You know what we really need? Better interpersonal communication
Today we have a guest editorial as Steve is traveling. Ben Kubicek notes that sometimes it is hard for technical people to communicate well.
Create Calendar Table Using Power Query M Language
Learn how to create a customizable calendar date table that can be used for Power BI reports using Power Query.
PowerShell editors and environments: Part 1
There is no shortage of PowerShell editors and environments for developing and running scripts. Greg Moore explains some of his favorites.
Using Dynamic SQL
Today Steve notes that Dynamic SQL can be helpful, but it's a technique you should understand well before you start using it.
Using Azure SQL Data Sync to Replicate Data
Learn how to setup and use Azure SQL Data Sync to synchronize and replicate data from various locations including Azure SQL Database, cloud and on-premises databases.
Win a Pluralsight subscription with Redgate’s competition
Redgate is giving you the chance to win a three-month subscription to the technical skills platform Pluralsight and Redgate goodies with their latest competition. To enter, visit the Redgate Forums and answer the question ‘What’s your favorite SQL Monitor feature and why?’
Microsoft Azure ADF - Dynamic Pipelines
Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a cloud based data integration service that allows you to create data-driven workflows in the cloud for orchestrating and automating data movement and data transformation. Azure Data Factory does not store any data itself. but it allows you to create data-driven workflows to orchestrate the movement of data between supported […]
Viva
Microsoft is working on the future of work, and adapting to remote work. Steve isn't sure this will work, but they have at least one interesting technology idea he likes.
sqldf in R Example for SQL Server
R has a package called sqldf that allows developers to manipulate data inside a dataframe in the same way a SQL developer queries a SQL table which we will cover with examples in this article.
Common Table Expression Misunderstandings
I frequently use Common Table Expressions (CTEs) when I demo windowing functions and get questions about them. Windowing functions are limited to the SELECT and ORDER BY clause which means that you can’t filter or group on them directly. Using a CTE is one way to separate the logic of the query into multiple steps […]
Blogs
Presenting with Visual Studio Code
A while back I wrote a quick post on setting up key mappings in...
Advice I Like: In 100 Years
By Steve Jones
In 100 years a lot of what we take to be true now will...
dataMinds Saturday 2026 – Slides
At Saturday the 21st of February I’m presenting an introduction to dimensional modelling at...
Forums
AllocationType as ROW_OVERFLOW_DATA
Hello, I inherited a number of tables with like 20-30 column using nvarchar(256) in...
is it true we cant debug c# scripts in ssis anymore under vs
Hi, i'm running vs2022. I'm trying out a c# script that i'd like to...
Question of the Day
Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance
I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:
SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.What is wrong? See possible answers