In SQL Server we’ll typically end up using environments containing multiple databases which happen to have data which relate to each other. Due to this there will be times when we’ll need to reference objects in another database when writing a query. What options do we have for doing this? Here we’ll look at three […]
As Deborah’s invitation opens this month she quite rightly points out that there are a lot of professionals out there who have a few (passionate) opinions about what they do or the way they do it. This month we’re invited to … well, have a rant – a rant about those experiences which have shaped […]
Following on from previous posts where we looked at Dynamic Data Masking, how to use it, and the challenges we may encounter, there’s one last area I wanted to touch on. With the arrival of SQL Server 2022 the masking functionality has been extended so we have an additional masking function and more granular permissions […]
Recently we’ve been looking at Dynamic Data Masking and what it can achieve for us. With that said however, there are some drawbacks to how it works which its worth being aware of before you consider implementing it. Even in the official documentation it states that the feature “limits” exposure, can be used to “simplify” design, and […]
When we initially looked at Dynamic Data Masking we used the default function to mask our data so it showed xxxx. With the masking however there are a few functions available to allow us to mask data in particular ways which may be of use depending on our use case. We’ll create a record to apply these masks against so […]
This month’s invitation comes from Mala who asks us about the T-SQL coding rules relevant for where we work. There’s certainly a lot of scope in this question and Mala links to a great set of posts from Robert Sheldon which cover quite a number of these points. Whilst larger businesses may well have matured standards in […]
Given the abundance of data we deal with day to day its increasingly likely that we’ll find ourselves storing items of a more sensitive nature. We may only deal with details sensitive about our business such as suppliers or profitability, but when that increases – for example customer details – then we want to ensure […]
When you’re developing a new database solution you’ll inevitably want to apply some security to that data. If you have complex security requirements with users being members of multiple groups or implementing multiple roles within the database it can become tricky to ensure that everything is working exactly as you like. It’s certainly a hassle […]
During our initial introduction we briefly saw how to query temporal tables but there were a couple of specific bits which I wanted to cover around querying these tables. The first of these concerns the point in time we query against and the second is how we go about using that point in time to […]
This month’s invitation from Camila Henrique asks us for advice we’d give to our younger selves in our T-SQL journey. Coming from the SQL Server perspective there’s a huge variety of areas within the stack where you might want to provide some advice but I’m going to focus on the scripting and querying as that’s […]
Andy Brownsword 