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
1,237 reads
Articles
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
GPX distance and time analysis in SQL Server
In this article we do a comparative analysis of the distance covered by two athletes during a race using the data of their GPX files.
2026-02-09
1,583 reads
Common Misconceptions About Microsoft Certification Exams
An experienced exam writer explains common misconceptions about Microsoft certification exams, question design, preparation, and real-world expectations.
2026-02-09
How Database Professionals Sent a Million Emails a Day from SQL Server
This is part of a look back at the history of SQL Server Central as a part of our 25-year celebration in Feb 2026. "They want how much?" That was a question I got from Andy one afternoon as we discussed how we were going to manage the growth of SQL Server Central. I had […]
2026-02-06
2,126 reads
How Filters and Sorting can Derail SQL Pagination Performance
In my previous tip, Pagination Performance in SQL Server, I showed how to make SQL pagination more predictable – turning O(n) into O(1). I materialized and cached row numbers to page through instead of calculating them on every request. It wasn’t the whole story, though; real pagination queries rarely get to sort without filtering. Users always want more control, and filtering can threaten that predictability.
2026-02-06
Tame Those Strings Part 6 - Bending Results
Continuing with Steve Jones series on string manipulation, this article looks at an interesting facet of the SELECT operator.
2026-02-05 (first published: 2001-07-04)
8,932 reads
Tame Those Strings Part 8 - Quoting
Continuing Steve Jones' series on string manipulation in T-SQL, this article examines how quotations are handled in T-SQL.
2026-02-05 (first published: 2004-03-25)
9,086 reads
Tame Those Strings Part 9 - Dynamic SQL
Steve Jones continues his series on string manipulation. This articles examines the issues of quotes when implementing dynamic SQL.
2026-02-05 (first published: 2002-04-04)
7,695 reads
2026-02-04 (first published: 2026-02-03)
87 reads
Blogs
A bespoke reporting solution doesn’t have to cost the earth
By ChrisJenkins
You could be tolerating limited reporting because there isn’t an off the shelf solution...
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
Forums
Lots of FKs
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Real-time On-prem SQL Server Data in Excel – Over the Internet
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Real-time On-prem SQL Server Data...
Can You Let Go of Determinism
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Question of the Day
Lots of FKs
In SQL Server 2025, what are the most outgoing and incoming FK references a table can have?
See possible answers