A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Pretty much every query language, indeed any coding language, has a form of an if statement. An if statement evaluates a condition for true or false, then takes an action based on that result.
In KQL, this is manifested using the
iiffunction. In this post we’ll see two examples of how aniifcan be used in your Kusto queries.
Check it out, iif you dare.
Comments closedKristyna Hughes recaps a presentation:
To turn our millions of dollars worth of data into actionable insights, we need to tell a story with it. Why a story? Storytelling has been and is a vital way humans understand and share the world around them. If numbers were as interesting and memorable as stories, our classic works of art would be the Pythagorean theorem instead of the Iliad and Odyssey. Listening to a story engages multiple parts of the brain, which is why listening to your great aunt’s story for hours is exhausting, but also why stories are more memorable. Here are the parts of the brain engaged when you hear a story:
There’s a lot to digest in this post, including ways to convert storytelling into data-driven insights.
Comments closedEtienne Lopes wants to see what the hold-up is:
Blocked processes (and deadlocks) are often one of the main factors responsible for performance issues in the databases, as such, it’s really important to monitor them effectively and if they exist then understand where, what, why, how often, duration, etc. Having that information will greatly help in the following fine tuning process.
In this post I’ll show one way to easily monitor blocked processes in an Azure SQL database.
Click through to learn how.
Comments closedReza Rad doesn’t have time to wait for a full dataset reload:
The default configuration for the Power BI dataset is to wipe out the entire data and reload it again. This can be a long process if you have a big dataset. Hybrid tables in Power BI keep part of the data in DirectQuery, and the rest is imported for data freshness and performance. In this article, I explain how you can set up an incremental refresh in Power BI and its requirements. You will also learn about Hybrid tables in Power BI. Incremental Refresh is not just in Power BI datasets but also in Dataflows and Datamarts. In this article, you learn to load only part of the changed data instead of loading the entire data each time. To learn more about Power BI, read the Power BI book from Rookie to Rock Star.
Click through for the article.
Comments closedJames Serra provides some guidance:
I have had a lot of conversations with customers to help them understand how to design a data lake. I touched on this in my blog Data lake details, but that was written a long time ago so I wanted to update it. I often find customers do not spend enough time in designing a data lake and many times have to go back and redo their design and data lake build-out because they did not think through all their use cases for data. So make sure you think through all the sources of data you will use now and in the future, understanding the size, type, and speed of the data. Then absorb all the information you can find on data lake architecture and choose the appropriate design for your situation.
The concepts are simple but there are some interesting implications to what James includes as well as additional resources, so check it out.
Comments closedGarry Bargsley tries out a couple options on database restoration:
The week’s topic will cover two options for restoring a SQL database.
Have you ever come across a BAK file or LOG file where you were unsure what data was contained in the file or the date of the data? Restore options allow you to investigate the backup file without trying to restore the backup.
Read on to see what each does.
Comments closedChad Callihan confirms that you can see the resource database but only in your peripheral vision:
Can you name each of the system databases in SQL Server?
You might be able to name master, msdb, model, and tempdb. What about the fifth system database? Don’t feel bad if you’re drawing a blank.
The fifth system database is the Resource database. Even if you’ve never heard of the Resource database, chances are that you’ve used it. Let’s discuss how that can be.
Click through to learn what the resource DB is and why you typically won’t see it.
Comments closed