Any time you're doing a CAST and there is uncastable data in a column, you should use TRY_CAST.  If TRY_CAST isn't available, the CAST should be wrapped in a CASE...

First off, there is no need for the convoluted case statement.  TRY_CAST returns the succesful CAST when successful and returns NULL when unsuccessful, so the following would have been simpler...

This DBA has it easy - I only saw one application described in the story!  They should be supporting at least half-a-dozen large databases that are this problematic, and dozens...

Steve Yegge's (in)famous Google Platforms Rant from 2011 is a fascinating read, but I walked away with a number of important observations from it, one of which was:

Another minor (admittedly nit-picky) note.  On Page 72 I found, "Since both tables can potentially be scanned, the maximum cost of a Merge Join is the sum of both inputs." ...

A minor (and admittedly nit-picky) note on the book.  On page 64, the following code shows up:
SELECT DISTINCT(Title)
FROM HumanResources.Employee
SELECT Title
FROM HumanResources.Employee
GROUP BY Title
I...

The advantages of this syntax are that it lets you compare two output streams to identify rows that differ, and that it treats NULLs as being equivalent.  EXCEPT and INTERSECT...

This strikes me as similar to the use of the VALUES clause in unpivoting data.

I think the assertion that "standard indexes" will improve JSON performance is misleading.  That is only the case if "standard indexes" includes indexing on computed columns.  Sticking a normal index...

One use for the guest account I've seen is for log shipped databases coming from an untrusted domain.  In that situation, it's next to impossible to grant domain users in...

I think it's important to point out why SHOWPLAN cannot be granted at the object level.  The critical point is that views don't have plans!  A view is not a query...

I definitely misinterpreted the question - I read it as "Which operator in the WITH clause results in more rows in the results than would be in in the set in...