I discuss the benefits of explicitly referencing columns in a query.

I follow up on a question from a triggers presentation at SQLBits, addressing the impact of trigger overhead for T-SQL Tuesday.

I show DDL commands in Azure SQL Database that can now run as online operations instead of blocking, size-of-data operations.

I address a popular theory that NOLOCK can substantially reduce locking overhead against #temp tables.

Tip : Give SQL Server users access to Extended Events

I talk about a couple of subtleties of THROW, and how to avoid frustrating bouts of troubleshooting.

I describe a scenario where Common Criteria compliance was deemed the cause of high LCK_M_SCH_M waits for multiple customers.

I show some views I use to make metadata queries simpler.

I show how to use common table expressions (CTEs) to better optimize SQL Server pagination queries that use OFFSET / FETCH.

I examine various impacts on SQL Server – not just disk space – when choosing a GUID as a clustering key.