Category: SQL Server

Batch mode processing was introduced in SQL Server in 2012, the same time as columnstore indexes. The combination of the two prevented SQL Server from needlessly processing column values not needed by a query, as it must do in classic row processing. This processing mode also permits SQL Server to take better advantage of cache […]

Anna P., a student in Learning Tree’s course 8420, Querying Data with Transact SQL, asks “What good is an SQL Server user with no login?”. No good at all, if you think of users just as people. Clearly, people need to login before they can use SQL Server. However, users can also be thought of […]

UTF-8 has been the predominant character encoding system for the world-wide web since 2009 and as of October 2018 accounts for over 90% of all web pages. As of October 2018, UTF-8 is not supported by Microsoft SQL Server. SQL Server 2019 will remedy this situation, as current SQL Server community technology previews illustrate. The […]

Shakespeare famously asked “What’s in a name?” A great deal, as it turns out, since the words used to describe things affects how we perceive them and think about them. Perhaps it’s the rapid rate of change that makes technology particularly susceptible to the effects of how we use words to describe things. Terms too […]

You probably thought that the chapter on binary number systems in your Intro to Computer Science textbook would never have to be opened again, especially now that you’re a report writer or a data analyst and generally don’t get too close to the silicon. SQL Server DBAs bump into binary numbers from time to time […]