(Eli Leiba) The requirement is to be able to either import or export an image (binary) file to or from SQL Server without using third party tools and without using the BCP (Bulk Copy Program) utility or Integration Services (SSIS). The goal is to use only the database engine capabilities using simpl

(Chris Webb) A few years ago I started blogging about Power Query. Back then life was simple: I put “Power Query” in the title of a post and everyone knew what I was writing about, because Power Query was an Excel add-in you could download and install.

(Arun Sirpal) If you know me by now I like rebuilding indexes and that is no different in Azure. Now we have the ability to resume a paused rebuilding operation rather than cancelling it (Feature currently in public preview).

(Pinal Dave) COMPATIBILITY LEVEL in SQL Server indicates the version of SQL Server with which the database is to be made compatible. Whenever you create a new database, compatibility level is set to that database. Sometimes you may need to change this so that some code will work.

(Jack Vamvas) I discussed in an earlier post on triggering an error message to write to the Windows event viewer. This can be very useful – as log readers can use one source to gather error messages and trigger alerts.

(Bob Ward) “I feel the need, the need for speed”. That is a quote from the character Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, in one of my favorite movies, Top Gun. It makes me think of one of the top reasons why someone chooses a database engine. It must be fast and perform to the needs of all types of work

(Kenneth Fisher) tl;dr; The uniquifier is used to make a non-unique key in a clustered index unique.

(Michael Otey) SQL Server 2017 on Linux gives IT shops greater flexibility, but there are some limitations and changes to the way high availability and failover are performed on Linux vs. Windows.

(Pinal Dave) DBCC INPUTBUFFER has been one of the most popular commands to display the last statement sent from a client to an instance of Microsoft SQL Server. We all have been using it for quite a while.

(Jorg Klein) Finally, at Ignite Azure Data Factory Version 2 is announced! A giant step forward if you ask me. In this blog post I will give an overview of the highlights of this exciting new preview version of Azure’s data movement and transformation PaaS service. ADF V2 pricing can be found here.