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Troubleshooting Slow Queries That Already Have an Index (2026-11-02)

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Great Things

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist Painter.

I ran across this quote recently and it struck me that it's expresses a thought I've had for some time. Instant, magical success isn't often what it appears. Anyone that seems to have sprung up overnight with success in anything has often spent a lot of time getting ready.

Outside of lottery winners, of course. If you bought a ticket, that's instant success. Unless you buy a dozen every week, then you've likely been doing your own (poor) preparation over time.

Whether it's software, sports, business, anything that takes off, goes viral, or suddenly catches the public's collective eye is the result of a lot of small things. Practice, learning, continuous improvement. It's a formula that works in music, in sports, in manufacturing, and in software.

Perhaps the most important part of this quote is the ending. Things have to be brought together. In software, we work in teams, and we have to coordinate and collaborate. Whether with other human developers, AI agents, or Operations. We have to learn to ensure our efforts, our knowledge, our evolution works together. This might be especially important in ensuring database and application code changes mesh well. That's becoming a concern for more organizations, and more management that realizes that the database has to become a part of the software development life cycle. Either developers need to learn more, or work closer with database staff.

We can do great things, we can build amazing systems, but it takes effort, and it takes teamwork.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

Featured Contents
SQLServerCentral Article

Imran2629 from SQLServerCentral

This article looks at some common query patterns that cause performance issues and provides some guidance on how to fix them.

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Troubleshoot slow-performing queries and make them run faster. Database administrators and SQL developers are constantly under pressure to provide more speed. This new edition has been redesigned and rewritten from scratch based on the last 15 years of learning, knowledge, and experience accumulated by the author. The book Includes expanded information on using extended events, automatic execution plan correction, and other advanced features now available in SQL Server.

Question of the Day

Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):

SQL Server Vector Support II

With regard to SQL Server 2025's Vector support, what is an embedding?

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor)

Hyperscale Replicas V

I have an Azure SQL Database Hyperscale Edition system running with a geo-replica enabled. Can I create a new geo-replica based on the current secondary geo-replica?

Answer: No

Explanation: As of Oct 2026, a second geo-replica on a first geo-replica (replica-chaining) is not supported. Ref: Hyperscale secondary replicas - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/service-tier-hyperscale-replicas?view=azuresql-db

Discuss this question and answer on the forums

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