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.

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.

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

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.

Common MySQL Insert and Update Tasks and Their Solutions

Inserting and updating table contents with data from other tables and/or views within the same database need not be a nail-biting ordeal. Rob Gravelle shares some common Insert and Update tasks to help avoid any problems.

OpenStack: The Good and Not-So-Good Bits

OpenStack holds a great deal of promise as a cloud platform built on open standards, and has support from the major players in cloud services. It has the potential for allowing organisations to set up their own private cloud services that are designed to inter-operate. Is it ready yet for companies that want the convenience of cloud solutions, but with more control, and without the large subscription fees? Robert Sheldon finds out.

Retrieve file sizes from the file system using Power Query

Koen Verbeeck shows how to easily extract metadata from files in your directories with Power Query.