Universal Product Codes: a Database Primer
An introduction to Universal Product Codes with code to help you use them in your database.
SSIS Basics: Using the Conditional Split
The Conditional Split can route data rows to different outputs depending on whatever criteria of the data that you wish. It works rather like the SWITCH block in a procedural language. Annette shows how to add a conditional split to your data flow.
Shred XML column using SSIS
This article describes a way using SSIS to shred a XML column from a source table into its respective columns in the destination table.
The Microsoft Sideshow
Microsoft hasn't performed well on the stock market across the last decade, but the company has changed. There are cries that the business has been mismanaged and today Steve Jones has a few comments.
Standardize SQL Server Installations with Configuration Files
If you have a requirement to install multiple SQL Server instances with the same settings, you most likely want to do it without following the numerous manual installation steps. The below tip will guide you through how to install a SQL Server instance with less effort.
Look Beyond the First Result
As computer systems become more complex and dynamic, it's possible that the results we see might not be what we expect. Steve Jones talks about a situation with Orbitz.
SQL Saturday #192 - Tampa
Come and join SQL Saturday Tampa in their new venue (HCC) now that they've outgrown K-Force!
Full Text Searches on Documents in FileTables
SQL Server's FileTable technology is an intriguing way of accomodating file-based text data in a database, and allowing for complex searches. As with most technologies, the best way of learning them is to try it out and experiment. Feodor shows how to set it up, add some sample data and set up full-text search.
Data Profiling with T-SQL
Need to understand new data? This article explains why - and how you can profile it efficiently
Deploying Databases to the Azure Cloud: an extended plea
Is there a sound technical reason why SQL Azure can't support extended properties?
Blogs
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but...
Monday Monitor Tips: Virtual Machine Usage and Cost
By Steve Jones
One of the things I’ve been requesting for a number of years is cost...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How We Handled a Vendor...
Cognitive Coverage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Cognitive Coverage
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers