The Database Giveth and Taketh Away
A database error at Southwest Airlines confused some customers and was embarrassing. Steve worries that we might want to be more careful in the future about making database mistakes.
2019-04-25
303 reads
Career Growth
How the Company-Startup Thing Worked Out For Me, Year 7
It’s time for my annual update on the wild ride. If you want to catch up, check out past posts in the Brent Ozar Unlimited tag. This post covers...
2019-04-09
You're not really that good at SQL Server
Steve reminds some people that there are reasons to continue to improve your skills.
2019-04-08
1,825 reads
2017-06-16
2,569 reads
Fine Products for the Modern Drudge
As working hours in tech trend upwards, we look at some ways to make life easier.
2014-10-13
126 reads
Beginner, Expert, or Both?
It can be easy to start learning about a topic, think you've mastered it, and become complacent. Steve Jones notes that an expert beginner might be what you are, but it's not necessarily what you want to be.
2013-10-07
411 reads
15 Quick Short Interview Questions Useful When Hiring SQL Developers
Here is a useful exam that you can administer in either 10 or 15 minutes, either oral or written, when you interview for hiring permanent or contract workers for jobs in SQL Server development or support. (This is not a test for SQL Data Base Administrators.)
2014-12-25 (first published: 2013-02-28)
15,661 reads
Interviewing Tips for a Database Position
Interviewing for a database position is a careful game of give and take. Knowing what to expect and how to prepare for your interview is important, but it's only half the battle. You'll also need to ask questions to see if the job, and the company, is a good fit for you.
2013-02-08
5,440 reads
Free eBook: SQL Server Tacklebox
Get a free ebook from Rodney Landrum and Red Gate Software that helps you prepare to deal with the various crisis situations you might encounter with SQL Server.
2013-01-11
4,793 reads
The Technical Nuances of Technical Writing
A helpful guide to writing technical papers by focusing on the non-technical elements.
2012-10-18
5,401 reads
Blogs
AI: Blog a Day – Day 4: Transformers – Encoder, Decoder, and Attention
By Vinay Thakur
Continuing from Day 3 where we covered LLM models open/closed and their parameters, Today...
Flyway Tips: Multiple Projects
By Steve Jones
One of the nice things about Flyway Desktop is that it helps you manage...
What DevOps Look Like in Microsoft Fabric
By HeyMo0sh
Microsoft Fabric (not to be confused with the more general term “fabric” in DevOps)...
Forums
Can an Azure App Service Managed Identity be used for SQL Login?
I'm fairly certain I know the answer to this from digging into it yesterday,...
Azure Synapse database refresh
Hi Team, I am trying to refresh the Azure Synapse Dedicated pool from production...
how to write this query?
hi everyone I am not sure how to write the query that will produce...
Question of the Day
Fun with JSON I
I have some data in a table:
CREATE TABLE #test_data
(
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(100),
birth_date DATE
);
-- Step 2: Insert rows
INSERT INTO #test_data
VALUES
(1, 'Olivia', '2025-01-05'),
(2, 'Emma', '2025-03-02'),
(3, 'Liam', '2025-11-15'),
(4, 'Noah', '2025-12-22');
If I run this query, how many rows are returned?
SELECT *
FROM OPENJSON(
(
SELECT t.* FROM #test_data AS t FOR JSON PATH
)
) t; See possible answers