A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
From a purely design perspective, Quarto’s standard PowerPoint output falls short. It is limited to seven layout options, with the most complex being “Two Content.” The
{officer}R package offers a powerful alternative for those seeking full control and customisation.
Click through to see how it works, as well as a hit list of limitations you might run into along the way.
Leave a CommentA quadrilateral is a polygon having four sides, four angles, and four vertices. A polygon means that the figure is a closed shape, meaning the last line segment connects back to the first one, effectively enclosing an area.
We usually think of quadrilaterals as squares, rectangles, parallelograms, trapezoids, rhombuses, or kites. (I was impressed that my four year-old granddaughter knew the last one, although she called it a diamond!) It could also be irregularly shaped with no name.
However, a polygon may intersect itself.
Click through for a demonstration of a self-intersecting quadrilateral, including the R code you can use to try it out yourself.
Leave a CommentAndy Yun tries out some backup compression:
SQL Server 2025 Public Preview is not even a week old, but I’m impressed with another new capability that was released – a new backup compression algorithm: ZSTD. This one came as a surprise, despite being part of Private Preview, as it was only released with Public Preview.
Click through for Andy’s findings. It’s just one database that is not representative of normal SQL Server databases, but it’s an interesting data point that we can use.
Leave a CommentLouis Davidson gives it the college try:
When I was perusing my LinkedIn feed the other day, I came across this thread about using SELECT *. In one of the replies, Aaron Cutshall noted that: “Another real performance killer is
SELECT DISTINCTespecially when combined withUNION. I have a whole list of commonly used hidden performance killers!”To which started my brain thinking… What does happen when you use these together? And when you use UNION on a set with non-distinct rows, what happens. So for the next few hours I started writing.
Read on for Louis’s findings.
Leave a CommentWolfgang Strasser gives a generative AI solution built into Microsoft Fabric a try:
Today, I wanted to give the new Fabric Data Agents a try. According to the documentation, a Fabric Data Agent is defined as follows:
Data agent in Microsoft Fabric is a new Microsoft Fabric feature that allows you to build your own conversational Q&A systems using generative AI. A Fabric data agent makes data insights more accessible and actionable for everyone in your organization. With a Fabric data agent, your team can have conversations, with plain English-language questions, about the data that your organization stored in Fabric OneLake and then receive relevant answers. This way, even people without technical expertise in AI or a deep understanding of the data structure can receive precise and context-rich answers.
Let’s give it a try and build our first Data Agent.
Click through for the pre-requisites, the setup process, and how everything looked for Wolfgang.
Leave a CommentVlad Drumea points out a new thing to keep an eye on:
SQL Server 2025 provides ODBC sqlcmd version 17 which enforces an encrypted connection.
If you’re trying to use it to connect to instances that don’t have a CA-signed certificate or where TLS encryption was never properly configured, sqlcmd will throw the famous “certificate chain not trusted” error message:
Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server : SSL Provider: The certificate chain was issued by an authority that is not trusted.
Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server : Client unable to establish connection.
The proper answer to this is to get trusted certificates. The workaround is what Vlad describes, so click through for that.
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