25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral Meant to Me
A look back at SQL Server Central after 25 years from founder Brian Knight.
2026-02-20
10 reads
Articles
I Just Don’t Understand Why You Don’t Update SSMS.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, SQL Server Management Studio was included as part of the SQL Server installer.
2026-02-20
Fun with JSON
Last year, I used a lot of JSON to exchange data between systems. There are several ways to extract data from a JSON file, but there is one specific, probably less-used possibility that I’d like to highlight. For one project, I received JSON files containing a variable number of parameters and their values. If I […]
2026-02-18
2,841 reads
Azure Functions: The Serverless Powerhouse
Today’s organization are faced with multiple conflicts for their current cloud infrastructures and which approach to go with either opting for a microservice or monolith applications. However, there are numerous difficulties with standard hosting methods.
2026-02-18
Database Deployment with Terraform - Modules
Deploy resources in Azure using reusable code with Terraform modules.
2026-02-16 (first published: 2022-10-10)
12,673 reads
Securing Your Databases in 2026: Best Practices for the Evolving Threat Landscape
In 2026, your approach to both applications and databases must be focused on practical and technical real-world operations and use cases rather than just hype.
2026-02-16
Downtime Caused by the Postgres Transaction ID Wraparound Problem
Learn about transaction ID wraparound in PostgreSQL, which caused a problem for the author.
2026-02-13
1,655 reads
Exploiting SQL Server Date Correlation Optimization: How Tampered Backups Enable Cross-Database Data Leaks
This article reveals a critical SQL Server flaw: attackers can weaponize Date Correlation Optimization (DCO) views in restored backups
2026-02-13
Two New Shortcuts for Fabric Lakehouse Developers: The Fabric Modern Data Platform
This next articles gives you a few quick ways to access data in remote storage.
2026-02-11
1,202 reads
Using REGEXP_COUNT to Count Strings in SQL Server 2025
We need to find out how many times certain strings appear in a column. We’ve used the LEN and REPLACE functions for years, but recently heard about REGEXP_COUNT and want to evaluate it, since we plan to upgrade to SQL Server 2025. How can we test this new feature?
2026-02-11
Blogs
RANK() vs DENSE_RANK(): #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I saw an article recently...
Using CAT for Testing of Data Agents
In last months one of the scenarios where you can use AI has been...
Forums
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral Meant to Me
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral...
Doing Good at SQL Server Central
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Doing Good at SQL Server...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers