Grant Fritchey

Grant Fritchey is a SQL Server MVP with over 20 years’ experience in IT including time spent in support and development. Grant has worked with SQL Server since version 6.0 back in 1995. He has developed in VB, VB.Net, C# and Java. Grant has authored books for Apress and Simple-Talk, and joined Red Gate as a Product Advocate in January 2011. Find Grant on Twitter @GFritchey or on his blog as the Scary DBA.

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Blog Post

Slide Decks

Hello everyone! Just a quick note. I’ve removed all my slide decks from SlideShare. I found they were inserting ads into the slides and I didn’t sign up for...

2025-08-02

41 reads

Blog Post

Stack Overflow & AI

I won’t try to pretend otherwise, I’ve had some mixed feelings about Stack Overflow for a long time. I think the concept of the place, ask a question, get...

2025-06-04 (first published: )

414 reads

Blog Post

SSMS 21

Just a quick one this morning. I’m on the road and haven’t worked up a full blog post, apologies. I’ve been using the preview for SQL Server Management Studio...

2025-05-12

206 reads

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Blogs

Flyway Tips: AI Deployment Script Descriptions

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With the AI push being everywhere, Redgate is no exception. We’ve been getting requests,...

A New Word: Fawtle

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fawtle – n. a weird little flaw built into your partner that somehow only...

Post-quantum key exchange – Insurance policy for your packets

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AWS recently added support for Post-Quantum Key Exchange for TLS in Application Load Balancer...

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Forums

Where Your Value Separates You from Others

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Where Your Value Separates You...

Fixing the Error

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fixing the Error

T-SQL in SQL Server 2025: Encoding Functions

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item T-SQL in SQL Server 2025:...

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Question of the Day

Fixing the Error

On SQL Server 2025, I have a database that has this collation: SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS. I decide I want to run this code: 

SELECT UNISTR('*3041*308A*304C*3068 and good night', '*') AS 'A Classic';
I get this error:Msg 9844, Level 16, State 4, Line 24 The char/varchar input type uses an unsupported collation. Only a UTF8 collation is supported with char/varchar input type in UNISTR function.What is the easiest way to fix this error?

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