“Included columns” for non-clustered indexes explained
Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of using INCLUDE columns in your index.
Documentation. The Under Recognised Skill
Documentation may not be something we aspire to do, but it is a valuable skill.
Reducing the Frequency of SQL Server Central Newsletters
We are reducing the sending of the SQL Server Central newsletter to three days a week.
Power BI for Business Intelligence
Power BI is becoming widely used for reporting and data analysis. There are many different versions of Power BI and the features that are offered and this article provides an overview of what is available.
Running SQL Code Analysis during Flyway Migrations
A set of PowerShell automation script tasks for running database build and migrations tasks. This article describes the SQL code analysis task, which will check the syntax of the SQL code in your databases and your migration scripts for 'code smells'.
DIY Database Clones
This article explores the 'shadow copy' and 'disk virtualization' services built into the Windows operating system and explains a basic solution demonstrating how the technology is used to copy the data and log files for a live SQL Server database into an 'image', from which we can create multiple, lightweight copies, or clones, of the original database.
Ransomware May Get Worse
Criminal groups using ransomware are working together, which is bad news for all organizations.
Building a SQL Server data dictionary
In this article, Edward Pollack explains the benefits of a SQL Server data dictionary and how to build one.
How do you monitor your databases? Take the survey!
Calling data professionals! We want to know how you are monitoring your servers, instances and databases. By taking the 2021 State of Database Monitoring survey, you’ll help us better understand how the community monitor and manage their estates, and the challenges they face. You’ll get exclusive early access to the 2021 State of Database Monitoring report, plus, one lucky winner will receive a $500 Amazon gift card in our prize draw.
Blogs
A New Word: Ochisia
By Steve Jones
ochisia – n. the fear that the role you once occupied in someone’s life...
Create a Numbers Table in Power Query
This is a quick blog post, mainly so I have the code available if...
Microsoft finally adds Tenant Switcher for Fabric / Power BI
Praise whatever deity you believe in, because it’s finally here, a tenant switcher for...
Forums
To View or not to View, that is the question...
I've read lots of the horror stories about nested views in databases where they're...
Grant user read-write permission to a single database
Hello! How do I grant a user to read-write to a single database and...
Question of the Day
The Density Vector
When building statistics, there is the concept of density that refers to the duplicates in a table. How is this calculated?
See possible answers