Azure SQL Edge

Using Multiple CTEs in a Single Query

November 15, 2025September 3, 2025 by Ian

Common Table Expressions (CTEs) are a handy way to break down a complex query into readable, reusable pieces. When you need several intermediate results – say, a filtered set, an aggregation, and a ranking – you can stack multiple CTE definitions together. PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL 8+, and many other engines support this syntax.

Get the Number of Rows Affected by Previous SQL Statement

March 8, 2023 by Ian

Some RDBMSs provide an easy way for us to find out how many rows were affected by the last SQL statement. This can be handy when running INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements.

The method used depends on the DBMS we’re using. Below, I look at how some of the major DBMSs implement this functionality.

How to Insert Multiple Rows in SQL

December 7, 2022 by Ian

When working with SQL, we can use the INSERT statement to insert a new row into a table. But what if we want to insert more than one row?

Fortunately, we can still use the INSERT statement. Below is a quick example that inserts multiple rows using SQL.

7 Ways to Insert Multiple Rows in SQL

October 31, 2022 by Ian

We can use the SQL INSERT statement to insert a row into a table. We can also use it to insert more than one row.

Below are seven ways to insert multiple rows into a table in SQL. Most of these examples should work in the major RDBMSs, with the possible exception of Oracle. But no worries, I’ve included an example just for Oracle.

Concatenate a String and a Number in SQL

November 25, 2021November 24, 2021 by Ian

In most cases, concatenating a string and a number in SQL is no different to concatenating two strings.

Most DBMSs will concatenate the string and number as if they were both strings. This is because the number is usually converted to a string before the concatenation operation.

Fix: “BACKUP LOG cannot be performed because there is no current database backup.” in SQL Server/SQL Edge

November 13, 2021 by Ian

If you’re trying to back up the transaction logs in a SQL Server or SQL Edge database, but you get an error that states BACKUP LOG cannot be performed because there is no current database backup, you’ll need to perform at least one full backup of the database before you attempt to back up the transaction logs.

Add Leading Zeros in SQL

March 11, 2022November 10, 2021 by Ian

Below are examples of adding a leading zero to a number in SQL, using various DBMSs.

How to Add Leading & Trailing Zeros in Azure SQL Edge

November 3, 2021 by Ian

Azure SQL Edge uses a limited version of the SQL Server Database Engine. One of the limitations of Azure SQL Edge, is that it doesn’t currently support CLR-dependent T-SQL functions, such as the FORMAT() function.

This can be a problem when trying to format numbers.

However, there are often ways around such limitations. Here are examples of how we can pad numbers with leading and trailing zeros in SQL Edge.

Padding in SQL

November 1, 2021 by Ian

Some RDBMSs provide an LPAD() and RPAD() function that enables us to left pad or right pad a string. Some functions also allow us to add leading or trailing zeros numbers.

Below are examples of applying SQL padding in some of the more popular RDBMSs.

How to Check the Recovery Model of a Database in Azure SQL Edge using T-SQL

November 1, 2021 by Ian

In Azure SQL Edge, you can query the sys.databases catalog view to see the recovery model for each database.