Living With Broken Software
Steve has to use software that is broken, but it's OK. It actually works well enough.
DAX CASE Statement Functionality with IF, SWITCH and SWITCH True
The CASE expression is one of the most valuable tools in your T-SQL toolbox. I use it in almost every query I write. However, there isn't a direct equivalent of CASE in DAX. Since it's a different language entirely, I don't expect it. As my grandmother used to say, I am not surprised, just disappointed. If you don't know, DAX (Data Analysis Expressions) is a language for creating custom calculations and aggregations in Power Pivot, Power BI, and other data analysis tools. Two functions in DAX come close to replicating the functionality but come with limitations. Which one of these functions should you use? Please stay tuned.
Improving the Quality of your Database Monitoring
Database monitoring should be as simple as possible, and yet still allow the users to drill into sufficient detail to be able to recommend a fix to the problem. The trick is to adopt a layered or 'tiered' approach.
Has SQL Server Performance Improved?
This week Steve found a question of whether SQL Server 2019 uses more CPU than 2016.
Building a Better Profile
Steve thinks building a brand is important in today's competitive world of job seekers.
Shrink Database Log Files One by One
Learn how you can shrink your transaction log files serially, one by one.
Snowflake Temporary Tables vs. Transient Tables
When working with Snowflake, it is important to understand the different types of tables available and when to use each one. In this tutorial, we will compare Snowflake temporary and transient tables, highlight their similarities and differences, and provide examples of when to use each type of table.
Being Responsible for Data
There is an interesting court case on who is responsible for the data being posted on the Internet. Steve has a few thoughts today.
SQL Server 2012 Always On Groups and FCIs Part 1
Learn how to get a Failover Cluster Instance set up and configured with Windows and SQL Server. This is part of a series showing how to combine a Failover Cluster Instance of SQL Server with an Always On availability group.
Piping, Filtering and Using Flyway Output in PowerShell
Flyway's output is often overwhelmed with verbose messages, most of which we can ignore but some of which provide vital warnings about failed compilations, or useful details about what a migration or callback did. I'll show how to use some pipeline-aware PowerShell functions to filter out and save the bits we want and pass the results along in a form that is useful to the next process in the pipeline.
Blogs
Keeping Redshift System Table History Past 7 Days with S3 Tables
Redshift keeps its SYS_* monitoring views for seven days in cluster, which is fine...
Updating the Data API Builder
By Steve Jones
I was updating my session for the Data API Builder (DAB) recently, mostly to...
T-SQL Tuesday #202 Invitation: That One SQL Server Outage You’ll Never Forget
I am excited to host T-SQL Tuesday for the first time. I want to...
Forums
Practical Ways to Approach SQL Server Problems and Case Studies
Working with SQL Server can involve more than just writing queries. Understanding database design,...
Measuring Productivity
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Measuring Productivity
Importing Excel files into SQL Server using DuckDB and Python
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Importing Excel files into SQL...
Question of the Day
Tracking All the Queries
I have 3 instances of a brand new long running query that are executing on a SQL Server 2025 instance. Query store is enabled. One of the queries is killed by the administrator, one is cancelled by the user. The other runs to completion. How many rows are in Query Store for this query?
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