PASS Summit 2014 Wrap Up

This past week of conferences was simply amazing. It was the best week of my career. Period. Now that I’m...

Reblog: November 7 to November 13

Photo credit – Travis
Ever go digging through your backyard for dinosaur bones? Maybe not, but it’s worthwhile from time to time...

SSRS #75 – Use RunningValue() Function and VB Script to capture discrete dates

Drill-down report is a common design
In SSRS, it’s a common design to allow users to drill down to more granular...

Update all SSRS reports to apply consistent header / footer on demand

Teaching good old SSRS a new trick…

Background
Not too long ago I had a client with a very simple, yet practical requirement: they...

Adding a column to the primary key.

Every now and again you realize that the primary key for a table does not uniquely describe a row. Not...

Another good reason to avoid AUTO_CLOSE

Does anybody need another good reason to avoid setting AUTO_CLOSE on a database? Looks like I found one.
Some days ago, all of...

Generalists vs. Specialists

I’ve stated quite often that being a generalist has generally been beneficial for my IT career (pun intended). That’s why...

Just an idea: Bare Bones SQL

I’m reading Andy Warren’s excellent essay “Thoughts on raising funds and spending funds for PASS chapters”, and it’s bringing together...

MDX #44–How to find all the calculated measures

Calculated measures are visually identifiable
If you have access to a cube, it’s quite easy to find all the calculated measures.
The...

Outlier Detection with SQL Server, part 2.2: Modified Z-Scores

By Steve Bolton
…………There are apparently many subtle variations on Z-Scores, a ubiquitous measure that is practically a cornerstone in the...