Your Next Database Prank
An interesting discovery was made as it relates to OpenAI Codex and its system prompt. From this article: The system prompt for OpenAI’s Codex CLI contains a perplexing and repeated warning for the most recent GPT model to “never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is…
Bulk Loading Data with mssql-python
I’ve had some projects in the past that involved using Python to load data in SQL Server. It wasn’t unbearably slow, but it seemed like a process that could be faster. For that reason, a recent SQL Server blog post about bulk loading data with Python caught my eye. I decided to test out the…
RegEx Arrives in SQL Server 2025
It’s been far too long since I did a blog post with some code examples, so let’s break that cold streak. Let’s talk about RegEx finally making its way to SQL Server 2025. RegEx provides a way to perform more advanced pattern matching with queries, and most would argue it was an overdue feature in…
Keeping AI Queries Under Control
Note: This post was an April Fool’s Day joke and is not to be taken seriously! AI usage isn’t slowing down, and it continues to consume more and more electricity. Microsoft has recognized this and is acknowledging its own contributions thanks to the increased usage of GitHub Copilot chat in SSMS. Thankfully, they are already…
Only Focus on A, B, and Z
I was listening to the “excellence, actually” podcast recently, and one of the co-hosts mentioned an idea that I recognized but had not heard termed in such a way before. The idea was from author James Clear and suggested that to prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed, only worry about A, B, and Z. What Does…
T-SQL Tuesday #196 – What career risks have you taken?
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday invite comes from James Serra. James asks to write about a career risk and how it panned out. Click the T-SQL Tuesday logo for the full invite. When I think of risks associated with major career changes, one that comes to mind is my risk of staying with companies following acquisitions.…
Software Facing the Final Curtain
Technology moves fast. It’s what makes it fun to come to work every day. There’s always something new, and no day is like any other. Along with the new database-related releases in the last few weeks and months, there are also a few solutions that are winding down. I thought it would be worth taking…
T-SQL Tuesday #195 – How Has Your Code Aged
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday invite comes from Pat Wright, who asks us to reflect on how our code has aged. Has it aged gracefully? Poorly? I’ll go with an example from early in my career that lands somewhere in the middle. To read the full T-SQL Tuesday invite, click the T-SQL logo to the right.…
Don’t Update Your SQL Server
If you’ve downloaded SQL Server 2025 CU1 or SQL Server 2022 CU23 and plan to apply these updates, postpone that work. It’s been confirmed that these updates have some issues, the most significant being an issue that breaks Database Mail. Each release page has a note at the top stating that the update is temporarily…
T-SQL Tuesday #194 – Learning From Mistakes
The first T-SQL Tuesday invite of 2026 comes from Louis Davidson, asking to share a mistake others can learn from. We all make mistakes. Some have an immediate impact, and some creep up months or years down the road. I’d like to touch on an mistake from long ago with script versioning that wasn’t critical…
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Chad Callihan 