Retrieval Augmented Generation, or RAG, is one of the hottest topics at the moment as it opens up the possibility of interacting with data using natural language, which is a long-time dream finally coming true. It is very likely that a lot of your data is already stored or will be stored in Azure SQL, so a common request is to have an exampl...

We are super excited to announce the Early Adopter Preview of Native Vector Support in Azure SQL Database and are currently accepting requests from customers who wish to participate. SQL beyond RDBMS Vector databases have gained a lot of prominence lately. These specialized repositories handle vector data, crucial for applications like semant...

In a previous article I already mentioned how vectors can be easily stored in Azure SQL already and how to calculate dot product and cosine distance using just T-SQL. In this article I will show how to improve the performance in vector search by using a technique that has many name but is really based on something very well know already: KMeans Clu...

SQLBits is the biggest and most well-known data conference in UK and Europe. With several thousand people attending every year, and with more than 10 years of session recordings, it provides an amazing amount of knowledge to everyone who wants to learn anything around the Microsoft Data Platform. Be it on-premises, or on Azure, or the shiny new Fab...

There has been a lot of news and exciting announcements in the past days and Data API builder now join the long list of releases that you don't want to miss. Version 0.9.7 introduces some interesting features, especially around observability and logging, to make it easier to figure out what's going on behind the scenes. Enable Application Insights...

A recent and exciting feature of Data API builder (you may have learned about Data API builder from my previous article, as I used it to quickly make a stored procedure and a table available as REST endpoint to easily integrate with OpenAI) is the compatibility with OpenAPI specifications and Swagger. This was a highly demanded feature, and it is i...

As a developer, I often attend conferences to learn new skills and network with other professionals. However, conferences can be overwhelming, especially when they offer dozens of sessions on different topics. How can I decide which ones are worth my time and attention? That's why I decided to use OpenAI to create a tool that can help me find the ...

Latest update - 06 November 2024 Vector Support is now available as Public Preview! Read the announcement here: Public Preview of Native Vector Support in Azure SQL Database! Access to full documentation here: Vector functions. Vectors and Embeddings Vector databases are gaining quite a lot of interest lately. Using text embeddings and vector op...

I am extremely happy and excited to announce the public preview of Data API builder for Azure SQL Databases. Data API builder is a new product that we are adding to the developer’s toolset to help every developer to be more efficient and effective, by instantly and securely turning Azure SQL Databases into a modern REST and GraphQL API. Turn Azure...

I've just finished watching the video from the @GuyInACube about Common Table Expressions and I noticed that in several comments there was the request to explain what is the difference between Common Table Expressions, Views and Temp Tables. This is quite a common question, and it is time to give it a simple, concise, and clear answer, once a...