In 2012, Aaron Bertrand said most everything I knew (and a bit more) about the issues with using the sp_ prefix. Procedures prefixed with sp_ have special powers when placed in the the master database in that it can be executed anywhere on the server after that. Nothing much has change in those suggestions. It … Read more
There is a relatively simple and quickly learned technique to writing a blog that people will want to read. We asked an anonymous successful blogger, who is widely read, how it is done. I will try to explain, purely from my experience (and the editors before me), how to write articles, blogs, features, or short … Read more
I have been working as a no-code data engineer: Focused on Data Factory ETL and visual tools. In fact, I prefer to use visual resources when possible. On my first contact with Fabric Lakehouse I discovered to convert Files into Tables I need to use a notebook. I was waiting a lot of time for … Read more
The Data Wrangler is as interesting as hidden inside Microsoft Fabric. It’s not easy to find and activate it, but it is worth the trouble. Before digging into the Data Wrangler, let’s analyze the data features in the query environment. Data Features in Query Environment The new query environment, which allow us to make data … Read more
On Friday and Saturday August 11 and 12, I am going to do something I haven’t done in a long time. I am going to a conference where I may not know anyone (I did learn about the conference from one of the people that run it who was also at SQL Saturday Baton Rouge.) … Read more
Welcome back to another replication series! As a quick reminder, we explored various methods of using MySQL’s replication capabilities in our previous discussions. Initially, we employed the traditional binary-log-based replication approach to set up our replication servers. This involved tracking the binary log file and its positions to facilitate replication. In this article, we will … Read more
They mean very little. More on that after nothing that this is part of T-SQL Tuesday, and you can read the original invitation by clicking on the T-SQL Tuesday 165 invitation or the following images. I almost always forget that this is coming and today is no different. But I wanted to chime in here. By … Read more
I wrote about query store hints before when they were first released in Azure SQL databases. However, there are some tricks related to managing query store hints we will explore on this blog post. Applying Query Store Hint When we apply a query store hint, the query already exists in query store, and it has … Read more
My initial goal of documenting and exploring SQL Server Row Level Security (RLS) was to show the basic functionality and focus on a few performance and administrative items. I also wanted to confirm my base assumption that it is very secure. This security makes it useful in many situations to segregate data by user groups, … Read more
This is the fifth and final part of this series on SQL Server Dynamic Data Masking. The first part in the series was a brief introduction to dynamic data masking, completing solutions, and use cases. The second part covered setting up masking and some examples. The third and fourth sections explored side channel attacks against … Read more
Welcome back to the world of MySQL Replication! If you’ve been following this series, thank you for your support! And if you’re new here, welcome! Before we dive in, I suggest checking out the first part of the series to get up to speed. In this article, I’ll be delving into multi-source replication and explaining … Read more
The PASS Data Community Summit 2023 happens the week of November 12 in Seattle. WA. It will be my first time back in Washington state since 2019. Skipping over the years that the Summit didn’t meet in person (I missed last year’s in-person Summit with a broken foot), this year I am ready and raring … Read more
I was looking at the list of topics I have talked about in my “What Counts for a DBA” posts over the years, and a topic really stood out as a topic I have not touched. To be fair, it is really the most essential aspect. One aspect that, if not truly understood and taken … Read more
Interviewing yourself is easy, as I get to write the questions as I write the answers! Is this your first award? No, it is my 19th. And it is as exciting today as the first time. It was around 18 years ago (the MVP year started in October back then), I got an email from … Read more
Recently, we have made a few changes to the simple-talk.com website’s RSS feeds that I am pretty excited about. If you don’t know what RSS feeds are, they are links that let you pull down content from a website not the formatted view you typically see, but instead in an XML document that other tools … Read more
Continuing from the previous entry in this series on security concerns with using Dynamic Data Masking, in this blog I want to close out that discussion showing how you can unmask different sort of data that has been dynamically masked, even if you don’t have access to unmasked data. Clearly this is NOT a suggestion … Read more
January 18, 2020, was the last time I stood in front of a live group of people and spoke about anything. It was at the location where I did my first SQL Saturday presentation, back at the first SQL Saturday in Nashville. Speaking at the time was a normal thing for me, having done 5-8 … Read more
One of the things that makes you a well-rounded person is adventure. But often, when one thinks of adventure, they think of fun, grand, and most likely, well-planned adventure holidays. Climbing the Matterhorn, crossing the Gobi desert, or perhaps most adventurous of all, navigating Disney World on July 4th (shudder). In each of these types … Read more
Today I am starting (well, restarting) a new feature here on Simple-Talk, The Editor’s Blog. This blog will cover topics about writing technical blogs and articles, how to access the information on Simple-Talk at your convenience, and even other writing issues like how to write an excellent presentation and abstract. Topics will sometimes be Simple-Talk centric, … Read more
This is the third part of a series on SQL Server Dynamic Data Masking. The first part in the series was a brief introduction to dynamic data masking, completing solutions, and use cases. The second part covered setting up masking and some examples. This part starts exploring side channel attacks against dynamic data masking. This … Read more
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