Simple SQL: Attribute Splitting
If the design of a relational database is wrong, no amount of clever DML SQL will make it work well. Dr. Codd’s Information Principle is that you have, inside the entity tables, the columns that model the attributes of that entity. The columns contain scalar values. Tables that model relationships can have attributes, but they must have references to entities in the schema. You split those attributes at your peril. Joe Celko explains the basics.
Azure DWH part 11: Data Warehouse Migration Utility
There is a new utility to import data from SQL Server on premises or Azure SQL to Azure SQL Data Warehouse (ASDW)
Short Names
Today Steve Jones talks about the short cuts that developers might take, many of which aren't necessarily helpful.
Are your automated tests slowing you down?
Slow, unreliable tests prevent teams doing great work, and make continuous delivery impossible. So what can you do to improve your automated tests?
Getting Started with Azure SQL Data Warehouse - Part 6
Azure SQL Data Warehouse is Microsoft’s new enterprise-class, elastic petabyte-scale, data warehouse service that can scale according to organizational demands in just few minutes. In this installment, Arshad Ali covers the different ways to load data into SQL Data Warehouse.
Cool Projects
This week Steve Jones wants to know what type of really interesting projects you are working on. Is there something you really enjoy and look forward to building?
What do you do when you make a mistake?
We all make mistakes, what you do next is what is important.
Performance Myths: Oversizing string columns
Aaron Bertrand shows a quick demo that illustrates why you should be very careful about oversizing varchar / nvarchar columns.
Blogs
A New Word: Dolorblindness
By Steve Jones
dolorblindness – n. the frustration that you’ll never be able to understand another person’s...
Claude Code Helps Analyze Test Data Manager Log Files
By Steve Jones
I had a customer ask about analyzing their Test Data Manager (TDM) usage to...
PowerPoint to HTML with Claude AI
By Steve Jones
I had an idea for an animated view of a sales tool, and started...
Forums
SSIS with VS2022 64/32 issue with Excel files
Hi all, I'm trying to do classic scenario for loading multiple Excel files into...
Case part is sloooooow
Hi So the case statement is slowing this down - but for the life...
Why the following cmds in sequence do not work
I need to delete rows from both the temporal main and history tables. The...
Question of the Day
The String Distance I
In SQL Server 2025, what is returned by this code:
SELECT EDIT_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
Assume preview features are enabled. See possible answers