Microsoft has just added support for query hints to Azure SQL Database, giving database administrators a powerful tool to manage the performance of ISV application code. Here's how it works. Database ...

Database performance is rarely a single "fix it and forget it" task. SQL Server workloads shift over time. A sluggish ...

As a consultant whose job description includes putting out performance fires, I get to see a lot of problematic queries that can dramatically harm overall server performance and throughput. Wondering ...

In earlier versions of SQL Server, after selecting a join algorithm, SQL Server had to process it even if a better alternative might be available. In SQL Server 2017, the query optimizer can now sense ...

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 ...

Microsoft has open sourced the Java language extension it added to SQL Server 2019 last year. Language extensions are used in SQL Server to allow users to execute code externally for queries. The ...