PowerShell and ADO.NET Connection String Settings for SQL Server
Tim Smith addresses some common questions from PowerShell developers about connection strings, errors with strings, and alternative development approaches to using connection strings.
When to Quote in PowerShell
The one question about PowerShell that trips up almost everyone is about when and how to quote strings. Because PowerShell replaces the old command shell, it has to be able to work the way that it did with string parameters, but it also has to behave like a .NET scripting language to replace VBA. In this article, Michael Sorens explains the how and when of PowerShell quoting.
More on CXPACKET Waits: Skewed Parallelism
When cardinality estimates are incorrect, the parallel threads doing the query work are given uneven amounts of work to do. This problem can lead to a seeming explosion in CXPACKET waits occurring and is commonly called skewed parallelism; Paul Randal explains how to check for it.
SQL 2016: Columnstore row group Merge policy and index maintenance improvements
Denzil Ribeiro looks at how SQL Server 2016's new Merge functionality in INDEX REORGANIZE simplifies Columnstore index maintenance significantly.
NoSQL inside SQL Server
This week Steve Jones looks at the idea of combining some NoSQL concepts inside of SQL Server.
What Kind of DBA Are You?
Are you a do-it-all DBA, or do you specialize in one aspect of database work?
Building Databases: One Man’s Best Practice?
One man’s meat is often another man’s poison. In this editorial Tony Davis looks at why a migrations-based approach to database version control might not always be best practice.
Blogs
Automatic Index Compaction
By ReviewMyDB
Index maintenance has always meant nightly jobs and a window you have to defend....
The Goldilocks problem – Materialized Views
I’m sure you’ve all heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, but...
Monday Monitor Tips: Virtual Machine Usage and Cost
By Steve Jones
One of the things I’ve been requesting for a number of years is cost...
Forums
SQL Art, Part 4: Happy 4th of July — A British DBA's Guide to Celebrating a War We Don't Talk About
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Art, Part 4: Happy...
How We Handled a Vendor Retry That Loaded Twice in Snowflake
Comments posted to this topic are about the item How We Handled a Vendor...
Cognitive Coverage
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Cognitive Coverage
Question of the Day
Getting the Average
I have this data in the dbo.Commission table in a SQL Server 2022 database.
salesperson commission Brian 12 Brian 16 Andy 7 Andy 14 Andy 21 Steve 20 Steve NULLAll the data is a varchar, and I decide to run this query to get the totals for each salesperson.
SELECT SalesPerson
, AVG(TRY_PARSE(Commission AS int)) AS TotalCommission
FROM commission
GROUP BY SalesPerson
GO
What average commission is calculated for Steve? See possible answers