Posts on Lee Brownhill's Blog

Learning SQL Server 2025: DOP Feedback

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:00:00 +0000

SQL Server 2025 is out at last and we are continuing our journey into some of the new features this version brings.

The latest version of SQL Server continues to evolve some of the features we first saw in SQL 2022 and one of those features is ‘DOP Feedback’…

T-SQL Tuesday: Notes to Yourself From the Past and Future

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 06:00:00 +0000

This month, Mike Walsh is hosting T-SQL Tuesday and has put forward a really inspiring topic for T-SQL Tuesday #193

When I saw his post on LinkedIn announcing the topic, I just knew I had to get involved because it stopped me in my tracks and made me go back to Lee 10 years ago…

Learning SQL Server 2025: Optimized sp_executesql

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 05:00:00 +0000

I have finally started looking deeper into some of the new features of SQL Server 2025 and this post will cover the first of many planned posts around all that is new and shiny within SQL 2025

I just love it when there are new features to dive into and explore…

Parameter Sniffing: Practical Fixes That Work

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 05:00:00 +0000

In the previous post, we covered the basics of parameter sniffing with a simple demo to show what actually happens.

We took a basic stored procedure and illustrated how the first plan to get cached can have severe performance implications…

Parameter Sniffing: A Simple Example

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 05:00:00 +0000

A while ago, I was working with a client who was experiencing performance issues on SQL Server 2019.

We quickly isolated the problematic procedure and they asked ’this normally runs fine, why is this a problem now?’ A fair question…

SQLBits 2025: Helping out and having fun

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0000

This year I attended SQLBits 2025, which is not exactly unusual for me. What was unusual, however, was that I was one of the many helpers at the event.

The conference was held at ExCeL London and was bigger, brighter and more jam-packed with speakers than ever before…

Podcasts, Speaking, and Why I’m Doing This Now

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Within the professional world, I’m a firm believer in putting oneself in uncomfortable, but healthy, situations.

Uncomfortable situations are where development and growth occur. Sure, it’s nice knowing exactly what you’re doing some days, and you complete tasks so easily…

Redgate SQLTest and SQLCop

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 06:00:00 +0000

As part of Redgate SQL Test, you get SQLCop
(although the tests themselves are freely available to use).

SQLCop is a set of over 100 open-source tests for your databases.
The tests were originally maintained by George Mastros but are now managed by Redgate Software

Parallelism Problems within SQL Server

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 05:00:00 +0000

Some of the defaults in earlier versions of SQL Server are less than ideal, particularly Cost Threshold For Parallelism (CTFP) and Max Degree Of Parallelism (MAXDOP).

Sure, things have improved in later versions. For example, since SQL Server 2019 the installer now prompts you to change MAXDOP. However, its still a problem for many workloads…

SQL Server Optimisation: Why Less Is More

Mon, 19 May 2025 05:00:00 +0000

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned in performance tuning is the importance of breaking queries tasks into smaller, more manageable sections. Who knew? The experts were right all along when they said, “If you’re confused by the query, SQL probably is too”.

SQL Unit Testing Using tSQLt: Part 5

Thu, 08 May 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Welcome back friends!

During the past four posts, we have covered the fundamental concepts regarding tSQLt, look at how far we’ve come!. So far, everything we have done has been within SSMS using the open source framework that is tSQLt. In this post, we’re going to take a look at some third party tooling available, harnessing the power of tSQLt.

SQL Unit Testing Using tSQLt: Part 4

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 06:00:00 +0000

We’re back once again, with another instalment of the tSQLt series. I hope you’ve been enjoying it so far. Personally, I’ve had a blast getting back into this topic. In the last post, we covered one of the many useful features of tSQLt, the Fake Function option.

Taking this further, in today’s post, I want to cover the Spy Procedure option.

SQL Unit Testing Using tSQLt: Part 3

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 06:00:00 +0000

The Journey Continues!

Welcome back to the tSQLt series, where we are covering the fundamentals of Unit Testing within SQL Server by using the tSQLt Framework.

Today we’re progressing onward by discussing some of the useful features within tSQLt to ensure our tests are accurate, reliable, and repeatable.

SQL Unit Testing Using tSQLt: Part 2

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Unit Testing Experts!

In the last post, we went through what unit testing is, at least when discussing it in the context of SQL Server. In addition to that, we discussed what benefits using the open-source framework tSQLt can bring. Of course, you have studied that post diligently and now we’re all unit testing experts, right? … hello?

SQL Unit Testing Using tSQLt: Part 1

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 06:00:00 +0000

Unit…what now?

Other practitioners of code-slinging, such as .NET folks, have been unit testing their code for many moons now. We SQL folks, however, rarely seem to do this, at least in my experience. Several job roles ago, I had to use unit testing on a daily basis. It was heavily integrated into our workflow via the CI/CD pipelines we used