KQL for the SQL Professional

Proposed session for SQLBits 2026

TL; DR

KQL look like SQL in some ways, and in others obviously isn't. We'll look at the similarities and differences and use our expertise in SQL to get familiar with this new query language quickly

Session Details

If you're just getting into using Data Explorer then you'll have run across the language it uses, KQL. It looks like SQL, somewhat, but it isn't. Just similar enough to be confusing.

In this session we'll look at KQL from the view of a SQL professional, highlight the places where it differs from SQL and use the similarities to help learn it.

3 things you'll get out of this session

Learn the places where SQL and KQL work the same Identify the places KQL's behaviour differs from SQL's behaviour Get more comfortable writing KQL

Gail Shaw's other proposed sessions for 2026

All about Indexes - Part 1 - 2026

All about Indexes - Part 2 - 2026

Identifying the worst performing queries in a DB, with Query Store - 2026

On Transactions and Atomic Operations - 2026

Parameter Sniffing vs Parameter Sensitive Plan Optimization - 2026

Transaction Log Internals, unplugged - 2026

Gail Shaw's previous sessions

Regressions, neurons and decisions. Oh My!

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All about Indexes

Indexes are essential to good database performance, but it can be hard to decide what indexes to create. In this session we'll look at the design considerations for clustered indexes and for nonclustered indexes.

All about Indexes

Indexes are essential to good database performance, but it can be hard to decide what indexes to create. In this session we'll look at guidelines for index creation

Do's and don'ts of database corruption

In this session we'll look at the things you should and shouldn't be doing now, to protect yourself and your data against the risk of corruption and thing you should and shouldn't do should the database ever become corrupt.

In this session we'll look at the common causes of bad execution plans and examine options for resolving the problem, short term and long term.