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What I Love About My Job
In June this year I took redundancy from the company I’d worked at for the previous 11 years. It was of course an uncertain time while I figured out what I wanted to do, having to consider the needs of my family as well as myself. It was also a great opportunity. For many years Read more
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T-SQL Tuesday 167 – Encryption and Data Protection Roundup
Huge thanks to everyone who responded to my invitation to blog on Encryption and Data Protection for this month’s T-SQL Tuesday. I got what I hoped for, which was a wide(ish) interpretation of the topic. Posts from those who are clearly advocates of encryption, and from those who have scepticism around the encryption approaches that Read more
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T-SQL Tuesday: Encryption and Data Protection
I have the honour of hosting this month’s T-SQL Tuesday. In case there’s any doubt that’s for October 2023, I’m posting this invitation a little early as I got my dates clashed and I’ll be on holiday in Majorca next week! For those of you who don’t know, T-SQL Tuesday is a monthly blog party Read more
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Manually updating Statistics in SQL Server
Having up to date statistics is vital for getting the best performance out of your queries. Even though SQL Server automatically updates statistics in the background for you, you may find there are times when you want to manage updating them yourself. Read more
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Statistics and the Ascending Key Problem
I’ve mentioned previously how not having up to date statistics can cause problems in query performance. This post looks at something called the Ascending Key Problem which can badly affect your cardinality estimation in some cases and therefore your execution plans. The Ascending Key Problem relates to the most recently inserted data in your table Read more
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When do Statistics get updated?
Statistics objects are important for allowing the SQL Server Optimizer to make good estimates and form efficient execution plans. Related to that it’s useful for us to understand when statistics get updated – and where we might have to update them ourselves. This post details in what scenarios statistics get updated, as well as the… Read more
