Way back in SQL Server 2012, a whole raft of new T-SQL functions were introduced. As I’ve mentioned before, I get excited when there are new T-SQL functions.
Some of the ones added back then, I wasn’t so excited about. EOMONTH was in that category, not because of the functionality, but because of the name (wish it was ENDOFMONTH or better, END_OF_MONTH), and lack of symmetry (lack of a STARTOFMONTH or BEGINNINGOFMONTH).
2026-08-24
I recently posted about rebuilding clustered columnstore indexes when they needed maintenance . One of the questions that a reader asked was:
Which is best in performance and CCI packing for fast query:
And of course, that’s a great question. Here are the issues:
If I had to just pick one of those, for best query performance and best CCI packing, the first option is usually better:
2026-08-06
For general index maintenance, our friend Old Hallengren has an awesome solution for most people: https://ola.hallengren.com/sql-server-index-and-statistics-maintenance.html
We started to have customers using clustered columnstore indexes from SQL Server 2014, and they needed to be treated differently. At the time, I checked Ola’s latest scripts to see what happens with columnstore indexes.
It appeared that the code ignored nonclustered columnstore indexes (ie: index type of 6), which made sense as we would potentially need to rebuild them whenever the data changes, and at the time, the table was read-only. So that made lots of sense. Fortunately, that limitation is now gone.
2026-06-21
It was great to catch up with Jerry Nixon today and to have him on a SQL Down Under podcast.
I recently had Jess Pomfret on a show, discussing Data API Builder. And the logical extension of that is to talk about SQL MCP Server.
Jerry is a Principal Product Manager for Data and AI at Microsoft.
He says he is focused on the developer persona to minimize onboarding friction and maximize value.
2026-05-26
It was great to catch up with Jess Pomfret today and to have her on a SQL Down Under podcast.
Jess is a Data Platform Engineer and a dual Microsoft MVP. She started working with SQL Server in 2011, and she says she enjoys the problem-solving aspects of automating processes with PowerShell.
Jess also enjoys contributing to dbatools and dbachecks, two open source PowerShell modules that aid DBAs with automating the management of SQL Server instances.
2026-05-05
Most SQL Server developers are aware that the EXEC statement can be used to:
And most understand that you can SELECT from a scalar user-defined function.
But the option that many people don’t seem to be aware of, is that you can also use EXEC to call a scalar function.
I remember noticing this in the documentation for the EXEC command some years back. Prior to that, it had never dawned on me that you could use EXEC to call a scalar UDF. It’s also in the oldest documentation that I was able to check, so I’d say it’s worked for a long time.
2026-04-12
The WITH EXECUTE AS clause was a great addition for defining stored procedures and functions, to change the execution context, just for the duration of the stored procedure or function. For example:
CREATE PROC SomeSchema.SomeProc
WITH EXECUTE AS USER = 'Fred'
AS
...
Mostly I use this with the OWNER option:
CREATE PROC SomeSchema.SomeProc
WITH EXECUTE AS OWNER
AS
...
It’s also useful during testing, where I can temporarily change my execution context during testing. For example:
EXEC AS USER = 'Fred';
\-- Try some code here while running as Fred
REVERT;
But the option that most people don’t realize is possible, is that you can set the execution context for a single execution like this:
2026-04-10
It’s common advice that most SQL Server tables should have a clustered index. There are some exceptions to this but it’s a pretty general rule, and if in doubt, you should follow it. (Note that this is not the same as having a primary key).
I regularly come across tables without clustered indexes for all the wrong reasons. So, in our free SDU Tools for developers and DBAs, we added a tool that can look for user tables that don’t have a clustered index. No surprise, it’s called ListUserHeapTables because a table without a clustered index is a heap.
2026-04-08
Our free SDU Tools for developers and DBAs, now includes a very large number of tools, with procedures, functions, and views. Version 27 adds the first set of views and functions for working with Nepali dates. These are useful in Nepal and in a number of Buddhist-related areas.
The first tool added is a view called NepaliMonths. It returns the Nepali names for months. You can see it in the main image above.
2026-04-06
Our free SDU Tools for developers and DBAs, now includes a very large number of tools, with procedures, functions, and views. The TokenSetSimilarity function calculates token set similarity for two strings.
It answers the question: Do these two strings contain mostly the same words, even if the order, spacing, or repetition differs?
It is useful where word order varies, or extra or missing words are common. It can also help where character-level typos are less important than the presence of words.
2026-04-04