Since SQL Server delivered the entire range of window functions, there has been far less justification for using the non-standard ex-Sybase 'Quirky Update' tricks to perform the many permutations of running totals in SQL Server. One of these related problems is the 'Data Smear'. Do window functions make this easier, and what is performance like? Dwain Camps investigates.
2014-10-01
11,294 reads
Aaron Bertrand recently answered a question from a user who wanted to convert all of their SQL Server computed columns to be persisted. This allows you to shift the SQL Server cost of performing the computation from query time to the time of the insert/update, at the cost of storage. In this tip, Aaron shows you how.
2014-09-30
8,294 reads
Hosting a scalable application in Azure seems ideal, but what happens when things go wrong? Azure Cloud Services provide extensive diagnostics, and this feature has now been extended to Azure web sites and Azure Virtual Machines. You need to set up diagnostics on the VM, but once this is done, all your logs, traces and performance counters can be collected from many VMs in one place for easy management.
2014-09-29
7,986 reads
Big Data implementations are more than just lots of data. Of equal importance is the analytics software used to query the data. Analyzing business data using advanced analytics is common, especially in companies that already have an enterprise data warehouse. It is therefore only natural that your big data application must be integrated with the existing warehouse.
2014-09-26
10,283 reads
Once you've done a number of SQL code-reviews, you'll be able to identify signs in the code that indicate all might not be well. These 'code smells' are coding styles that, while not bugs, suggest design problems with the code. In this PDF, Phil Factor's put together 119 of those code smells so you can see what to avoid and why.
2014-09-25
12,476 reads
Troy Hunt takes a look at a website whose traffic literally increased 60-fold overnight. Interesting stuff happens when scale changes that dramatically, so he decided to share a few things he learned.
2014-09-24
8,351 reads
Retrieving data from Excel, and importing it into SQL Server hasn't the same appeal or glamour as, for example, performing heroics with ill-performing queries. This could be why one hesitates before asking questions about how to do it. Rob Sheldon calms your private doubts and fears by answering those embarrassing questions.
2014-09-23
11,784 reads
In this tip Tim Smith looks at different approaches to stop confidential data from getting into the database.
2014-09-22
8,091 reads
Test-Driven Development (TDD) involves the repetition of a very short development cycle that begins with an initially-failing test that defines the required functionality, and ends with producing the minimum amount of code to pass that test, and finally refactoring the new code. Michael Sorens continues his introduction to TDD by implementing the first tests and introducing the topics of Test doubles; Test Runners, Constraints and Assertions.
2014-09-19
7,785 reads
Mike Martin kicks off his series on Azure Virtual Machines with a primer, full of background and terms. To fully understand the Azure Virtual Machines offering, Mike explains how everything is connected and co-existing.
2014-09-18
8,859 reads
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
At Saturday the 21st of February I’m presenting an introduction to dimensional modelling at...
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers