A common SQL habit is to use SELECT * on a query, because it’s tedious to list all the columns you need. Plus, sometimes those columns may change over time, so why not just do things the easy way? But ...

PolyBase, a data virtualization feature for SQL Server, allows users to seamlessly query data from various external sources directly using T-SQL (Transact-SQL) without the need for separate client ...

One of the most common problems when running SQL Servers is slow queries. The help desk or database team usually hears that described as the application is slow or ...

SQL Server 2016 lets you treat JSON objects like rows in a table, allowing you to use data from AJAX queries in joins, updates and any other SQL statement you can think of. SQL Server 2016 provides ...

Out of all the programming languages you need to learn in the IT industry, SQL is one of the most important. SQL is so integral to modern big data access and organization processes that it’s never a ...

With the latest public preview available, it’s time to decide if you want to upgrade to Microsoft’s most cloud-connected version of SQL Server so far. Three decades on, SQL Server is still a database ...

Knowing how to automate tasks in the cloud will make you a more productive DBA. Here are the key concepts to understand about cloud scripting and a rundown of the best tools for automating code in ...