/* sql tips */
Articles about SQL Server, from the trenches
Execution plans, indexes, performance tuning and Azure SQL — written from thirty years of hands-on DBA practice. New articles appear regularly.
-- performance tuning
Reading execution plans: what to check first?
Five checks that find the culprit in most plans within minutes: thick arrows, unexpected scans, key lookups, cardinality deviations and warnings.
Read article → -- indexesIndex tuning: clustered, nonclustered and included columns
How to choose the clustering key, why column order is everything, when INCLUDE pays off, and how to find and remove unused indexes.
Read article → -- performance tuningParameter sniffing: when one plan doesn't fit all
Why a stored procedure suddenly turns slow, how to recognise it in Query Store, and which of five fixes fits when.
Read article →