Get Some Cross Training Today
There's an IT skills gap in many companies, which is forcing managers to get creative. Steve Jones says now is the time to look for some cross training at work.
TSQL TestBits function for rapidly testing multiple switch settings
Are multiple binary switches becoming hard to manage? The TestBits function can help with that.
SQL Saturday #107 - Houston
Come to a free day of SQL Server training in Houston, TX on Apr 21, 2012.
Verify SQL Server Stored Procedures are the same on multiple servers
I have a stored procedure I push down to all of my servers that does a custom backup job and I want to make sure all servers have the same stored procedure. Is there some way to check without going to each server and reviewing the stored procedure? Check out this to find out.
The On-call Demands
This Friday Steve Jones asks about your on-call responsibilities and the load you face from after hours calls. If you're a DBA that doesn't work strictly 9-5 every week, let us know.
Bin Packing Problems: The SQL
The 'bin packing' problem isn't just a fascination for computer scientists, but comes up in a whole range of real-world applications. It isn't that easy to come up with a practical, set oriented solution in SQL that gives a near-optimal result.
CLR Integration in SQL
Learn how to build a CLR function that can be used to perform string manipulations that might be rather complex in T-SQL.
Treat the Database like Code
Steve Jones reminds us that our databases contain code, and as such, they ought to be under some type of version control.
A Few Cool Things You Can Identify Using the Default Trace
If you are running an instance of SQL Server 2005 and above then most likely that instance is running the default trace. This default trace is a canned Profiler server side trace that automatically starts up when SQL Server starts. In this article Greg Larsen explains more about the default trace and shows you how to glean some event information from the trace files created by this background trace process.
Blogs
AI Helps Me with My Sloppiness
By Steve Jones
I type fairly well. Well, I type fast, but I do wear out a...
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...
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