Slowly changing dimensions using T-SQL MERGE
Of all the technical solutions to the problem of slowly changing dimensions, the T-SQL MERGE statement is one of the most elegant.
A Tale of Identifiers
Identifiers aren't locators, and they aren't pointers or links either. They are a logical concept in a relational database, and, unlike the more traditional methods of accessing data, don't derive from the way that data gets stored. Identifiers uniquely identify members of the set, and it should be possible to validate and verify them. Celko somehow involves watches and taxi cabs to illustrate the point.
SQL Saturday #82 - Indianapolis
Come to Indianapolis on June 25, 2011 for a free one day training event on SQL Server.
Multiple Failures
This Friday Steve Jones has a disaster recovery poll. When you have a true disaster, often there are multiple things that go wrong and cause a cascading failure. Is this common, let us know what your experience is this Friday.
SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Integration Services - Consuming Web Services Using Script Task
Web services can be easily leveraged in SQL Server 2008 R2 Integration Services by employing Web Services Task.
Lessons Learned from a Large Virtualization Implementation
Microsoft recently asked me to provide a summary of my experience with being part of a large-scale virtualization project. This was my response.
Phrases that Resonate
Today we have a guest editorial from Andy Warren. Are there particular phrases that you use in technology that resonate with you and have particular meanings? Andy shares a few of his favorites.
Raw Materials - Cloud Computing, the Next Generation
The pros and cons of having computing power close at hand.
SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Operations Guide
This white paper describes how operations engineers can test, monitor, capacity plan, and troubleshoot Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services OLAP solutions in SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008 R2.
Understanding Security
It is important for data professionals to understand security, but it's also important for end users that must handle data. However we have a lot of work to do to make that easier since Steve Jones thinks many IT pros struggle with this concept.
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