Listing members of a group in SQL Server.
In SQL we are used to the GROUP BY and the type of result it produces. In real life, we...
2010-10-11
1,559 reads
Phil Factor
- Interests: Motorbikes, Beer, gardening, conservation, Local history.
The One True Script
Phil Factor less-than-fond memories of the days of the One True Source Script. However, despite recent advances, he wonders just how much smoother team-based database development really is.
2010-10-04
235 reads
Cleaning up excess contiguous spaces in strings. A mystery.
/* Have you ever come across the problem where you have to remove spaces from a string that has too many?...
2010-09-30
2,976 reads
SQL Server's implementation of Window Functions
Phil factor compares SQL Server 2008's implementation of Window Functions to PostgreSQL and finds SQL Server frustratingly lacking in some of the essentials.
2010-09-27
796 reads
COMPUTE: now it is going, what else will do it?
/*I'd be very surprised if you've ever used the old COMPUTE clause in SQL Server. It is a bit mad,...
2010-09-23
1,618 reads
Getting Fired from an Unpaid Job.
Phil Factor initially brooded about being fired from a job he was just doing unpaid to help out. Then he suddenly realized that they were probably right.
2010-09-13
346 reads
Houston, we have a problem
Phil Factor takes a sideways look at Houston, a new tool for building SQL Azure applications, and is somewhat underwhelmed by what he finds.
2010-08-02
220 reads
Ambiguities and the wild object.oriented brigades
--Whilst trying to design a more effective way of detecting dependencies in a SQL Server database, I was mulling over...
2010-07-29
2,008 reads
The Killer Backslash in TSQL
--it is
quite startling to see that this, in TSQL, executes.
Select \
/*
---------------------
0.00
(1
row(s) affected)
so does
this....
*/
Select null /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
/*
---------------------
NULL
(1
row(s) affected)...
2010-07-29
5,816 reads
The Great Forum Debate
Phil discusses the pros and cons of the traditional versus stack overflow-style model for forum debate, and wonders whether there is a database model that would support all these different forms of discussion, or cooperative work, so that we can simply fit the 'visualization' to the nature of the particular discussion.
2010-06-28
97 reads
Blogs
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!
Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...
Forums
SQL Server 2025 Query Performance Tuning: Troubleshoot and Optimize Query Performance
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Query Performance...
Is it uncommon for Dev's to have a data model of the source data
This is a generic question. To the moderators, I wasn't sure where to place...
ROLLUP to calculate Month total for all Categories
Good Afternoon, I have built a table with four columns: Period(Month), Category, Numerator, Denominator....
Question of the Day
Creating JSON I
On SQL Server 2025, what happens when I run this code:
SELECT JSON_OBJECTAGG( 'City':'Denver') GOSee possible answers