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How Much Can You Learn?

This editorial was originally published on Apr 8, 2016. It is being re-published for the Labor Day holiday in 2025, but it's likely still relevant. I hope most of you are thinking about improving yourselves on a regular basis.

One of the things we've tried to do at SQLServerCentral is provide a way for SQL Server professionals to continue to learn more about the platform over time. Andy Warren and I have debated how to best do this over the years, and Andy has built a great presentation on Building a Professional Development Plan that I'd encourage you to watch or attend if you can.

One of the parts of any good plan is finding time to learn. While there are many ways in which to learn, many people seem to want an organized way of working through a particular topic. Books provide one method, while online courses such as those provided by Pluralsight are another.  There are also pre-cons at SQL Saturdays or other conferences, weeklong training classes, and other methods available. Which you choose might depend on how you best learn.

Any of these methods work, but all require some investment, both time and money. Setting aside the money for a minute, how much can you learn in a year if you use some on-demand method such as books or on-demand video. Is there some limit to what you can absorb and work with in any particular month or year?

I think there is. Certainly the amount you learn depends on how much you can practice and focus on a topic, as well as how closely the new skill is to your existing capabilities. The further you move away from an area you're already comfortable with, the slower you may learn, and the greater investment to become competent in a new subject. Given that a month (or year) is a fixed amount of time, and we all have other responsibilities, how much can you actually learn and retain?

I used to think that a few months would build some competence, but I'm finding that after I learn for a few months, I really need a few months, or at least some time, of not learning, where I can practice and work with new skills I've been developing. I find that if I don't take this time, too much of what I've learned becomes hard to remember, and even newer skills are hard to acquire.

Is it the same for you?

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

 
 Featured Contents
SQLServerCentral Article

Add a Second NIC for an Availability Group to Separate Network Traffic

Vincent92 from SQLServerCentral

Introduction Sometimes we face the scenario in an enterprise environment that the database in SQL Server Always On Availability Group (AOAG) has high concurrency read and write access from application servers. If we keep using the one network interface card for both network traffic of database connections from application servers and database mirroring between AOAG […]

External Article

Picking the ON or WHERE Clause for the SQL Predicate

Additional Articles from MSSQLTips.com

Helping people solve T-SQL problems is one of my favorite hobbies. Someone messaged me the other day with a complex query that was almost complete except for one issue. He needed to perform a LEFT OUTER JOIN but had to filter based on a value from the right table. However, when he added the filter, SQL removed rows from the left table. The task was to decide where to place the SQL predicate: in the ON or WHERE clause.

Blog Post

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Using Python Code in SSIS

Tim Mitchell from Tim Mitchell

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a mature, proven tool for ETL orchestration and data movement. In recent years, Python has exploded in popularity as a data movement and...

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Why SQL Still Reigns in the Age of Cloud-Native Databases

Chris Yates from The SQL Professor

In a tech landscape dominated by distributed systems, serverless architectures, and real-time analytics, one might assume that SQL, a language born in the 1970s, would be fading into obscurity....

Definitive Guide to DAX cover

The Definitive Guide to DAX: Business Intelligence for Microsoft Power BI, SQL Server Analysis Services, and Excel

Site Owners from SQLServerCentral

Now expanded and updated with modern best practices, this is the most complete guide to Microsoft’s DAX language for business intelligence, data modeling, and analytics. Expert Microsoft BI consultants Marco Russo and Alberto Ferrari help you master everything from table functions through advanced code and model optimization.

 

 Question of the Day

Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):

 

Change Tracking Default Retention

I run this command on my SQL Server 2022 database: 
ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorks2017 SET CHANGE_TRACKING = ON;
What is the default data retention period?

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

 

 

 Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor)

Which MAXDOP?

I have a SQL Server 2022 instance with this setting:

EXECUTE sp_configure 'max degree of parallelism', 4;
GO

I then run this:

SELECT ProductID, OrderQty, SUM(LineTotal) AS Total
FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail
WHERE UnitPrice < $5.00
GROUP BY ProductID, OrderQty
ORDER BY ProductID, OrderQty
OPTION (MAXDOP 2);
GO

What is the maxdop for my query?

Answer: 2

Explanation: The query hint overrides the server setting. This is from the Docs: "ou can override the max degree of parallelism server configuration value: At the query level, using the MAXDOP query hint or Query Store hints." Ref: Server configuration: max degree of parallelism - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/database-engine/configure-windows/configure-the-max-degree-of-parallelism-server-configuration-option?view=sql-server-ver17

Discuss this question and answer on the forums

 

Featured Script

Fetch fields like email address from multiple records into single cell

Saravanan Venkatesan from SQLServerCentral

COALESCE smartly helps to concatenating the multiple rows value into one cell. 

