Adding Time Intelligence to a Power BI Data Model
In this article I want to provide an introduction to the vital set of functions that help you to use a time element when analyzing data
Physical or Virtual Storage
This week Steve Jones talked about physical hardware, asking who might still pay attention.
Extracting a DAX Query Plan With Analysis Services 2016 Extended Events
In this post, Koen Verbeeck shows how to use SQL Sever 2016's Extended Events to find the query plan for a DAX query, just like you would for a T-SQL statement.
The SQL Server Features that Time Forgot
Every new release of SQL Server comes with new features that cause a ripple of excitement within the industry: well, amongst the marketing people anyway. What happens to all the exciting TLAs that are bandied about when a new version launches? It's mixed, it seems. Adam Machanic's classic post, The SQL Hall of Shame, has inspired Rob Sheldon to look back at some of the features that, though worthy, have may have failed to hit the mainstream.
Unstructured Data
Unstructured data can be misleading. Steve Jones has a few thoughts today on how he sees this term.
How to Hire a Junior DBA
Brent Ozar covers some questions you need to ask yourself before hiring a Junior DBA.
SQL Server R Services: Working with ggplot2 Statistical Graphics
It is when you use R in SQL Server with one of the huge range of packages that comes with it that you can begin to appreciate the power of the system. With a package such as ggplot there are many 'knobs one can twiddle' in order to get spectacular and informative visualisations. Rob Sheldon continues his beginners series for R in SQL Server by showing how to refine the output to get it as you need it.
A Freecon Halloween at the PASS Summit
If you're attending the PASS Summit in 2017, there's a Freecon day on Tuesday you can attend.
DBAs and the ITIL Framework
Most IT departments are moving toward ITIL-aligned practices. Gain a general understanding of the ITIL framework and how Database Administrators can take advantage of it.
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