Deep Dive
KEEP PLAN Demystified
The KEEP PLAN hint is supposed to relax recompilation thresholds, but the docs are vague. I test it against permanent and temp table statistics thresholds.
Notes from a TSQL trench
Database stuff,
with a side of memes.
Long-form notes on TSQL performance, Extended Events, Query Store and the tooling around them. Written from the trenches, not the slide deck.
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Latest posts
SQL Wordle Series - Part One: Cheating
Your Twitter feed is probably already full of Wordle posts, so why not one more? Let's start the series the lazy way: by cheating.
Expecting Subvertations
How can 15 be less than 13? A perfect storm of bad assumptions about sql_variant comparison rules.
How to audit data modifications with surgical precision
A colleague needed to find who was changing a specific cell in a busy table. SQL Audit was too noisy, Query Store too vague. I found a way to combine triggers with Extended Events for surgical precision.
IS Lock in RCSI Enabled Database
I found an IS lock in a deadlock report on an RCSI database. That shouldn't be possible. Here's what caused it.
Don't Be Lazy
Sometimes the fastest help is the kind you find yourself. A rundown of the lazy question patterns I keep seeing in SQL help channels.
Short Code Examples (T-SQL Tuesday #143)
This month's T-SQL Tuesday invitation is from John McCormack. I'm sharing a few handy snippets I use on a regular basis - a time loop, impersonation testing, database recreation, and some RegEx for SSMS Find & Replace.
Discover potential obstacles in your design
One query against sys.messages can reveal every edge case SQL Server knows about before you commit to a new design.