If you get an error that reads The statement BACKUP LOG is not allowed while the recovery model is SIMPLE when trying to back up a database in SQL Server or Azure SQL Edge, it’s because you’re trying to back up the transaction logs on a database that uses the simple recovery model.
To fix this, change the recovery model to either full or bulk logging.
In SQL Server, the TODATETIMEOFFSET() function was specifically designed to return a datetimeoffset value from a datetime2 value.
Given the fact that the datetime2 data type doesn’t actually support time zone offsets, and datetimeoffset must contain the offset, the TODATETIMEOFFSET() function allows you to specify a time zone offset to use.
This article provides some examples to demonstrate.
Most of the major RDBMSs provide several options for concatenating two or more strings.
CONCAT() function, which concatenates its arguments.CONCAT_WS() that allows you to specify a separator that separates the concatenated strings.Below are examples of each method.
In SQL Server, you can use the LOGINPROPERTY() to return information about login policy settings.
This includes being able to return data for bad password attempts, as well as the time of the last failed login attempt due to a bad password.
Most of the major RDBMSs have functions that enable us to extract the day, month, and year from datetime values.
Some RDBMSs provide multiple ways to do this, and others are more limited. Below are examples of extracting the day, month, and year from date values in some of the most popular RDBMSs.
SQL Server provides us with a quick and easy way to format numbers with commas inserted at the relevant place. For example, 1234.56 can become 1,234.56. Or it can become 1.234,56, if that’s the locale that you’re using.
Update January 2026: When I wrote this article in 2021, the full SQL Server image couldn’t be installed on Apple Silicon machines (the M1 Macs). We had to install SQL Edge instead, which is why I wrote this article. Fortunately, things have progressed since then, and we can now install the full SQL Server image on Apple Silicon machines (including M1, M2, M3, M4).
Therefore, I recommend you read How to Install SQL Server on a Mac in 2026 instead of this article. It’s a very similar process to the one outlined in this article, but it actually installs SQL Server instead of SQL Edge (which has since been retired).
In SQL Server, you can use the ALTER LOGIN statement to change the default language for a specific login.
Doing this will ensure that whenever that login connects to SQL Server, all date/time formats and system messages are presented in the correct format and language.