In Project REAL we are using large volumes of real data and scenarios from real companies to implement business intelligence systems using early releases of Microsoft SQL Server 2005. In the process, best practices are being developed and potential problems uncovered. This article reports some of the lessons learned while working on the data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) portion of the first phase of Project REAL.
I was about 40 the first time I was told I should not continue coding. A well-meaning vice president at my company pulled me aside at a party and told me that I was getting too old to code. He had been a coder himself, knew that he was getting too old, and moved over to sales. He was sure that I should be moving over to another part of the business. I told him that perhaps not only did he have a problem coding when he reached 40, he probably had the same problem at 38. I said that I was perfectly happy as a coder, and had every intention of continuing as long as someone was willing to pay me.
New author Mike McCallum spent a week in London at the 2005 SQL Server DevCon conference. It's a smaller event than the PASS Summits, but if it fits your travel or schedule plans better, take a read and see what he thought. With training budgets tight and SQL Server 2005 bringing a completely new paradigm, knowing all your training options is a good thing.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste and so is the vast quantity of untapped data structure meta information available free for the using in any XML document. This semantic data available in XML is like gold lying on the ground ready to be scooped up and cashed in with little or no effort. This is meta information that can be utilized immediately to significantly increase the value of the raw XML data. By automatically utilizing this valuable structure meta information, hierarchical fourth generation languages (4GLs) can nonprocedurally process XML's complex multi-leg hierarchical structure. This significantly increases the usefulness of the data and makes it immediately available for use at its enhanced value. This article describes the semantics of hierarchical data structures and how they can be automatically utilized by 4GLs.
Aggregation, which is commonly used to deliver reports to users, often also delivers poor performance. To help guarantee that you're delivering the best performance possible, you should explore different versions of the query and pick the best one. This month, look over Tom Moreau's shoulder as he shows you how to work with multiple-child aggregations.
SQLServerCentral.com tries to provide you a great deal of value for your subscription fees. We think we do a good job considering the $0 cost 🙂 One of the benefits we sometimes negotiate is a discount on products. DBXtra has generously offered a discount for the next few months, so read on and make your purchase today!
With the release of SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft finally makes a commitment to developer-centric reporting. They've integrated the design-time environment integration with Visual Studio and enabled report delivery through Web browsers, PDFs, Excel, and XML. Learn how to make this tool work for you.
Squeezing every last bit of performance from SQL Server is an art and one that can be critical to your success as a DBA. New author Mike Metcalf has brought us a little nugget he learned at Devcon recently about procedure cache hits and misses.
Most database developers dread including such navigation features as paginated reports, hierarchical navigation, filtering, and full-text search because the amount of time they take to develop is not proportional to the utility or interest they create. In addition, connecting individual pages and controls to the database is mind-numbing work. Since writing SQL is non-trivial in any circumstance, it typically requires a specialist DBA's involvement.
..... As Web-based applications proliferate to bring more functionality directly to end-users, writing every SQL statement for every web-based application in your shop is likely to become a never-ending Sisyphean task for your DBA.
Performing routine database maintenance such as reindexing is important for keeping your databases running at peak performance. When you use INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements to modify table data, indexes can become fragmented. Index fragmentation can happen when the logical sequence of pages is disrupted or when an index page contains less than its maximum amount of data, creating a gap in the data page or index. As indexes become fragmented, you get inefficient data reads when accessing tables and slower database performance.
By Steve Jones
Learn how to tie a bowline knot. Practice in the dark. With one hand....
By HeyMo0sh
As a DevOps practitioner, I’ve always focused on performance, scalability, and automation. But as...
By Brian Kelley
On Patch Tuesday, in addition to OS and Office security patches, Microsoft also released...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Multiple Deployment Processes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How to Use sqlpackage to...
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Upgrading Admin Queries
I have a query from a former DBA that we run on SQL Server 2025 to check on database metadata. This query references sys.sysaltfiles. I want to refactor this code to be more modern. Which DMV should I reference instead?
See possible answers