Following up on an earlier post about metadata, I reveal a few more ways I discover changes in SQL Server.

SQL Server 2016 RC0 introduces a new native string splitting function, STRING_SPLIT; I compare its performance to existing methods.

SQL Server 2016 allows you to enable instant file initialization during installation; I look at how this can impact tempdb data file creation.

Tip : Extracting ShowPlan XML from SQL Server Extended Events

I share some insight about early changes to Plan Explorer that help to provide you with the most accurate information we can.

In this post, I talk about synonyms and how they can be used.