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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Blogs

The Benefits of Teaching

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Even preparing for a class or seminar with set materials takes a lot of...

Power BI, Excel, OneLake – Dreams Do Come True!

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I can’t believe it’s finally here! A way to have Excel live in OneDrive...

The Book of Redgate: What Our Staff Says

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This image is from 2010, and it goes along with my last post of...

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Forums

Help! MEMORY_ALLOCATION_EXT wait stalls

By krypto69

Hi I have an overnight process that moves allot of claims records Been working...

Unlocking Data Transformation: My journey with dbt (Data Build Tool) on SQL Server

By ashok.gadiparthi

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Unlocking Data Transformation: My journey...

Putting the Player with the Number

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Putting the Player with the...

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Question of the Day

Putting the Player with the Number

In SQL Server 2025, what does this return? 

DECLARE @player varchar(20) = 'Bo Nix',
@num VARCHAR = '10'

SELECT @player || @num

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