Query Exercise Answer: Generating Big TempDB Spills

In last week’s Query Exercise, I challenged you to play some code golf to generate big spills with tiny T-SQL.

How to Monitor and Optimize Batched Deletion Processes in SQL Server

Batched deletions are a common strategy in SQL Server to manage large datasets without overloading the system, but poorly tuned deletes can cause blocking, long-running transactions, and heavy log usage. Learn how to monitor and optimize these processes for smooth, efficient database performance.

Running SQL Server in Local Containers with VSCode MSSQL Extension

You are a developer using SQL Server for your applications, and you need to quickly setup a local development environment. How can you make sure the environment is OS agnostic, so it can run on any operating system? Let’s see how we can quickly create a local container to run SQL Server using the VSCode MSSQL Extension.

5 Strategies to Refactor SQL Code

Code refactoring is a common process when developing in procedural languages – and essential to developing high-quality code – yet somehow often gets overlooked in SQL.

How to Query JSON Data Quickly in SQL Server, Part 2: SQL Server 2025

SQL Server 2025 and .NET 10 bring several new improvements to storing JSON natively in the database and querying it quickly.

SQL Server DBaaS Vulnerability: Decrypting System Code & Exfiltrating User Data

Security in cloud environments is both challenging and fascinating, particularly for Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) offerings like Amazon RDS, GCP CloudSQL and Alibaba ApsaraDB RDS. The cloud vendor acts as the system administrator, managing the operating system, patching, and backups, while the user manages their data and databases.

Random Number Generator in SQL using Marsaglia Polar

How can we build a random number generator using Marsaglia Polar method in SQL Server without the use of external tools?

Learn T-SQL Querying

Troubleshoot query performance issues, identify anti-patterns in your code, and write efficient T-SQL queries with this guide for T-SQL developers

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How to Query JSON Data Quickly in SQL Server, Part 1: Pre-2025

Before SQL Server 2025, if you want to store JSON data in Microsoft SQL Server or Azure SQL DB, and you want fast queries, the easiest way is to:

SQL Declare Variable Code Examples

This tutorial will discuss using variables with SQL DECLARE along with various examples.