Diagnose connection pooling timeouts with session counts, sleeping activity, open transactions, and client settings that divide pools.
Table Partitioning Is Not Sharding: What Partitioning Really Gives You
See why partitioning is not sharding, build monthly partitions, inspect elimination, and switch a month out for simpler data management.
Adding IDENTITY to an Existing Column With ALTER TABLE SWITCH
Add IDENTITY to an existing column with an empty matching table, ALTER TABLE SWITCH, a reseed, and full dependency checks.
UNMASK on One Column: Granting Unmasking in SQL Server 2022
Support needs phone numbers but not salaries. Here is how to unmask one column, and what that permission does not do.
Adding a NOT NULL Column With a Default to a Big Table
Add a NOT NULL column with a default safely, distinguish metadata changes from row updates, and plan a staged Standard edition rollout.
Weekday Logic That Works Under Any DATEFIRST Setting
Make weekday logic independent of DATEFIRST with a normalized offset or a known Monday, then test every date in a full year.
UNION vs UNION ALL in SQL Server: What Each One Does
UNION vs UNION ALL comes down to duplicates: UNION removes them and UNION ALL keeps every row. This post tests both on two small store tables. It also covers sorting, a total row at the bottom, mixed operators and data type rules.