Responding to the Call of the Wild
Phil Factor's manual for taming machines, applications, and other wild beasts.
2020-10-17
124 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
322 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
361 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)
5,011 reads
2020-06-27
205 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)
792 reads
2020-05-30
202 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
162 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)
3,916 reads
Blogs
Copying an Azure SQL database between two Azure SQL Instances in two different subscriptions.
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A field note: AI Ambition vs. Operational Reality in 2025
Ivan Jelić, Group CEO at Joyful Craftsmen, reflects on what separates AI success from...
Redefining Tech Leadership in the Age of Microsoft AI
By Chris Yates
AI is no longer a niche capability – it is a leadership catalyst. As...
Forums
How a Legacy Logic Choked SQL Server in a 30-Year-Old Factory
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How a Legacy Logic Choked...
SQL Server Columnstore Index Fragmentation
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Columnstore Index Fragmentation
do i lose "what this object depends on" etc when moving sprocs to etl server
Hi i was surprised to see the approach my coworkers used to sunset talend...
Question of the Day
SQL Server Columnstore Index Fragmentation
The columnstore index is absolutely different than the traditional rowstore b-tree index. Because of this, it doesn't suffer from the same kind of fragmentation across pages as the b-tree index. Yet, it does suffer from a type of fragmentation brought about by an excess of deleted rows in a rowgroup and a lack of compression of storage because more things are in the delta store. While b-tree indexes use dm_db_index_physical_stats to show fragmentation, which system tables or DMVs can be used in SQL Server (prior to SQL Server 2025) to determine columnstore fragmentation?
See possible answers