Exploring Scalar Solutions to Complex Data Math
There are many functions and tools available to database professionals that can solve data math challenges, regardless of complexity.
2025-03-07
Additional Articles
The Power of Generate_series
SQL 2022 introduced the function generate_series which permits us to solve problems for which we previously had to use a table of numbers (also known as a "tally table"). generate_series is a great addition, because when using a table of numbers there was always a risk that you could run out of numbers. Or some joker could have deleted rows from the table. All these worries are gone with generate_series.
2025-03-05
Improve Query Performance when SQL Server Ignores Nonclustered Index
Do you wonder why SQL Server ignores an index? Do you think about how you can deal with this problem? When you include too many columns in a query you decrease index selectivity. So, if you write a query like “Select * From …” the chance of choosing your nonclustered index will decrease.
2025-03-03
SQL Server Backup or Restore using Network Share with SSMS
In this article, we look at how to create a SQL backup to network share or restore a backup from a network share.
2025-02-28
Engineering a Lakehouse with Azure Databricks with Spark Dataframes
How can we get familiar with Azure Databricks with Spark Dataframes?
2025-02-26
What If You Need to Index a Lot of Duplicate Data?
Let’s get a little nerdy and look at database internals.
2025-02-24
Upgrade and Migrate SSIS Catalog and SSISDB to a New Server
There will come as time when you need to upgrade the host operating system and SQL Server to a newer version. If you are using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), one of the things you may need to do is to move the SSIS catalog (SSISDB database) to the new server. We will cover the steps in this tutorial to migrate the SSISDB from one server to another.
2025-02-21
Index Rebuilds Make Even Less Sense with ADR & RCSI
Accelerated Database Recovery (ADR) is a database-level feature that makes transaction rollbacks nearly instantaneous. Here’s how it works.
2025-02-19
Find Text in Stored Procedure, Function, View, or Trigger
How can I accurately find which SQL Server Stored Procedures, Views or Functions are using a specific text string, which can be a table name or any string that is part of the code?
2025-02-17
Fun with PowerShell Asynchronous
Imagine a candle that is lit and takes 1 hour to burn out. Now imagine one hundred candles. How many hours will it last? That depends. If they are lit simultaneously, it will take 1 hour. That is the basic idea of running in the background or asynchronously. Of course, the 100 candles can execute independently of one another, unlike if you try to run 100 processes on a computer with 2 cores. PowerShell has some ways to manage that, as PowerShell job – which we will see in this article – runspaces – needs to add programmable using .net.
2025-02-14
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...
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Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
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25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral Meant to Me
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Doing Good at SQL Server Central
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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