Feature Proposal: Ability to Exclude a column/subset of Columns in Select.
Summary I would like to propose a new T-SQL feature that allows developers to select all columns from a table while explicitly excluding a small subset of columns. Currently, when a table contains many columns and only one or two need to be omitted, developers are forced to mention every remaining column manually in the "Select" SQL. This leads to verbose queries, reduced maintainability, and a higher chance of mistakes when the schema evolves. Motivation Consider a table with 20 or more columns. Current approach, SELECT EmployeeId, FirstName, LastName, Department, Designation, Email, PhoneNumber, DateOfBirth, Address, City, State, Country, PostalCode, ManagerId, JoiningDate, LastModifiedDate, Status, IsActive, CreatedDate FROM Employees; If the intention is simply to exclude a single sensitive column such as Salary, the query becomes unnecessarily long. A more concise alternative could be: SELECT * FROM Employees EXCLUDE (Salary); The engine would expand * internally and remove the specified columns before execution. Benefits 1. Reduces boilerplate code. 2. Improves readability for wide tables. 3. Makes queries easier to maintain as schemas evolve. 4. Reduces the likelihood of accidentally omitting newly added columns. 5. Makes it simpler to exclude sensitive or internal-use columns from result sets. Expected Behavior Single column exclusion SELECT * FROM Employees EXCLUDE (Salary); Returns all columns except Salary. Multiple column exclusion SELECT * FROM Employees EXCLUDE (Salary, PasswordHash); Returns all columns except Salary and PasswordHash. Suggested Validation Rules 1. Every excluded column must exist in the projected result set. If an excluded column does not exist, compilation should fail with an appropriate error. 2. Duplicate column names in the exclusion list should either: be ignored, or produce a validation error. 3. If the exclusion list removes every projected column, the statement should fail. Example: SELECT * FROM Employees EXCLUDE (Employee, Name, Salary); If these are the only columns in the table, an error could be raised such as: The EXCLUDE clause cannot eliminate all columns from the SELECT list. Returning a zero-column result set would likely be confusing and less useful. Additional Considerations This syntax could also be valuable when selecting from joins, views, or derived tables, where developers frequently want "everything except a few fields." Closing Thoughts I believe this would be a practical quality-of-life enhancement for T-SQL that addresses a common developer pain point while remaining simple to understand and implement. It would reduce repetitive code and improve maintainability without affecting existing queries.
Windows server 2025 SQL patching cluster problem.
Dear Team, I have a problem when I am patching upgrade windows server 2025 with KB5091157. After patching is the clustering is not able to join back; it shows the error with credentials. The log error is "Cannot connect sqlxxxxxxx." you do not have administrative privileges on the cluster. Contact your network administrator to request access. Note: The server is not in a different VLAN network.
Unable to install SQL Server 2022 Express (installer glitch + SSMS error)
Hi, I recently purchased a new Lenovo laptop, and I am trying to install Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Express along with SSMS. SSMS installed successfully, but SQL Server installation fails, and sometimes the installer UI glitches or does not load properly. Because of this, I am getting connection errors in SSMS like "server not found" and "error 40". I am not very familiar with technical troubleshooting. Can someone guide me step-by-step in a simple way to install SQL Server correctly? Thank you.
