Grant Fritchey's SQL Server Howlers
We decided to ask various well-known SQL Server people to write about their favorite SQL Server Howlers. These are those common misunderstandings about how SQL Server works that end in tears, and plaintive forum questions. Grant Fritchey opens the series with some of those howlers that stick in the mind.
Cloud Safety
Is the cloud secure? How can you be sure? Steve Jones talks a little about some ways you can try to check on your cloud provider.
Getting Started with Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM) in SQL Server 2012
The Business Intelligence Semantic Model is one of the most significant enhancements in SQL Server 2012. BISM allows aspects of the traditional multidimensional model to coexist with the relational model in a format called the tabular model and can be used with all client tools in the Microsoft BI stack.
Dynamically create and populate staging tables from CSV files
This SSIS package reads the first line of a CSV file to obtain field names, then creates a table based on those field names and loads the remaining lines into the table.
Raw Materials - Order! Order!
Leibniz breaks out of a buyer's dilemma that might defeat a subtler mind.
Referencing Remote Data
Synonyms were added to SQL Server to make the references to remote data easier. However Steve Jones doesn't use them, do you? Are there benefits?
SQL Test: Seeing Red Change to Green
Rob Sullivan is one of the users who are helping shape the way that SQL Test develops, and here he explains what is going on, and why.
On Database Migrations and Agility
It always surprises me when Application programmers tell me that all 'Agile' techniques are directly applicable to database development. Ideally, yes; but reality gets in the way.
SSMS Shared SQL Templates
This article describes how to use the built in repository for SQL Server Management Studio Templates and how to customize and share a common repository with your team.
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