Today Microsoft released the public preview of Azure SQL Database Managed Instances – an exciting new option for running SQL Server workloads in the cloud. I’m pleased to say that initial support for this new offering is already available across the development tools in Redgate’s SQL Toolbelt, as well as in SQL Monitor. This support Read more
Phil Factor demonstrates the performance problems that overuse of ad-hoc queries can cause and then how SQL Monitor can warn us when they are the cause of these problems on your SQL Servers, using built-in metrics such as SQL Compilations/sec metric and Batch Requests/sec. Read more
Phil Factor explains why you should prefer use of EXISTS over IN, when comparing data sets using a subquery. While there is no longer any significant performance advantage, using NOT EXISTS will avoid unexpected results when the subquery’s source data contains NULL values. Read more
Karis Brummit announces SQL Provision, which combines SQL Clone's fast, lightweight database copying and centralized management of provisioning, with Data Maskers's ability to obfuscate sensitive or personal data, prior to distribution. Read more
The incorrect use of a scalar UDF as a global database constant is a major performance problem and should be investigated whenever SQL Prompt spots this in any production code. Unless you need to use these global constants in computed columns or constraints, it is generally safer and more convenient to store the value in an inline table-valued function, or to use a view. Read more
Phil Factor improves SQL Prompt's built-in ALTER TABLE ADD (ata) snippet so that it enforces certain coding standards, such as specifying whether the column accepts NULL values, and ensuring the new column is well-documented. Read more
SQL Prompt can help prevent the build-up of technical debt in your database code. It alerts the team immediately to issues that might not prevent your code from working as expected, but could eventually cause problems with performance, or maintenance, or even security. Read more
Inherited a database from another team? Changed your team policy on the way that you format SQL? What's to stop you formatting the code of an entire database nicely, when you're developing it? Manually, the process can take longer than you expect. Phil Factor demonstrates a simple 3-step approach to reformatting a whole database , in a single operation, using SQL Compare and SQL Prompt. Read more
Phil Factor shows how to create a table of input values versus expected results, and then use it to unit test your SQL stored procedures and functions and verify that they always produce the correct results. He uses SQL Prompt to make this task much simpler. Read more