SSMS 21/22 Error Upload BACPAC file to Azure Storage
Hello All In my SSMS 20, I can use "Export Data-tier Application" to export an BACPAC file of Azure SQL database and upload to Azure storage in the same machine, the SSMS 21 gives error message when doing the same export, it created the BACPAC files but failed on the last step, "Uploading BACPAC file to Microsoft Azure Storage", The error message is "Could not load file or assembly 'System.IO.Hashing, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=cc7b13ffcd2ddd51' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified. (Azure.Storage.Blobs)" I tried the fresh installation of SSMS 21 in a brand-new machine (Windows 11), same issue, Can anyone advice? ThanksSQL Server AG Failover - Automatic Failover
Hello, I am looking for a straight and definitive answer that I was hoping someone could answer for me. I want to trust what Copilot says, but I really need to hear it from Microsoft and I can't find any documentation from Microsoft confirming my question. My Environment: 2 replicas in datacenter 1 1 replica in datacenter 2 All three (3) replicas are set to synchronous-commit mode with automatic failover. I tested the failover manually between all three (3) replicas without issue. When I test the automatic failover - I take down both replicas in datacenter 1 at the same time to simulate a datacenter outage. I look at the replica in datacenter 2 and it is just says (Resolving...) next to the replica name. The replica does not come online and the DB is not moved. When I was searching I couldn't find out why. So I turned to Copilot not solve the issue, but to see if it could point me in the right direction. I tell Copilot my setup and what happened. Copilot responded stating that by design from Microsoft you cannot have more than two (2) replicas set to synchronous-commit mode with automatic failover in a SQL Server AG instance. That if more than two (2) are set for automatic failover. The SQL Server AG will use the first two (2) replicas it sees in its metadata and ignore the rest. Copilot went into detail about why this is designed this way, but the amount of information would make this post longer than it already is. If this is true - then when I took down both replicas in datacenter 1, SQL Server AG only saw those two (2) replicas in datacenter 1 as the available replicas to use for an automatic failover and thus why the replica in datacenter 2 did not come online and the DB not being moved So let's do a test. I brought back up the two (2) replicas in datacenter 1. Then I made a change in the AG proprieties. I set the 2nd replica in datacenter 1 to manual. So 1 replica is set to automatic failover and 1 replica is set to manual failover in datacenter 1. The replica in datacenter 2 is set to automatic failover I then take down both replicas in datacenter 1 again to simulate the "outage" and the replica in datacenter 2 comes online and the DB is moved. So is Copilot right? Can there only be two (2) replicas allowed to have/use automatic failover? I cannot find a definitive answer confirming this. Or is my configuration wrong/missing something and if it is, could you please point me in the right direction on how to get this resolved?
SQL Timestamp Incremental Load Issue
An incremental load is implemented based on timestamp, using a view to update a fact table. • The fact table contains multiple KPIs coming from different source tables. • Two main KPI tables are included directly in the view and drive the incremental logic (their timestamps change). • Additional KPIs come from other source tables, which are LEFT JOINed to the view. During an incremental run: • Main source tables are updated → timestamp changes • Other source tables are NOT updated → timestamp unchanged • Because of the LEFT JOIN, missing values from these tables are returned as NULL • These NULLs overwrite existing values in the fact table Example Fact table (before load) id app_number score 1 333 5 Source tables • source1, source2 → timestamps updated (drive incremental load) • source3 → timestamp unchanged Stored procedure logic MERGE fact_table tgt USING ( SELECT app_number, ISNULL(score, 0) AS score FROM vw_main_kpis v LEFT JOIN source3 s3 ON v.app_number = s3.app_number ) src ON tgt.app_number = src.app_number WHEN MATCHED THEN UPDATE SET tgt.score = src.score; Result (incorrect) id app_number score 1 333 0 Existing data is lost.SQL Server 2005 (compatibility level 90)
