Checking Table Metadata with tSQLt
In this article on tSQLt, learn how you can use the AssertResultSetsHaveSameMetaData method from the framework to enforce your API.
Practical Hekaton
Steve Jones is searching for anyone that is using In-Memory OLTP tables in production.
Converting Rows to Columns (PIVOT) and Columns to Rows (UNPIVOT) in SQL Server
Learn how to convert row values into column values (PIVOT) and column values into row values (UNPIVOT) in SQL Server.
Reusing T-SQL Code
Alex Kuznetsov, in an article taken from his book 'Defensive Database Programming with SQL Server', shows how DRY principles can be put in practice with constraints, stored procedures, triggers, UDFs and indexes.
Archive Every Day
There are challenges with the large scale archiving of data. Steve Jones talks about rethinking this as a daily process rather than a periodic one.
Protecting Yourself from SQL Injection in SQL Server - Part 2
Aaron Bertrand has some advice on how to protect yourself from SQL Injection, looking at some specific common scenarios.
SQL Monitor Custom Metric: WriteLog wait time
This metric shows Writelog wait time in ms, per elapsed second. Writelog wait types occur when the log cache is being flushed to disk. If this happens all the time, it may suggest disk bottlenecks where the transaction log is stored.
When Should We Be Cleaning Data?
Part of our job as a data professional often deals with the movement and cleaning of data. However, should we be trying to reduce the work we do? Move the burden to the application? Steve Jones has a few comments.
How to Get SQL Server Dates and Times Horribly Wrong
One of the times that you need things to go right is when you are doing analysis and reporting. This is generally based on time and date. A sure-fire way of getting managers upset is to get the figures horribly wrong by messing up the way that you handle datetime values in SQL Server. In the interests of peace, harmony and a long career in BI, Robert Sheldon outlines some of the worst mistakes you can make when using SQL Server dates.
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