On Cumulative Updates and GDRs
Using a fictitious future timeline, I explain how CUs and GDRs differ and why build number alone might not tell the whole story.
Who benefits from your technical blog? You do!
In this article, I discuss several advantages to maintaining a technical blog.
What I did in my first month at Stack Overflow
I talk about a few of the things I worked on in my first month as a DBRE at Stack Overflow.
Why shouldn't I create 15,000 partitions in advance?
In this tip, I show some real-life reasons why you may not want to create all the partitions you'll ever need up front.
T-SQL Tuesday #151 : Controversial Coding Conventions
I talk about why I prefer CONVERT over CAST to be consistent. Basically, if you sometimes HAVE to use only one, why not just ALWAYS use that one?
SQL Server 2019 Security Update, June 2022
A new build is available for SQL Server 2019 (GDR = 15.0.2095.3, CU = 15.0.4236.7). From the CVE: "An authenticated attacker could exploit the vulnerability by executing a specially crafted query using $ partition against a table with a Column Store index."
SQL Server 2017 Security Update, June 2022
A new build is available for SQL Server 2017 (GDR = 14.0.2042.3, CU = 14.0.3445.2). From the CVE: "An authenticated attacker could exploit the vulnerability by executing a specially crafted query using $ partition against a table with a Column Store index."
SQL Server 2016 Security Update, June 2022
A new build is available for SQL Server 2016 SP2 and SP3. From the CVE: "An authenticated attacker could exploit the vulnerability by executing a specially crafted query using $ partition against a table with a Column Store index."
SQL Server 2014 Security Update, June 2022
A new build is available for SQL Server 2014 SP3. From the CVE: "An authenticated attacker could exploit the vulnerability by executing a specially crafted query using $ partition against a table with a Column Store index."
T-SQL Can Be Expressive Without Sacrificing Performance
There are often multiple ways to express a query and get the same results, often without any change in performance. Learn about one example.
Why is SQL Server's internal database version important?
In this tip, I talk about the compatibility between major versions and SQL Server's internal database version.
Obscure Changes in SQL Server 2022, Part 3 : ShowPlan
I continue looking at some of the changes in SQL Server 2022 that aren't on the marketing slides.
How to be a more productive DBA / DBRE
I talk about some of the things I do to be more productive, and hopefully some of these can help you in your role, too.
Obscure Changes in SQL Server 2022, Part 2 : Setup
I warn about a cumbersome change to setup, where something is checked by default when it shouldn't be.
New features in T-SQL for SQL Server 2022
The first public preview of SQL Server 2022 is here! Read about my favorite T-SQL enhancements.
Some of the more obscure changes in SQL Server 2022, Part 1
I take a look at some of the underlying changes in SQL Server 2022, as reflected in system metadata.
Leadership Award from MSSQLTips.com
Today I received a mind-blowing award for my 200th tip at MSSQLTips.com.
T-SQL Tuesday #150 : My First Technical Job
My first technical job was taking horse bets at an off-track bar when I was 17.
Find a string in all views and/or tables in some or all databases
In 2015, I wrote about a stored procedure to find strings within all tables across all user databases. In this follow-up tip, I enhance the procedure to optionally include views and search within specific databases.
A minor CPU upgrade
Some quick notes on how easy it was to take advantage of falling Ryzen prices.
SQL Server 2019 Cumulative Update #16
SQL Server 2019 Cumulative Update #16 is available, with 47 enhancements. The build number is 15.0.4223.1.