A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Tomaz Kastrun forgot gumballs:
Absurd enough, here are the cumbersome useless lists of absurd conversions (remember, the useless, the better):
Tomaz has some humdingers in here and kicks it up a notch with stochastic conversion rates. Read on for code to make the greatest unit converter in history.
Leave a CommentMike Robbins argues against over-capitalization:
In technical writing, letter case affects more than style. It influences tone, readability, and accessibility. Typing in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS might seem like an easy way to add emphasis or style, but it often does more harm than good, affecting how quickly readers process information and how your message is perceived.
If you want your message to be clear, approachable, and accessible, avoiding all caps is usually the best approach.
Read on for the reasons why.
Leave a CommentSteve Stedman lays out the reasoning:
When managing SQL Server, SQL Server Agent Jobs are indispensable for automating tasks like backups, index maintenance, and data imports. However, monitoring these jobs can sometimes be tricky, especially when trying to quickly assess their status. One simple yet effective trick to improve visibility is adding a no-op (no operation) or logging step as the first step in your SQL Server Agent Jobs. This blog post explains why this small addition can make a big difference in monitoring and managing your jobs.
Click through for Steve’s argument.
Leave a CommentKenneth Omorodion uses triggers:
The advantage of using triggers is that the same processing can occur regardless of where or how the data has been inserted, updated or deleted. In this article, we look at several examples of where and why triggers could be useful along with an example use case.
I’m not a huge fan of using triggers for handling business rules for a few reasons. The biggest one is that triggers get lost in the mix too easily—it’s not easy to see that a trigger exists and that it is the thing modifying data. This is probably one of the better setups I’ve seen for triggers, as it does include an audit log table and the triggers assume multiple rows rather than expecting a single row will come in.
Leave a CommentYou just ran DBCC CHECKDB for the first time in a while (or maybe ever) and saw something you didn’t expect: the word corruption.
Take a breath.
Don’t detach the database.
Don’t run REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS.
Don’t reboot the server or start restoring things just yet.There’s a lot of bad advice floating around from old blogs, well-meaning forum posts, and even some popular current LinkedIn threads. Some of it might’ve been okay 15 years ago. Some of it is dangerous.
Let’s dig in.
Click through to dig in.
Leave a CommentAlex Powers takes us through one major performance optimization technique in Power BI:
One of the most powerful capabilities of Power Query and the M Language is Query Folding (also referred to as query delegation, and predicate push-down). Query Folding allows the Power Query Mashup Engine to push the transformations expressed in an M (mashup) query to the data source, in the data source’s query language, resulting in more efficient data processing.
For inexperienced database technology users this ability to leverage the graphical user interface of Power Query to dynamically generate a query written in the data source’s query language unlocks enormous opportunities to find insights with any data, at any scale.
Click through to see how you can know if query folding is enabled, as well as some hints around when and to what extent query folding will work.
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