SQL Server – What To Do When Disaster Strikes (5-Point Survival Guide)Chill, coffee first.When your SQL Server goes down, alarms are blaring, and managers are hovering, that sentence might...
2025-12-19 (first published: 2025-12-03)
569 reads
SQL Server Database Migration Pitfalls (and How to Fix Them)
Database migrations are where great product ideas go to die—unless you plan for SQL Server’s quirks and the realities of...
2025-11-21 (first published: 2025-11-05)
396 reads
Disable the sa login in SQL Server (and sleep better)If you run SQL Server in 2025 and your sa login is still usable, you’re giving attackers a giant, blinking...
2025-11-10 (first published: 2025-10-21)
938 reads
Why you should connect resiliently to SQL Server
Transient failures happen — in the cloud (Azure SQL) and on-prem. A resilient connection strategy lets your app recover gracefully instead of...
2025-11-05 (first published: 2025-10-13)
391 reads
Truncate Table Pitfalls
Truncating a table can be gloriously fast—and spectacularly dangerous when used carelessly. If you want the speed without the face-palm moments, here’s a practical, interview-ready guide to...
2025-10-29 (first published: 2025-10-08)
778 reads
Unused Indexes in SQL Server: Find them, vet them, and drop them safely
Indexes are fantastic when you’re reading data—and a tax when you’re writing it. Every INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE has to...
2025-10-28
209 reads
DBAs should never run SSMS under their everyday Windows account
If you open SSMS under the same Windows identity you use for email, browsing, and chat, you bring all that...
2025-10-22 (first published: 2025-10-07)
1,579 reads
Why Developers Shouldn’t Have sysadmin access in SQL Server
7 reasons—and exactly what to do instead
It can feel “faster” to hand developers sysadmin. In reality, it’s like giving them the master...
2025-10-06
456 reads
SELECT * feels convenient, but in SQL Server it bloats I/O, burns network bandwidth, blocks covering-index usage, and makes code brittle when schemas change. Specify only the columns you...
2025-10-02
36 reads
SSPI handshake failed with error code 0x8009030c, state 14 while establishing a connection with integrated security; the connection has been...
2019-03-18 (first published: 2019-03-05)
15,145 reads
By Steve Jones
I haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I saw an article recently...
In last months one of the scenarios where you can use AI has been...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Doing Good at SQL Server...
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