The Best Laptop
Steve Jones recently went on a search for a new laptop, looking for the "best" one for him. But what it the best? And is it worth pursuing?
Time Bomb Coding
Do your system contain a time bomb in the code? David Poole looks at some potential situations where you might be experiencing performance issues and delves into why.
Find Efficiencies or Add Horsepower?
In our world sometimes it’s worth the time and effort for in depth tuning to get the machine to run...
Using Analysis Services Processing Task & Analysis Services Execute DDL Task in SSIS
Learn how the Analysis Services Processing Task can be used to process analysis services objects such as cubes, dimensions and mining models.
An Administrative Security Hole?
Is it a problem for SQL Server to have a backdoor that lets a Windows Administrator connect as a sysadmin? Steve Jones thinks so and gives a reason why this might be a problem.
Professional Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services - Sample Chapter
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Introducing SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 Integration Services
The latest release of SSIS strengthens its position as one of the primary foundations of Business Intelligence, delivering a powerful framework for solutions that combine data from disparate sources, facilitating its analysis and reporting. Join Marcin Policht as he reviews its general characteristics.
Sending SSIS Errors to the Windows Event Log
In a previous post I explained how to trap for errors in your Script Task and Components and send the information to the SSIS...
A guide to recover a database out from Suspect mode
This is a guide to bring back a database back from Suspect status. This covers common causes and the steps to resolve the situation.
Democratizing the Microsoft MVP Award
Tony Davis believes that it's time for a little more openness and democracy in the MVP award. In short, it's time to introduce community voting.
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