Mind your collation!

Blog alert! My colleague recently came to me with a fun challenge: why is their SQL Server Hashbytes conversion not working as expected? After some digging, I discovered significant differences between text data types when converting them. Check out my latest blog post to learn more about this interesting topic. #SQL #datahashing #techtalk #SqlServer #Microsoft

Not every SQL is created equal

Yes I know, clickbaity cheesy title. This blog is a bit like that, but maybe you'll learn something as well. Issue In short, what I was facing today was a trial migration from System A to System B. Which means that data has to flow from one system to the other. System A is a … Continue reading Not every SQL is created equal

SQL Bits is coming!

In case you missed it, in a few weeks, SQL Bits is happening. This year it's quite close to London in the town of Farnborough. This place keeps sticking in my head as Farnham leading to the song 'you're the voice'. But let's not digress. SQL Bits 2024! If you've never been to SQL Bits, … Continue reading SQL Bits is coming!

Restoring a bacpac file, but differently.

Or maybe I should say, with some complications. Or challenges. When I got the job to restore a bacpac file, I didn't think much of it. Because it's quite easy. Get the bacpac and restore it with Azure Data Studio or Sql Server Management Studio. Get coffee, done. Then I got these requirements: The bacpac … Continue reading Restoring a bacpac file, but differently.

SQL Server Common Table Expressions, a tale.

Or, how SQL Server behaved differently than I expected but managed to process quite a lot of rows before giving up. Let's begin We have a customer that would like to see the actual value of their stock in a table. They buy their stock at different times and at different prices. Calculating the stock … Continue reading SQL Server Common Table Expressions, a tale.

Why won’t you go parallel, part 2

In my previous blogpost (Click here to read) I wrote about a query that just wouldn't go parallel. This sparked some discussion and interest from a few people who were very kind and helpful with their suggestions and even deep dives into the query plans, execution statistics etc. To make one thing very clear, this … Continue reading Why won’t you go parallel, part 2

Why won’t you go parallel, a curious case of a stubborn query.

With an unsatisfying end. Intro So what's up this time. Our client has moved to Azure in classic lift and shift scenario. Well, almost. They've deployed new VM's and installed SQL Server 2019 Standard in nice DTAP setting. The VM's are standard E16-4as-v4 SKU. 4 vcpus and 128 GB memory. The disks are Premium SSD … Continue reading Why won’t you go parallel, a curious case of a stubborn query.

View with a where clause

I was teaching a class and during an interesting discussing an attendee told me that views with a filter took a long time to produce results, even if the result set itself was quite small. I wanted to test this out for myself to see what was happening. I'll take you along this short journey … Continue reading View with a where clause

Microsoft Fabric, connect to your on-premises SQL Server

In my previous blogs, I've written about Fabric and all the cool things it can do. Thing is, my load tests were based on files. Either CSV or Delta. But in reality, a lot of data comes from an on-premises database server. In reality, you might connect to a SQL 2008 instance or maybe even … Continue reading Microsoft Fabric, connect to your on-premises SQL Server

Tsql2sday #161, the writeup

This month, I hosted the Tsql2sday where I asked you to write about the most funny things you did with T-Sql. I'll happily admit it was a bit of a cheesy subject but you came out in numbers to write! Thanks for that. Before I dive into the blogs I found, send me a message … Continue reading Tsql2sday #161, the writeup