Responding to the Call of the Wild
Phil Factor's manual for taming machines, applications, and other wild beasts.
2020-10-17
131 reads
Phil Factor
- Interests: Motorbikes, Beer, gardening, conservation, Local history.
Coping with a working life as an imposter
It is not existing knowledge but the skill of acquiring new knowledge rapidly that will help you overcome imposter syndrome.
2020-09-19
332 reads
Of Hedgehogs and Database Design
One of the finest songs of the sixties had the following lines … "Sitting one day by myself, And I'm thinking, "What could be wrong?" When this funny little Hedgehog comes running up to me, And it starts up to sing me this song. Oh, you know all the words, and you sung all the […]
2020-08-22
370 reads
Exploring SQL Server Indexes: Stairway to Exploring Database Metadata Level 3
This level of the Stairway to Exploring Database Metadata focuses on indexes and all the information you can gather about them.
2020-08-05 (first published: 2016-09-28)
5,039 reads
2020-06-27
218 reads
Falling Over our Assumptions
There's a saying about what it says about a person to assume something. However it's something we all do every day. Phil Factor brings us a guest editorial about assumptions in SQL code.
2020-06-25 (first published: 2009-04-08)
826 reads
2020-05-30
214 reads
Representing uncertainty in difficult times
The Covid-19 pandemic has provided examples of how uncertain data can eventually be presented to the public as certainty. How, as data people, should we represent uncertainty in our data?
2020-05-02
168 reads
Build and fill a SQL Server Database using SQL Compare CLI and a Batch Script
Phil Factor provides a powerful DOS batch script which, when coupled with SQL Compare CLI, allows you to build databases from source, during development, and fill them with the specific datasets required for testing.
2020-03-19
437 reads
SQL Server Extended Properties: Stairway to Exploring Database Metadata Level 7
In this level, I’ll introduce Extended Properties. As with the previous levels, I want to illustrate as much as possible with practical and immediately useful code.
2020-03-18 (first published: 2017-02-22)
3,942 reads
Blogs
SQL, MDX, DAX – the languages of data
By DataOnWheels
Ramblings of a retired data architect Let me start by saying that I have...
Setting PK Names in Redgate Data Modeler
By Steve Jones
A customer was testing Redgate Data Modeler and complained that it auto-generated PK names....
Flyway Tips: AI Deployment Script Descriptions
By Steve Jones
With the AI push being everywhere, Redgate is no exception. We’ve been getting requests,...
Forums
Connecting Power BI to SSAS and effective user not working
Hi everyone, Below is a consolidated summary of what we validated Architecture & data...
High Availability setup - has anyone seen this method?
Hi all, I recently moved to a new employer who have their HA setup...
Semantic Search in SQL Server 2025
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Semantic Search in SQL Server...
Question of the Day
Encoding URLs
I have this data in a SQL Server 2025 table:
CREATE TABLE Response ( ResponseID INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT ResponsePK PRIMARY KEY , ResponseVal VARBINARY(5000) ) GOIf I want to get a value from this table that I can add to a URL in a browser, which of these code items produces a result I can use? See possible answers