraints to show Data Validation in a […]
DISTINCT and UNION: What happens when you use them together?
When I was perusing my LinkedIn feed the other day, I came across this thread about using […]
Techniques to query Azure SQL’s new JSON Datatype
The new JSON field type and new functions in Azure SQL brings a new world of possibilities […]
Purging Data from a Large Table in SQL Server
Purging data from a table is a common database maintenance task to prevent it from growing too […]
Exploring the SQL Server CHOOSE Function
I preface a lot of what I write with whether or not it is for a “practical” […]
Crazy number of Parameters… and a challenge
The other day, my lovable coworker and frequent Simple Talk writer: Grant Fritchey, sent this post on […]
AI in SQL Server 2025: Embeddings
One of the cornerstones of AI is a concept called embeddings. Virtually every AI model, whether for […]
Exploring Scalar Solutions to Complex Data Math
There are many functions and tools available to database professionals that can solve data math challenges, regardless […]
SQL Server BIT_COUNT and an Alternative
I was editing an article the other day that uses the BIT_COUNT function that was added to […]
Five changes to SQL Server I’d love to see
I’ve had lots of wish lists over the years, from Ladybug to Connect to UserVoice, and very […]
Writing an Efficient Query
SQL is easy to start writing. The basic syntax to start returning data is very simple. This […]
Effective Strategies for Storing and Parsing JSON in SQL Server
Like XML, JSON is an open standard storage format for data, metadata, parameters, or other unstructured or […]
Days of the Week, Bitwise Edition
I recently had to help support synchronization and distribution of workloads between multiple servers. Some of this […]
Index cleanup : Harder than it looks
I’m not the first person to write about cleaning up unused or redundant indexes. You can read […]
XML Performance Tuning and Added Options
SQL Server provides a variety of ways to tune XML so that it provides consistent performance, consumes […]
Effective Strategies for Storing and Parsing XML in SQL Server
XML is a common storage format for data, metadata, parameters, or other semi-structured data. Because of this, […]
Snake draft sorting in SQL Server, part 4
In the previous posts in this series (part 1, part 2, part 3), I described how I […]
Snake draft sorting in SQL Server, part 3
In part 2 of this series, I showed an example implementation of distributing a long-running workload in […]
Snake draft sorting in SQL Server, part 2
In my previous post, I showed how to borrow a snake draft concept from fantasy football, or […]
Snake draft sorting in SQL Server, part 1
I recently had a restore job where I needed to split the work up into multiple parallel […]
Pagination and ordering by large values
Pagination is a technique for limiting output. Think of Google search results, shopping the electronics category on […]
Find and Replace Text in Strings in T-SQL
String manipulation is an inevitable task for developers and data professionals alike. Despite all the best efforts […]
The Importance of Retention
It is always an afterthought. New objects are created that start off small and current. New feature […]
Two-Dimensional Interval Packing Challenge
Packing intervals is a classic SQL task that involves packing groups of intersecting intervals to their respective […]
Counting more efficiently
Nearly a decade ago, I wrote a post called “Bad habits : Counting rows the hard way.” […]
When an update doesn’t update
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: I changed data from my application, but when I […]
Strategies for queries against bit columns
Recently someone posted a question where they couldn’t quite figure out how to construct a predicate based […]
Exporting and Importing Data into SQL Server Using Files
There are plenty of applications and tools available that allow for the movement of data in and […]
Don’t use DISTINCT as a “join-fixer”
I’ve quietly resolved performance issues by re-writing slow queries to avoid DISTINCT. Often, the DISTINCT is there […]
Normalize strings to optimize space and searches
While this article is specifically geared to SQL Server, the concepts apply to any relational database platform. […]
T-SQL Fundamentals: Controlling Duplicates
When people start learning a new field, for example T-SQL, it’s tempting to spend very little time […]
Alternatives To SQL-2022 Built-in function GREATEST
If you haven’t already heard, SQL 2022 has introduced a new built-in system function called GREATEST. Simply […]
GENERATE_SERIES() Breaks Minimal Logging
tl;dr The title says it all. Prologue One of the keys to my personal learning is that, very […]
Yet Another Reason to Not Use sp_ in your SQL ...
In 2012, Aaron Bertrand said most everything I knew (and a bit more) about the issues with […]
Working around schema drift in SQL Server
At Stack Overflow, our environment has multiple implementations of a largely – but not 100% – identical […]
Using a Subquery in a SELECT statement
This article is part of Greg Larsen’s continuing series on Learning T-SQL. To see all 10 items […]
T-SQL Gap-Filling Challenge
A student of mine sent me a T-SQL challenge involving gap-filling of missing dates and balances. I […]
Changing log growth strategy in SQL Server 2022
When I first saw a bullet item stating SQL Server 2022 would support instant file initialization for […]
GENERATE_SERIES: My new go-to to build sets
I have come across a lot of use cases for manufacturing rows on the fly, aside from […]
Paging Data in T-SQL
Sometimes when working with very large sets of data, you may not want to return all of […]
Optional Code in T-SQL Scripts using SQLCMD
When you are writing T-SQL scripts to save away, for example one to create a new database, […]
Find 40 Problems in this SQL Server Stored Procedure
I’ve been at this for a while now, and have a very particular set of rules and […]
Using TOP clause in a SELECT statement
This article is part of Greg Larsen’s continuing series on Learning T-SQL. To see all 9 items […]