What is normal? Finding outliers with R
How do you currently set alerting thresholds? What is normal? And more importantly, what is truly abnormal? We will explore these questions.
UNION ALL Optimization
Paul White digs into row goals as he explains some interesting and inconsistent behavior with UNION ALL queries in SQL Server.
Guilty of Over-Customising
Am I guilty of over-customising software? Read this and let us know what you think.
The Value of Surveys
Phil Factor on the perils of trying to squeeze good insights out of bad surveys.
Two Approaches to Addressing Circular References in SSDT
Both options have their advantages and disadvantages. Neither is universally right for all situations. Understand the differences before picking the model that works for your situation.
Guide to enhancing privacy and addressing GDPR requirements with the Microsoft SQL platform
A new whitepaper published today gives Microsoft SQL customers technical guidance for how to approach GDPR compliance with Microsoft SQL technologies.
Scala and Apache Spark in Tandem as a Next-Generation ETL Framework
Scala and Apache Spark might seem an unlikely medium for implementing an ETL process, but there are reasons for considering it as an alternative. After all, many Big Data solutions are ideally suited to the preparation of data for input into a relational database, and Scala is a well thought-out and expressive language. Krzysztof Stanaszek describes some of the advantages and disadvantages of a scala-based approach to implementing and testing an ETL solution.
Understanding OPENJSON and FOR JSON in Azure and SQL 2016
An example of exporting and importing table data with JSON in Azure and SQL Server 2016.
Statistics in SQL: Pearson’s Correlation
Some people will assure you that you can't do any serious statistical calculations in SQL. In the first of a series of articles, Phil factor aims to prove them wrong by explaining how easy it is to calculate Pearson's Product Moment Correlation.
Blogs
Webinar: Navigating the Database Landscape in 2026
By Steve Jones
For a number of years, we’ve produced the State of the Database Landscape report,...
Claude AI Convinced Me Not to Build an iPad App
By Steve Jones
I coach volleyball and I do a lot of stat stuff on paper. I...
A New Word: Dolorblindness
By Steve Jones
dolorblindness – n. the frustration that you’ll never be able to understand another person’s...
Forums
Data Warehouse Toolkit meets Star Schema: The Complete Reference
Is there a good syllabus for reading these two together? (Yes, it's called the...
GPX distance and time analysis in SQL Server
Comments posted to this topic are about the item GPX distance and time analysis...
The DBA is Dead; Long Live the DBA
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The DBA is Dead; Long...
Question of the Day
Changing the AG Listener
In SQL Server 2025, if I want to remove an IP from a listener, what do I do?
See possible answers