More sectors of business utilize data for business intelligence than ever before, from report writing to application development. Microsoft SQL Server can handle big data needs for a wide set of ...

Last time, I discussed how to get PowerShell and SQLPS up and running on your machines. And much like my dog chasing its tail, you're probably asking yourself, "Now that I have it, what do I do with ...

JSON has stolen some of XML's thunder with features such as human and machine readability, a lightweight, compact text structure and support for many software and hardware platforms. JSON (JavaScript ...

In SQL Server 2017, when the query optimizer encounters code with a multi-statement TVF, the query optimizer will pause optimization, execute the TVF subtree to get a very accurate cardinality ...

In part 1 of my SQL Server 2022 features series, you learned about the improvements to the cardinality estimator component of query optimization. In this installment, you will learn about another ...

Microsoft has just added support for query hints to Azure SQL Database, giving database administrators a powerful tool to manage the performance of ISV application code. Here's how it works. Database ...

SQL Server 2025 is introducing AI-native capabilities alongside new approaches for secure integration with large language models. Enterprises can now run local AI models such as Llama 3 via Ollama for ...

A common SQL habit is to use SELECT * on a query, because it’s tedious to list all the columns you need. Plus, sometimes those columns may change over time, so why not just do things the easy way? But ...

SQL is neither the fastest nor the most elegant way to talk to databases, but it is the best way we have. Here’s why Today, Structured Query Language is the standard means of manipulating and querying ...

With SQL Server 2016, it now makes sense to store JSON objects in your database (even though there’s no JSON datatype). Here’s how to query JSON properties to find the rows you want. It’s not unusual ...