James Serra

James works at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where he has been for most of the last nine years. He is a thought leader in the use and application of Big Data and advanced analytics, including data architectures such as the modern data warehouse, data lakehouse, data fabric, and data mesh. Previously he was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. He is a popular blogger (JamesSerra.com) and speaker, having presented at dozens of major events including SQLBits, PASS Summit, Data Summit and the Enterprise Data World conference. He is the author of the book “Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh”.

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Blog Post

Microsoft Purview FAQ

I get many of the same questions about Microsoft Purview, so I wanted to list those common questions here along with their answers. If your question is not answered...

2024-09-23 (first published: )

72 reads

Blog Post

Microsoft Fabric AI Skill

Are you ready to have conversations with your data? Announced in public preview within Microsoft Fabric is AI Skill, a new capability in Fabric that allows you to build...

2024-09-11 (first published: )

321 reads

Blog Post

Copilot in Microsoft Fabric

Microsoft Copilot is an app that uses AI to help you find information, create content, and get things done faster (see What Is Copilot? Microsoft’s AI Assistant Explained).  Copilot is...

2024-07-17 (first published: )

475 reads

Blog Post

Microsoft Fabric shortcuts

I talked about Microsoft Fabric shortcuts in my blog post Microsoft Fabric – the great unifier (where I have updated the picture with the newest supported sources) and wanted...

2024-05-15 (first published: )

351 reads

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Blogs

DATEADD Truncates the Number Parameter: #SQLNewBlogger

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This was an interesting thing I saw in a Question of the Day submission....

Our SQL Server is Slow! What Do I Do First?

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Don’t Panic! It’s a vague but common complaint, frequently with no additional details. Before...

Using SQLFluff

By

I thought I didn’t care about linting, and lately, I haven’t written a lot...

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Forums

Dynamic T-SQL Script Parameterization Using Python

By omu

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Dynamic T-SQL Script Parameterization Using...

Eliminate a function by writing out the code is now throwing an error

By stevec883

/* I'm trying to eliminate (write out) this function 'largest_date', but SQL Server 2016...

SQL Server Migration - Redirecting Old Instance Connections to New AG Listener

By Wecks

Hi everyone, I’ve been tasked with migrating a Standalone SQL Server instance to a...

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Question of the Day

A Strange Choice

What is returned when I run this code in SQL Server 2022? 

CREATE TABLE CatIndex
( indexval VARCHAR(20)
)
GO
INSERT dbo.CatIndex (indexval) VALUES ('1'), ('2'), ('3')
GO
SELECT CHOOSE(indexval, cast('2025-01-01' AS DATE), CAST('2025-02-01' AS DATE), CAST('2025-03-01' AS DATE))
FROM dbo.CatIndex AS ci

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