Daily Coping 15 Dec 2020
I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m...
2020-12-15
56 reads
ETL Antipattern: Lazy Metadata
If data is a train, then metadata is the track on which it travels. A good metadata definition in ETL processes will help to ensure that the flow of...
2020-12-15
43 reads
SQL Puzzle – Eight Queens on a Chess board
Here's a SQL Puzzle for the festive period. 2020 has been a year of many things but amongst it all, it has been the year of chess. The combined...
2020-12-24 (first published: 2020-12-15)
545 reads
Setting Defaults for New SQL Compare Projects
Recently I wrote about ignoring comments in SQL Compare. That seems like something I want to do in all my projects, so I went looking for how to set...
2020-12-23 (first published: 2020-12-14)
195 reads
Getting Started Reading Execution Plans: Highest Cost Operator
Reading execution plans in SQL Server is just hard. There’s a lot to learn and understand. I previously outlined the basics I use to get started when I’m looking...
2020-12-22 (first published: 2020-12-14)
670 reads
Daily Coping 14 Dec 2020
I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m...
2020-12-14
33 reads
ETL Antipattern: Performing Full Loads Instead of Incremental Loads
In my last post in the ETL Antipatterns series, I wrote about the common antipattern of ingesting or loading more data than necessary. This brief post covers one specific...
2020-12-14
52 reads
Introduction to SQL Server Query Store
Introduced with SQL 2016, Query Store was, probably without doubt, the most anticipated and talked out new feature. In this post we'll just take a brief look at it,...
2020-12-21 (first published: 2020-12-14)
941 reads
What exactly is a modern data warehouse?
G’day, I was asked recently what a modern data warehouse is – and that’s a vey thought provoking question. First, there’s the tag “Modern” – I think what’s modern...
2020-12-14
26 reads
ETL Antipattern: Processing Too Much Data
In my continuing series on ETL Antipatterns, I’ll discuss the problem of loading too much data in extract-transform-load processes. ETL Antipattern: processing too much data A common design flaw...
2020-12-13
22 reads
Blogs
The flight recorder: Replaying what an AI agent did on my SQL Server
By Arun Sirpal
“What exactly did it do on my server?” is the first question a DBA...
Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference — Barcelona 2026
By James Serra
Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...
Au Revoir for now
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
Forums
Let's Talk Certifications
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications, which is...
The Hidden Security Risks of Role Combination in SSAS Tabular
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hidden Security Risks of...
The Empty Aggregate
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Empty Aggregate
Question of the Day
The Empty Aggregate
I have this table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerOrder] ( [OrderID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NULL, [total] [money] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOWhat is returned from this code? (answers are for the sum and then the count)
SELECT SUM(total) AS sum,
COUNT(total) AS count
FROM dbo.CustomerOrder;
See possible answers