Install AdventureWorks and WideWorldImporters once, the right way. Which file to download for your SQL Server, where to put it so the service account can read it, the RESTORE FILELISTONLY step, restore scripts for T-SQL, SSMS, Docker and Linux, and the five errors people email me about. Every command was run on SQL Server 2025.
SQL Server emergency? Email pinal@sqlauthority.com with URGENT in the subject line.
NOLOCK Double Counting: One Employee, Two Lunches
NOLOCK double counting is how three people in a lunch line turn into four lunches. Nothing was inserted. One row moved ahead of the scan and got read twice. I tested it on SQL Server 2025 and share a query that catches it on your own table.
The Migration of a Row: Tagged, Followed, Found Again
I followed the migration of a row through SQL Server 2025, from the first write to the grave. The log gets there before the table. The delete does not erase anything. And when the table is empty and the ghost is gone, the statistics histogram still names the row in full.
Navier-Stokes Problem: What It Is and What AI Found
The Navier-Stokes problem in plain words: what the famous fluid question asks, what AI says it found, and why it is not official yet.
Your Index Rebuild Maintenance Plan Is Rebuilding Indexes Nobody Uses
Your index rebuild maintenance plan takes four hours every Sunday, fills the log and delays the backup. It may be buying you far less than everybody assumes.
AI Execution Plan Analysis: I Gave It My Plan and Asked What Was Wrong
I handed AI a plan with no warnings and healthy numbers, yet it read five million rows to return seventeen. That is the real test of AI execution plan analysis.
Y2K: The Work Behind “Nothing Happened”
Y2K did not end in worldwide disaster. Its repairs, failures, and recoveries show why, and what database teams can learn about proving maintenance matters.
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