Feedback for IT
Steve Jones thinks we should be building feedback loops into all our systems. Not just for customer service, but also for bugs.
New Features in Reporting Services 2008 and 2008 R2
Quietly, Microsoft has been making radical improvements to Reporting Services; but precisely what was introduced, and when? We asked Bill Pearson, the well-known BI expert, to come up with a definitive survey of the more recent changes and how they help the user of Reporting Services.
Prevent Outsourcing
Outsourcing is a fact of life, but with the economic issues worldwide, it has also slowed. That will change eventually and Steve Jones has some thoughts about what you can do to prevent it for your job.
SQL Server 2008,Windows 2008 x64 and Excel
Learn about how you might solve some issues running SSIS packages using Excel on a Windows 2008 x64 Machine.
UPDATE Basics in SQL Server
SQL Server's UPDATE statement is apparently simple, but complications such as the FROM clause can cause puzzlement. Bob Sheldon starts simply, and introduces the more complex forms painlessly.
High End or Low End
Steve Jones talks about the need to perhaps get more depth and breadth to the information that we present at events like SQL Saturday to help people learn at all levels.
Using Ranking Functions to Deduplicate Data
This article from Andrew Riley will show you how you can use the RANK and ROW_NUMBER Ranking Functions to deduplicate data in SQL Server 2005
Dynamic Data Driven Variable Hierarchical Structures in SQL
This article describes data driven variable structure generation in SQL. The controlling data can be located higher up on the hierarchical pathway or can be located further down on the pathway producing a look-ahead operation. Multiple pathways can independently produce dynamic data driven structures and these dynamic structures can be nested allowing a very flexible and powerful dynamic automatic data structure generation capability. These different controls of structure generation can be combined.
Instant File Initialization Speeds SQL Server
Sometimes, its just the smallest of details that can make all the difference. For example, on my test system (see...
Issues with running DBCC SHRINKFILE on your data files
Why would database performance remain low and fragmentation high event though the entire database has been defragmented every night? In this tip we cover how SHRINKFILE works and some of the issues it might create.
Blogs
Want to look at cloud reporting but not sure what the costs will be?
By ChrisJenkins
Have you been thinking about migrating your reporting to Microsoft Fabric or Snowflake but...
Prime Day Recommendations
By Steve Jones
It’s Prime Day. A few of my recommendations, since I want to do some...
Fabric for Operational Reporting & SQL Endpoint Trap
With Fabric Mirroring, Microsoft is promoting a nice and appealing story for operational reporting...
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...
Concurrency and Baseline Control: Level 5 of the Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Concurrency and Baseline Control: Level...
Spending Time in the Office
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Spending Time in the Office
Question of the Day
Multiple Values Inserted
I have this code on SQL Server 2022. What happens when it runs all at once?
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.Commission GO CREATE TABLE dbo.Commission (id INT NOT NULL IDENTITY(1,1) CONSTRAINT CommissionPK PRIMARY KEY , salesperson VARCHAR(20) , commission VARCHAR(20) ) GO INSERT dbo.Commission ( salesperson, commission) VALUES ( 'Brian', 12 ), ( 'Brian', 'None' ) GOSee possible answers