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Curated SQL Posts

Building Your Own TRY_PARSE Function

Published 2023-03-10 by Kevin Feasel

Aaron Bertrand gives it a go:

A while back, I wrote a couple of tips about simulating TRY_CONVERT – a function added in SQL Server 2012 – in earlier versions (see Part 1 and Part 2). Recently, someone in the community had a similar requirement: they wanted to make TRY_PARSE work for dates in SQL Server 2008. Now, I’m not one to help people stay on versions of SQL Server that are now 15 years old, but I do acknowledge that hands may be tied, and they can’t always control the version they’re stuck with.

Aaron does this community member a solid, though it’s probably something you’d never want to use if you’re on SQL Server 2012 or later.

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The Importance of Trace Flag 460

Published 2023-03-10 by Kevin Feasel

Jonathan Kehayias helps me understand that Trace Flag 460 is one of the best trace flags ever:

For most people that are reading this post, I’d venture to guess that you have no idea what Trace Flag 460 is or when you would use it. Well first off, let me tell you it’s a fully documented and supported trace flag, and it’s totally safe. In fact, on SQL Server 2019 and higher it is the default behavior when you create a new database. What does it do? It makes troubleshooting string or binary truncation issues easier by changing the error message that is returned from message ID 8152 and replaces it instead with message ID 2628. The trace flag is also available in SQL Server 2016 SP2 CU6+ and SQL Server 2017 CU12.

Read on to learn more about it and to remove a potential bit of confusion in the documentation.

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Working with IP Addresses in Powershell

Published 2023-03-09 by Kevin Feasel

Bill Kindle takes us through several Powershell cmdlets:

A common SysAdmin task involves managing a PowerShell IP configuration. Typically, one performs this task using the GUI, which is OK. But PowerShell can do the same job and more, which you can put into scripting.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use a few network management cmdlets in PowerShell to help manage a Windows host’s IP address, gateway, and DNS settings.

Understanding how to do this becomes even more important if you’re running Windows Server Core, where you don’t have too many choices other than rolling with Powershell.

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Tracking Home Heating Oil Prices in R

Published 2023-03-09 by Kevin Feasel

Steven Sanderson charts some prices:

If you live in New York and rely on heating oil to keep your home warm during the colder months, you know how important it is to keep track of heating oil prices. Fortunately, with a bit of R code, you can easily access the latest heating oil prices in New York.

The code uses the {dplyr} package to clean and manipulate the data, as well as the {timetk} package to plot the time series.

Read on for an overview of what the code does, followed by the code itself and a time series plot at the end.

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Tracking Network Errors with WASP

Published 2023-03-09 by Kevin Feasel

Thoe Roe gives us an introduction to Network Error Logging:

Heads up! We’re about to launch WASP, a Web Application Security Platform. The aim of WASP is to help you manage (well, you guessed it) the security of you application using Content Security Policy and Network Error Logging. We’ll be chatting about it more in a full blog post nearer the time.

Read on to learn about what Network Error Logging is, how you can activate it for a website, and what information you get back as a result.

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Enabling Powershell’s Strict Mode

Published 2023-03-09 by Kevin Feasel

Patrick Gruenauer grabs the ruler:

PowerShell is very forgiving of errors. For example, if you call something that does not exist, then no error message is displayed. In this short article I want to show you how to make PowerShell a bit more strict with the strict mode.

Consider you are calling a variable that doesn’t exist. PowerShell will display no errors.

Granted, that laxity isn’t On Error Resume Next level bad, but Patrick shows us a way to toughen up the interpreter’s responses.

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Checking Percentage of Physical Memory SQL Server is Using

Published 2023-03-09 by Kevin Feasel

Mike Hays does the math:

Note: Unlike other queries I have share here at TheSQLReport, I am the author of this one.   Sharing because I could not find it in my Google Searches.  Tested this back to version SQL Server 2012.   Also please remember that physical_memory_in_use_kb may be a constantly changing number depending on how SQL Server  is configured & the activity of the operating system.

Click through for the query and an example of it in action.

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A Primer on Power BI Apps

Published 2023-03-09 by Kevin Feasel

Melissa Coates offers up an explanation:

If you hear the question: “What’s a Power BI app?” you might think there’s a straightforward answer. However, the term ‘app’ is pretty overloaded term in the world of Power BI.

One time I was presenting a session and talking about Power BI apps vs. workspaces – right in the middle, someone in the audience starts asking me a Power Apps question because they thought I was talking about that (which is a VERY different thing). That was a big reminder to not to assume that we all have the same understanding of terms.

Read on to learn what a Power BI app is, as well as why it’s a rather useful concept.

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Data Mesh Q&A Round 2

Published 2023-03-08 by Kevin Feasel

Jean-Georges Perrin didn’t hear no bell:

How does the Data Mesh concept differ from similar efforts in the past, like EDM (Enterprise Data Model) or MDM (Master Data Model)?
Data Mesh will help us achieve those goals more quickly as those EDM and MDM projects are usually slow, and the ROI starts showing only after deployment. The product approach of Data Mesh for its data products enables a product lifecycle mentality that will help get from a current state to an (end?) state like EDM through versioning. It also allows EDM to be versioned more efficiently and reduces time to market.

Read on for a series of questions and answers around the topic of data mesh architecture.

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