Getting Started with SQL Azure Development
SQL Azure provides features similar to a relational database for your cloud apps. We’ll show you how to start developing for SQL Azure today.
A Collaborative Approach To Table Compression
A start at identifying and creating TSQL statements for tables that may benefit from compression.
Operating in Failure
Today we have an editorial from Sept 25, 2005 being republished as Steve is on vacation. This one talks about the need to expect failure in our systems and code for it.
31 Days of SSIS – Recursive SSIS Package (6/31)
31 Days of SSIS
As I mentioned in the introductory post, I’m writing 31 Days of SSIS. In the first post...
Trending Buffer Pool Performance Using DMV sys.dm_os_performance_counters
I'd seen you posted a tip on capturing SQL based PerfMon counters using sys.dm_os_performance_counters. What queries can I run against those stored results that would allow me to examine memory usage on my SQL instance?
The Importance of My Cloud Data
Steve Jones likes the cloud, but doesn't necessarily trust it. After a recent Hotmail outage, he outlines a potential issue that he sees with cloud computing.
Data Conversion in SQL Server
Most of the time, you do not have to worry about implicit conversion in SQL expressions, or when assigning a value to a column. Just occasionally, though, you'll find that data gets truncated, queries run slowly, or comparisons just seem plain wrong. Robert Sheldon explains why you sometimes need to be very careful if you mix data types when manipulating values.
Date Rounding Tactics and the Tiny Devil of SMALLDATETIME
Tiny Devils
With every new year I think a little bit about time and dates. This posts looks a little more...
DevWeek & SQL Server DevCon 2011
The 14th annual DevWeek conference takes place from 14-18 March 2011, at the Barbican Centre in central London, and once again incorporates two dedicated tracks on SQL Server, alongside seven concurrent tracks aimed at software developers.
NoSQL Basics
Today Steve Jones talks about NOSQL and why it might be important for SQL Server DBAs to understand more about it and be able to talk about when it is appropriate to use.
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