Hello, I’m testing the behavior described in the SQL Server documentation for **compatibility level 90** regarding the special attributes `xsi:nil` and `xsi:type`: > “The special attributes `xsi:nil` and `xsi:type` can't be queried or modified by data manipulation language statements. This means that `/e/@xsi:nil` fails while `/e/@*` ignores the `xsi:nil` and `xsi:type` attributes. However, `/e` returns the `xsi:nil` and `xsi:type` attributes for consistency with `SELECT xmlCol`, even if `xsi:nil = "false"`. ” But on **SQL Server 2005**, I can successfully query `@xsi:nil` and it returns the expected value. I’m trying to reproduce the documented “`/e/@xsi:nil` fails” behavior, but I can’t. ### Environment - Product: **Microsoft SQL Server 2005** - Database compatibility level: **90** --- ## ✅ Repro script ```sql IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.xml_schema_collections WHERE name = 'MyTestSchema') DROP XML SCHEMA COLLECTION MyTestSchema; GO CREATE XML SCHEMA COLLECTION MyTestSchema AS N' <xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"> <xsd:element name="root"> <xsd:complexType> <xsd:sequence> <xsd:element name="element" nillable="true" type="xsd:string" /> </xsd:sequence> </xsd:complexType> </xsd:element> </xsd:schema>'; GO DECLARE @xmlData XML(MyTestSchema) = N' <root xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <element xsi:nil="true" /> </root>'; ;WITH XMLNAMESPACES ('http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' as xsi) SELECT @xmlData.query('<result> { /root/element/@xsi:nil } </result>') AS Typed_Result; ``` ### Actual result `Typed_Result` contains `xsi:nil="true"` under `<result>...`. ### Expected result (based on docs) I expected `/root/element/@xsi:nil` to fail, or not return `xsi:nil`. --- ## Questions 1. In the documentation, does “data manipulation language statements” mean only **XML DML** (i.e., `.modify()`), not XQuery used in `SELECT` with `.query()` / `.value()`? 2. Does the “`/e/@xsi:nil` fails” behavior apply only when the XML is stored in a **table column**, not when using an **XML variable**? 3. Is the behavior different between **typed XML** (with an XML schema collection) vs **untyped XML**? 4. Can someone provide a minimal reproduction in SQL Server 2005 where `/e/@xsi:nil` fails as described? Thank you. ---Compat level 90: XML string-to-datetime UDF
Hello, I’m testing a behavior described in SQL Server documentation for **database compatibility level 90**. The docs state that a user-defined function that converts an XML constant string value to a SQL Server date/time type is marked as **deterministic**. On **SQL Server 2005**, I’m seeing the opposite: the function is marked as **non-deterministic** (`IsDeterministic = 0`). I’m trying to understand whether I’m missing a requirement/constraint or whether this is a doc mismatch / version-specific behavior. ### Environment - Product: **Microsoft SQL Server 2005** - Database compatibility level: **90** --- ## ✅ Repro script ```sql IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.fn_ParamXmlToDatetime', 'FN') IS NOT NULL DROP FUNCTION dbo.fn_ParamXmlToDatetime; GO CREATE FUNCTION dbo.fn_ParamXmlToDatetime (@xml XML) RETURNS DATETIME WITH SCHEMABINDING AS BEGIN DECLARE @y DATETIME; -- Convert an XML value to DATETIME SET @y = CONVERT(DATETIME, @xml.value('(/r)[1]', 'datetime')); RETURN @y; END GO SELECT OBJECTPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID('dbo.fn_ParamXmlToDatetime'), 'IsDeterministic') AS IsDeterministic, OBJECTPROPERTY(OBJECT_ID('dbo.fn_ParamXmlToDatetime'), 'IsPrecise') AS IsPrecise; GO ``` ### Actual result `IsDeterministic = 0` (non-deterministic) ### Expected result (based on docs) `IsDeterministic = 1` (deterministic) for this pattern under compat level 90. --- ## Questions 1. Are there additional conditions required for SQL Server to mark this UDF as deterministic (for example, specific XQuery usage, avoiding `CONVERT`, using `CAST`, using `datetime2` doesn’t exist in 2005, etc.)? 2. Does the determinism rule apply only when converting from an **XML literal constant** inside the function, rather than an XML parameter value? 3. Is this behavior different for **typed XML** (XML schema collections) vs **untyped XML**? 4. Is this a known difference/bug in SQL Server 2005 where the UDF is functionally deterministic but still reported as non-deterministic by `OBJECTPROPERTY`? Thank you for any clarification. ---
Query on sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats slow
Hi, we discovered that queries on sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats are getting very slowly when the sql server is running for a longer time without restart. The execution time is up to 30 seconds for the following query: SELECT object_name(object_id) objectName, last_user_update FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats WHERE database_id=db_id() We get the following query plan: The Actual Rows in LOGINDEXSTATS are about 2 million. We found 2 similiar cases by searching the internet: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52165370/query-against-sys-tables-sys-dm-db-index-usage-stats-slow https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sql-server-2014-object-dependencies-dmvdmf-slow-andrea-bruschetta We tested the workaround (UPDATE STATISTICS sys.*** WITH FULLSCAN;) without success. How can we increase performance without restarting the database? Regards Dominik
