I continue a series where I dig into how data is distributed across indexes, files, and filegroups.

I talk about a recent change where I started turning on indirect checkpoints across all user databases.

I finish up my series on replacing the default trace with views to simplify consumption and a caveat about reports in SSMS.

See the stored procedure I wrote to help me put all file, filegroup, and index information in one place.

I continue my series on replacing the default trace with a more efficient and more complete Extended Events session.

See how blogging can benefit both the author and the reader in this short opinion piece.

Phase 3 of my home office – doors! – couldn't have happened at a better time.

I want to push for improvements to STRING_SPLIT in the next version of SQL Server. See how you can help!

See a quick example where plan shape can cause errors that really shouldn't happen.

In this tip, see ways you can change how a function is called without having to modify all calling code at the same time.

Need to get data, log, or bak files into your container's file system? See how, with docker cp.

With the increasing number of office closures, I share some tips about working from home.

In this tip, I show how to measure the positive effects of delayed durability, in cases where a small amount of data loss is acceptable.

I start a series explaining how I evaluated the default trace and decided to replace it with a slimmer Extended Events session across all of production.

See how you can use Extended Events to find your worst performing checkpoints.

This month, Jess Pomfret hosts T-SQL Tuesday, and asks us to talk about our own personal life hacks that make our day easier.

In this tip, I talk about a concerning behavior in a dynamic management function.

I continue my series on large table compression with results from row and page compression as well as a process involving scheduler manipulation.

In this tip, I show how soft deletes and a filtered index can help minimize the cost of ghost records in an Availability Group.

I add some details about phase 2 of my home office changes.

I detail my home office setup, much of the gear in it, and show the progress of a minor renovation – a new standing desk and improved backlighting.

For this month's T-SQL Tuesday, I talk a little bit about how I make my imposter syndrome feel less like imposter syndrome.

I continue my series on investigating compression for a 1TB table, honing in on clustered columnstore and partitioning.

In this tip, I show how and why a columnstore index can provide benefits to COUNT(*) queries.

With another new year comes the recognition of a standout contributor to the SQL Server community. Read on to see 2019's honoree.

I start a series looking at using clustered columnstore indexes and page compression to address storage footprint for a 1TB table.

I show how I tried to chase down a very unexpected issue with SQL Server metadata. Spoiler: it didn't end the way I thought it would.

For this month's T-SQL Tuesday, I talk about an opportunity earlier this year to significantly change my career trajectory.

Discover a simple way to keep your filtered indexes effective – even under forced parameterization.

Conventional wisdom has suggested that deletes should be batched, but in some cases this can actually take a lot longer.

Let's talk a bit about the launch of SQL Server 2019 and the flagship, bet-the-farm feature: Big Data Clusters.

I talk a little bit about two big enhancements for SQL Server 2019: installation options for setting MAXDOP and Max Server Memory.

Get a quick overview of a powerful new feature in SQL Server 2019 that will drastically improve certain tempdb-heavy workloads.

I share some thoughts about the upcoming SQL Server 2019 release and edition-specific features.

See how to generate a set of scripts that will delete rows from dependent tables and show you how many rows will be deleted from each.

I take a quick look at the performance and storage impact of the new UTF-8 collations in SQL Server 2019.

For this month's T-SQL Tuesday, I talk about an incident where I've changed my mind about something I was previously pretty stubborn about.

Find out how to use dynamic SQL to quickly generate metadata queries to pull attributes for all columns across a database or even a set of databases.

Forced Parameterization can be a useful setting to tune workloads, but this can work against you if you're also using filtered indexes.

Give your Docker containers meaningful port numbers to avoid confusion, especially when presenting or giving demos.

Originally published in 2009, I updated this in 2019 with an example showing an effect on the plan cache.

Did you know that not all characters can be used as the separator for STRING_SPLIT?

Read about an approach to partitioning a result set without the performance impact of NTILE.

See how to work around the lack of an ALTER TYPE command.

Discover some of the new information SQL Server keeps adding to help us troubleshoot query plans.

One of the biggest downsides of using SQL Server Management Studio as an interactive query tool is the limit on text/grid output. SSMS 18.2 fixes that!

In this tip, you'll see the metadata queries that will make it possible to discover which integer-based columns could be made smaller (without any loss of data).

I explain four conventions I always follow when writing T-SQL queries.