A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Camila Henrique summarizes the most recent T-SQL Tuesday:
I had a lot of fun reading your different takes on it! Here are the posts of everyone who contributed (and dutifully linked it back to me).
Click through for the list of entries.
Comments closedKendra Little has a guide for us:
We’ve recently updated the SQL Server and Azure SQL index architecture and design guide. This article is an in-depth guide to indexing in databases using the SQL Server engine, including SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance, and Azure Synapse Analytics.
Our recent update adds a table to categorize the types of indexes discussed in the article, clarifies B-trees vs B+ trees, and describes how row locators (aka “secret columns”) are used in nonclustered indexes.
Read on for more information and do check out the guide.
Comments closedFirst of all, I want to thank everyone who took some time to participate in this month’s T-SQL Tuesday: Upending Preconceived Notions. There’s a fantastic line-up of contributions! I was tickled that many of the topics chosen were things I once held one viewpoint on, later learned more, and evolved that viewpoint.
Click through for the list and Andy’s thoughts on each.
Comments closedRob Farley takes us back to school:
At university I studied Computer Science, which felt like it was mostly about algorithms and paradigms. It covered how to approach particular kinds of problems, what languages suited what problems and why, and how to model things. The answer to a lot of things was “C’, whether it was a multiple choice question, or the question about which language would be used to solve something.
I skipped the database subject. Everyone said it was overly basic, easy marks, and not particularly interesting. I wasn’t interested in it. Not when there were subjects like Machine Learning where we’d implement genetic algorithms in LISP to find ways to battle other algorithms in solving the prisoner’s dilemma. Or the subject where we’d create creatures (in software) that would follow each other in a flocking motion around a cityscape. Everything I heard about databases was that they were largely of no importance.
In fairness, university database classes tend to fall into one of two categories: either mathematical forays into set theory or fluffy, school-of-business-friendly “Today we’re going to learn how to write the word SELECT. Next time, we’ll learn how to write the word FROM” types of courses, at least from what I’ve experienced.
Comments closedMelissa Coates answers a question:
This morning I spotted a question on Twitter asking about resources for how to learn about Power BI administration.
So, here goes with the list of content that I’m familiar with that’s been updated or released fairly recently.
Click through for the list.
Comments closedKendra Little has an after-action report:
I’ve just had the pleasure of publishing my first new article in the Microsoft Docs, Diagnose and troubleshoot high CPU on Azure SQL Database.
This article isn’t really “mine” – anyone in the community can create a Pull Request to suggest changes, or others at Microsoft may take it in a different direction. But I got to handle the outlining, drafting, and incorporation of suggested changes for the initial publication.
It was a ton of fun, and I learned a lot about Azure SQL Database in the process.
Click through for what Kendra learned specific to Azure SQL Database, and also read the article itself.
Comments closedDaniel Calbimonte has answers to questions:
What is the SQL Server Developer Edition?
It is an edition for Developers. It is free, but you cannot use it in production. It contains all the SQL Server Enterprise functionality, but it cannot be deployed in production.
Click through for more questions and more answers.
Comments closedBrent Ozar wraps up another year of surveying:
Every year, I run a salary survey for folks in the database industry. This year, I was especially curious to see the results to find out whether salaries went up. Anecdotally, I’ve seen a lot of people jumping ship to new companies due to the Great Resignation – but what does the data actually show? Let’s find out.
Click through to grab a copy of the survey and get analyzing.
Comments closedMiltos Allamanis and Marc Brockschmidt take us through a new paper:
Finding and fixing bugs in code is a time-consuming, and often frustrating, part of everyday work for software developers. Can deep learning address this problem and help developers deliver better software, faster? In a new paper, Self-Supervised Bug Detection and Repair, presented at the 2021 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2021), we show a promising deep learning model, which we call BugLab. BugLab can be taught to detect and fix bugs, without using labelled data, through a “hide and seek” game.
I think there’s a lot more research required before we get to the point where this is useful in practical circumstances, but it’s exciting to see.
Comments closedBrent Ozar has re-opened the data professional salary survey:
We’re data people, you and I. We make better decisions when we work off data instead of feelings.
It’s time for our annual salary survey to find out what data professionals make. You fill out the data, we open source the whole thing, and you can analyze the data to spot trends and do a better job of negotiating your own salary:
Click through for the link to the survey. It looks like most of the questions have stayed the same this year, which is good for longer-term analysis.
Comments closed