Data Visualizations for Excel Multi-Chart Sets with SQL Server Data
This article covers how to create multi-chart visualizations in Excel using data from SQL Server.
Rollbacks, Undos and Undonts
Rollback scripts are designed to allow us to recover safely from a failed deployment that leaves the database in an indeterminate state. They must check exactly what needs to be reverted before doing so. If you work with an RDBMS that cannot support transaction DDL rollback they are vital. This article proposes a strategy where you create and test a rollback file, at the same time as the forward migration, and reuse it as a Flyway undo script.
Developer Optimism
Developers, in general, are very optimistic about the code they write. This is likely one cause of their estimates of the time required being low, as well as the various bugs that slip through because of corner cases that appear for the problem being solved. Often developers think they've considered the various ways this code […]
SQL Ledger: Protecting Data in Azure SQL
Learn how you can set up and use Ledger tables in an Azure SQL Database to verify the integrity of your database changes.
How to Expand a Range of Dates into Rows with the SQL Server Function GENERATE_SERIES
In this tip, we cover how to use the GENERATE_SERIES function to expand a range of dates into rows
Introducing the MySQL SELECT statement
Use SELECT statements to query a MySQL database. In this article, Robert Sheldon explains how.
The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop
Many people have used a "Numbers" or "Tally" table without really knowing what it does. This is an introduction as to how a Tally table replaces a loop.
Managing Datasets for Database Development Work using Flyway
A generic way of exporting, deleting and loading data, for database development work. It uses Flyway Teams, a PowerShell framework, JSON files for storage and a table manifest to define the correct order of dependency for each task. It should help a team maintain datasets between database versions, as well as to switch between the datasets required to support different types of testing.
Metadata Functions in SQL Server and Their Use Cases
Learn about various SQL Server system functions to return meta data from SQL Server such as SERVERPROPERTY, DATABASEPROPERTYEX, DB_NAME, DB_ID, FILE_NAME, FILE_ID, FILE_IDEX, SCHEMA_NAME, SCHEMA_ID, OBJECT_NAME, OBJECT_ID and STATS_DATE.
Blogs
T-SQL Tuesday #192: What career risks have you taken?
By James Serra
I’m honored to be hosting T-SQL Tuesday — edition #192. For those who may...
AI: Blog a Day – Day 3: LLM Models – Open Source vs Closed Source
By Vinay Thakur
Continuing from Day 2 , we learned introduction on Generative AI and Agentic AI,...
How to Parameterize Fabric Linked Services in Azure Data Factory for Azure Devops Deployment
Quite the title, so let me set the stage first. You have an Azure...
Forums
Rollback vs. Roll Forward
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Rollback vs. Roll Forward
Foreign Keys - Foes or Friend?
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Foreign Keys - Foes or...
Fun with JSON I
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fun with JSON I
Question of the Day
Fun with JSON I
I have some data in a table:
CREATE TABLE #test_data
(
id INT PRIMARY KEY,
name VARCHAR(100),
birth_date DATE
);
-- Step 2: Insert rows
INSERT INTO #test_data
VALUES
(1, 'Olivia', '2025-01-05'),
(2, 'Emma', '2025-03-02'),
(3, 'Liam', '2025-11-15'),
(4, 'Noah', '2025-12-22');
If I run this query, how many rows are returned?
SELECT *
FROM OPENJSON(
(
SELECT t.* FROM #test_data AS t FOR JSON PATH
)
) t; See possible answers