Execution plan operators, twelve of them, read the way the back page reads the stars. Find the one that rules your plan this month. Each sign comes with what it means and the one thing it’s asking you to check.
The Missing Data Page: A Sunday Geometry Trick
The missing data page is a geometry trick. Two wedges move, a white square appears, and the grid invites a wrong assumption.
AI Says the Backups Are Fine
AI says the backups are fine. The log was extremely positive about it. Nobody in the room had restored anything since March.
SQL Server 2025 Features, Ranked by How Much They Changed My Week
SQL Server 2025 features, ranked the way the music magazines rank albums. By whether they changed anything, not by how loud the launch was. Every entry below was tried on build 17.0.4085.5 before it earned a place. Three function probes came back unrecognised with this lab’s settings, and…
AI-Written SQL: The Query That Ran and Lied
Part six of ten. AI-written SQL fails in a way that plain bad code never does. It runs, it returns a number, and the number is wrong. Here is one that came out 28 times too big. The number While writing chapter 6 of my new book, I asked an…
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SQL Server Limits, Verified: Eleven Records Pushed to the Edge
SQL Server limits, done the way a record book does them. Not what the documentation says, but what happened when I tried one more. Eleven records, each attempted on SQL Server 2025 build 17.0.4085.5, each with the exact error text at the edge. One documented figure turned out to be wrong on this…
SQL Server Triggers on Trial: The State Versus the Trigger
SQL Server triggers, tried in open court. The prosecution says they’re slow, hidden and wrong. The defence says they’re the only witness in the room. Four exhibits were measured on SQL Server 2025, and the judge rules at the end.
SQL Server Blocking at 2 a.m.: You Are the On-Call DBA
SQL Server blocking, told as a choose-your-own-path story. You are the on-call DBA. The phone has gone. The diagnosis and the kill were run in the lab on SQL Server 2025 and measured. The other branches are reasoned, and the text says which is which.
20 Years of SQLAuthority: Twenty Books, One Family, and a Diary That Grew Up
20 years of SQLAuthority started with one query saved on November 1, 2006. Almost 6,000 posts later, there are nineteen books of mine and one by Shaivi on our shelf. This is the story, and a thank you to Nupur, to Shaivi and to you.
AI Read the Procedure Nobody Dares to Touch
AI read the procedure that everybody walks past. Nine hundred lines, no comments, one very old warning at the top.