Reporting Services!
Mike takes a good first look at Reporting Services. We're trying to add some coverage of this interesting new product. This gives a good overview from a real user perspective.
Generate Next Numbers with SQL Server
Dinesh ran into a situation where a client had very specific requirements for generating keys. Take a look at the solution, can you better alternatives? Sometimes you just can't talk the client into changing!
How to Make Sure You Have Good Passwords
As Robin points out there is no built in way to make sure users have strong passwords when using SQL authentication. There are a couple changes you can make (with appropriate warnings!) that will allow you to do this. Read on to find out why and how.
Monitoring Failed Job Steps
New Author! We've run a couple articles on similar topics, this one takes a slightly different approach. It's a short article and has two scripts included.
Microsoft Action Pack Subscription
One of the biggest hurdles people new to the IT field face is getting access to all the software they need so they can learn. This new program from Microsoft offers a TON of software for under $400. Caveats apply (don't they always?) but it's worth the 5 minutes to read what it takes.
Review of Lumigent Entegra
We've been trying to catch up on reviews lately, Hai was kind enough to give Entegra a try and report back on it. The basic concept is that it lets you do extensive auditing without having to add triggers. If you're trying to find an auditing solution, this is worth considering.
Regular Expression Library
This isn't a SQL site nor can you easily do regular expressions from SQL. That said, sometimes regular expressions are EXACTLY what you need to solve a problem. The downside? They're tricky! This is a great resource to pass on to your development team.
Typed Data Objects
This is a tool to generate C# code based on a sql script. Source code is also available for download. It's free! One caveat is that the site is in Italian.
Optimizing Your Application - Part 2
This article is for developers (and is in C#), looks at how you can avoid requerying by storing data in a hashtable. Mainly code, but you may get a good idea or two from it.
Blogs
RANK() vs DENSE_RANK(): #SQLNewBlogger
By Steve Jones
I haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I saw an article recently...
Using CAT for Testing of Data Agents
In last months one of the scenarios where you can use AI has been...
Forums
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral Meant to Me
Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral...
Doing Good at SQL Server Central
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Doing Good at SQL Server...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
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