The Bit Bucket

In a relational database like SQL Server, transactions are the mechanism used to ensure that entire operations either complete or are rolled back. They are a core part of the Atomicity: i.e., the A in ACID.

Typical example

The obvious example used to be that if you transfer funds from one place to another, that both the debit and the credit need to occur, or neither occurs.

Fair enough and straightforward enough.

2026-11-12

One of the discussions that comes up from time to time when working with DevOps is branching strategy.

Common strategy

The general strategy nowadays is to have a main branch (used to be called master) that is used for deployment. When features are being developed, a feature branch is forked from the main branch, the changes are built and tested, and then the feature branch is merged back to the main branch.

2026-11-11

Having up to date statistics is critical for SQL Server choosing appropriate query plans. Poor statistics can lead to poor query plan outcomes.

Generally, SQL Server manages this well by itself. As a rough rule, most versions auto-update statistics when the number of changes is about twenty percent of a count of the number of rows in the table. (Some recent changes have slightly altered how this works but the ball park is pretty good).

2026-11-10

I’ve previously discussed why bit columns can be useful in SQL Server Indexes. But an interesting question is whether you should use them at all.

I previously showed an example of a transaction table that had an IsFinalized column. And if it did, then it’s very likely that I’d want to have it indexed. But what I didn’t discuss was whether that bit column made sense in the first place.

2026-11-09

A few years back, I created a new podcast to focus on PostgreSQL. I had already registered a number of down under names like sqldownunder.com, cosmosdownunder.com, fabricdownunder.com and so on. So it seemed logical to register pgdownunder.com. I checked and it was available so I used it for the podcast, and have done ever since.

A while back though, I became aware of a local PostgreSQL conference, and that they called it PG Down Under. Curiously, they hadn’t registered that name, or even the .org variant.

2026-11-08

It’s awesome that FABCON is coming to Sydney early next year. It’s now one of the best conferences each year globally and has loads of Fabric and SQL goodness. Our friends at Microsoft have provided this info to let you get an early bird discount.

Register today and Save AUD$300 with code: FABSQL-UG

The APAC Microsoft Fabric + SQL Community Conference (6–9 April 2027, ICC Sydney) brings together data, analytics, BI, and AI professionals from across Asia-Pacific. Hear from Microsoft and community experts with practical guidance, real-world patterns, and lessons learned.

2026-11-07

I’ve spent a lot of time lately considering the ethics surrounding AI usage in the workplace, but the title of a new book had me intrigued. I was sent a review copy of The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results by the author.

Author

Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is a behavioural scientist, author and consultant who specialises in workplace change, decision-making and the future of work. He is the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts, a consultancy that helps organisations adopt new technologies and improve business performance. He previously spent more than 15 years in academia, including seven years as a professor at Ohio State University. He has written eight books and has been featured in publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes and The New York Times, which described him as an office whisperer.

2026-11-06

As I’ve pointed out in other posts, Betteridge’s Law of Headlines says you already know that the answer to this is no.

There is a persistent myth among SQL Server users that having more indexes always slows things down, particularly anything that needs to modify data (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, MERGE).

However, there are two aspects of this to consider:

The first is that you need to decide how much the modifications actually matter in the overall performance of the system. In an earlier blog post, I noted that when I trace typical transactional systems, I often see reads making up about 99% of page I/O’s. Writes barely even appear. I’m not saying they are irrelevant but you need to focus on what the system is spending most of its time doing.

2026-11-05

The other day I posted a shortcut article about how to use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to generate INSERT statements for data.

In one of the comments, a reader asked if there was a way to do that from the command line.

The answer is yes, sort of. Apart from a variety of 3rd party tools, a few years back, Microsoft released tools to do just that.

The easiest tool was probably mssql-scripter and you’ll find an intro to it here:

2026-11-04

In a previous post , I was discussing why magic values were a problem. They are often added by developers when they are trying to avoid having any NULL data in a database.

While discussing this, I think it’s worth also highlighting the overall dangers of placeholder values. These are values that aren’t magic values but are ones that are intended to be replaced at a later time.

If you use any of these, you need to have a solid process in place to:

2026-11-03