Automatic UNDO in Oracle

Automatic UNDO Management isn't voodoo or black magic, although it can seem that way when it isn't clearly understood. How does Oracle decide how many UNDO segments to create at startup, and what is the underlying goal of the process? David Fitzjarrell investigates.

Write Cleaner T-SQL Using Version Control

If we only use version control as a way to back up our code then it is pure overhead but actually there are real benefits. We can use source control to write better, cleaner, more readable code.

Power Query Formula Language in Power BI Desktop

The Power Query Formula Language (PQFL) is a functional language that drives the Power BI transformations, and allows you to create mashup queries from scratch. In this article, Rob Sheldon demonstrates how to use it in Power BI Desktop to extract data from its source, filter rows, specify the columns, clean the data, and create visualisations.

SQL Server Stored Procedures and SET options

SET options on stored Procedures work a bit different when compared with ad-hoc queries. These differences in behavior are often overlooked when developing the procedures and generating deployment scripts. This mistake can lead to undesired behavior in the application.

How to Avoid Conditional JOINs in T-SQL

Relational databases go out of their way to execute SQL, however bad the crimes against Codd and relational theory within the query might be. The 'conditional join' can be executed, but at great cost. As always, it is much better to sit back and restate the problem in a set-based way - Dwain Camps explains.

Creating Dashboards for Mobile Devices with Datazen

In this fourth installment, Arshad Ali demonstrates creating filters, publishing dashboards to the Datazen server and creating drill-through dashboards.

Install SQL Server Management Studio with Web Installer without Internet Access

One of the new features of SQL Server 2016 is the introduction of a Web Installer for the client tools. In this article, Daniel Farina goes through the entire process of downloading and installing the client tools even on machines without internet access.

Build Your Own Resource Monitor in a Jiffy

Learning the Query Store

Links and references to understand what the Query Store is in SQL Server 2016.

Practical Processor Selection for SQL Server 2014/2016 OLTP Workloads

Glenn Berry explains how you can do some simple analysis to help decide the exact processor to should choose for a new database server, taking into consideration workload and budget constraints.