Is there any difference between the LEFT function and SET TEXTSIZE? A quick script shows how each one trims a long VARCHAR(MAX) value in the results.
What to Collect When SQL Server Is Slow
Collect SQL Server diagnostic data in a useful order: waits, active requests, blockers, execution plans, and file IO during the slow period.
REGEXP_COUNT in SQL Server 2025: Counting Pattern Matches in Text
REGEXP_COUNT counts how many times a pattern matches inside a text value, a job that used to need LEN and REPLACE tricks. This post tests it on SQL Server 2025: start position, flags, NULL and empty text, a data quality check, and where the old trick still fits.
SQL SERVER – Color Coding SQL Server Management Studio Status Bar – SQL in Sixty Seconds #023 – Video
Color code the SQL Server Management Studio status bar so you always know which server you are on before you run a script. A quick video.
Non-Updating Updates: Skipping Rows That Would Not Change
An UPDATE that writes the same value still marks the row as modified. I show how IS DISTINCT FROM skips those rows and keeps NULL changes.
SQL SERVER – Beginning of SQL Server Security
The beginning of SQL Server security: how authentication, logins, users and permissions work together to keep your data safe from misuse.
What Distributed SQL Means and What It Costs
Understand distributed SQL through data placement, compute and storage roles, write coordination, and the latency and operating costs behind scale.