Press "Enter" to skip to content

Day: March 6, 2025

Performance Comparison: Tally Table vs GENERATE_SERIES()

Published 2025-03-06 by Kevin Feasel

Steve Jones performs a pair of tests:

I had someone reach out about generate_series() recently, saying they hadn’t realized this was a new feature in SQL Server 2022. They were wondering if it was better than using a tally table.

I didn’t want to do an exhaustive test, but I thought I’d take a minute and try a couple simple things just to see.

Steve used the CTE-based tally table builder, building based on cross joining spt_values. This is one of the classic approaches. The performance differences aren’t enough on their own to justify large-scale changes if you’re using a classical tally table, though it is good to see that GENERATE_SERIES() does perform well. And if you’re not familiar with the power of a tally table, here is one great explanation of the concept.

Leave a Comment

Searching for Power Query Functions via the Shared Keyword

Published 2025-03-06 by Kevin Feasel

Reza Rad shares something with us:

As I mentioned earlier in Power BI online book, Power Query is a functional language. Knowing functions is your best helper when you work with a functional language. Fortunately Power Query both in Excel and Power BI can use shared keyword to reveal a document library of all functions. I’ve written about shared keyword almost 2.5 years ago, when it was only an add-in for excel. However I still see people in my webinars who are new with #shared keyword functionality and amazed how helpful this little keyword is. So I decided to explain it with the new Power BI. With the method in this post you can find any function you want easily in Power Query, and you won’t need an internet connection to search in functions.

Click through to see what #shared can do for you.

Leave a Comment

Random Functions in PostgreSQL 17

Published 2025-03-06 by Kevin Feasel

Leo Hsu and Regina Obe look at updates to the random() function in PostgreSQL:

Have you ever wanted to get a random integer between 1 and 10 and been a little annoyed the slightly cryptic code you had to write in PostgreSQL? PostgreSQL 17 random functions make that simpler. Sometimes it’s the small changes that bring the most joy.

Click through to see what it took to get a random integer or floating point number prior to PostgreSQL 17 and how it’s a fair bit simpler today.

Leave a Comment

An Overview of Real-Time Intelligence in Microsoft Fabric

Published 2025-03-06 by Kevin Feasel

Christopher Schmidt lays out a use case:

Operational reporting and historical reporting serve distinct purposes in organizations. Historically, data teams have heavily leaned on providing historical reporting, as being able to report on the operational business processes has proved elusive.  

As a result, organizations have created reports directly against the operational database for operational needs or spend significant effort trying to get analytical tools to refresh faster using ‘micro-batching’ and/or keeping a tool like Power BI in directQuery mode. These efforts come with the goal of ‘moving data through the system as fast as possible’. 

Click through for an architecture diagram and an example scenario.

Leave a Comment

Object-Level Security in Power BI Desktop

Published 2025-03-06 by Kevin Feasel

Nikola Ilic locks things down:

You’ve heard about the Oblect-level security feature in Power BI, but you’ve also heard that you CAN’T configure it directly from the Power BI Desktop? And, that you must use an external tool, such as Tabular Editor, to configure and manage OLS.

Well, this is not the case anymore! With the new TMDL view in Power BI Desktop, you can define Object-level security directly in the Power BI Desktop.

Read on for a tutorial on what it takes to implement object-level security.

Leave a Comment

Visualizing PostgreSQL Query plans

Published 2025-03-06 by Kevin Feasel

MIchael Christofides views a plan:

When you’ve got a slow Postgres query, EXPLAIN and its parameters are incredibly useful for working out why.

However, the information returned can be difficult and time-consuming to interpret, especially for more complex queries. Over the years, people have built quite a few tools for visualizing Postgres query plans. As one of those people, I’m a little incredibly biased, but as a fan of many of the others, I hope to do them justice.

Read on for the options. I think the SQL Server world is a bit spoiled with Solarwinds Plan Explorer (even if the product hasn’t really changed since Solarwinds bought Sentry One), but some of these options look very solid.

Leave a Comment