IF OBJECT_ID('TempDB..#Users','U') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
Drop table TempDB..#Users
END

--Creating user table
Create table #Users (sLogin Varchar(15), sName varchar(25), dCreateDate DateTime, dLastLoginDate DateTime, sEmailID varchar(50))

--Inserting sample data to the Users table
Insert into #Users (sLogin, sName, dCreateDate, dLastLoginDate)
Select 'AKevin' sLogin, 'Kevin A' sName, '2025-04-06' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'JMike' sLogin, 'Mike J' sName, '2025-04-11' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'MPal' sLogin, 'Pal M' sName, '2025-05-21' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'CGautam' sLogin, 'Gautam C' sName, '2025-04-14' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'MHenry' sLogin, 'Henry M' sName, '2025-06-06' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'MChris' sLogin, 'Chris M' sName, '2025-05-28' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'SJohn' sLogin, 'John S' sName, '2025-03-15' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'KRudy' sLogin, 'Rudy K' sName, '2025-06-09' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'AThomos' sLogin, 'Thomas A' sName, '2025-05-23' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate
UNION
Select 'LKatie' sLogin, 'Katie L' sName, '2025-06-20' dCreateDate, GetDate() dLastLoginDate

--The email ID will be UserID+domain name. So, simply we can update using one sql
UPDATE #Users
SET sEmailID = sLogin + '@mydomain.com'

-- Simply selecting the data to see how it looks
SELECT * FROM #Users

--SQL to get the email address in one cell, which can be copied over to the email application.
DECLARE @EmailList NVarchar (max)
SELECT @EmailList = COALESCE(@EmailList + ';', '') + RTRIM(sEmailID) FROM #Users

SELECT @EmailList As [Email ID list]

More »

 

Database Pros Who Need Your Help

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.

SQL Server 2016 - Administration
Object owner question - Hello, Currently all of our tables e.t.c are owned by dbo. In one of our databases I need to move the tables to a different owner to prevent an ownership chain. What I'm a bit unsure about is the best type of account to use for the table owner. I think 'user without login' is […]
SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL
Encryption or Certificate - Trying to NOT put hardcoded password in Proc - We have a few stored procs where we need to a dos command "net use" EXEC master..xp_cmdshell 'NET USE \\\ /USER:<domain\username>    /PERSISTENT:yes'   I am trying to figure out a way to retrieve a password stored somewhere that is obfuscated from nefarious people, via encryption or any other way really, So that […]
SQL Server 2019 - Development
Next dates - CREATE TABLE ADMITS ( ID_NUM INT varchar(15) null ,provider_id varchar(15) null ,provider_name varchar(36) null ,ADMIT_DATE DATE NULL ,DISCHARGE_DATE DATE NULL ,swpa_description varchar(max) null ,date_dispensed DATE NULL ,drug_name varchar(max) null ,discharge_to_dispensed int ) INSERT INTO ADMITS (ID_NUM,provider_id,provider_name, ADMIT_DATE, DISCHARGE_DATE,swpa_description,date_dispensed,discharge_to_dispensed) VALUES ('008012773','006467','WHITE DEER RUN LLC', '2024-02-06', '2024-02-11','Residential Detox, Rehab, HWH (non hosp)','2024-02-22','GABAPENTIN, 300 MG ORAL CAPSULE',11) ,('008012773','006467','WHITE […]
Amazon AWS and other cloud vendors
Moving a database from AWS RDS Custom to RDS Standard - Having real fun with this. It isn't possible to set the option group, to enable the AWS SQL backup routines, because you can't execute the CloudShell command to assign an options group (aws rds modify-db-instance), in RDS Custom. I can't restore an RDS Custom snapshot, because that will just create another RDS Custom, and I […]
Reporting Services
2 table designs within one section to keep data for one section value within one - My requirement is to display data for  a number of routes within 2 tables and keep everything in one page where each value for the route generates a new page. I have created a group for route calling it 'sectie1'  and set proper behavior for this sectie (page break, having headers on each page etc). […]
Editorials
Ghostworkers - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Ghostworkers
T-SQL
Backup information incorrect after AAG toggle - Good morning all, I have the attached T-SQL query that has been working well for sometime. This past Saturday during patching, the AAG toggled from primary on server1 to primary on server2. Now the query does not report differentials from the current primary server. Any pointer/suggestions on what I fail to see is greatly appreciated. […]
Backup information incorrect after AAG toggle - Good morning all, I have the attached T-SQL query that has been working well for sometime. This past Saturday during patching, the AAG toggled from primary on server1 to primary on server2. Now the query does not report differentials from the current primary server. Any pointer/suggestions on what I fail to see is greatly appreciated. […]
Article Discussions by Author
Fetch fields like email address from multiple records into single cell - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fetch fields like email address from multiple records into single cell
Enables Change Data Capture (CDC) on all user databases - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Enables Change Data Capture (CDC) on all user databases
Free T-SQL Script: Database Schema Documentation Generator for Generative AI Services Integration - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Free T-SQL Script: Database Schema Documentation Generator for Generative AI Services Integration
Fetch fields like email address from multiple records into single cell - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Fetch fields like email address from multiple records into single cell
Using psycopg2 to Connect Python to PostgreSQL - Comments posted to this topic are about the item Using psycopg2 to Connect Python to PostgreSQL
SQL Server 2022 - Development
Trying Different CTAs in Car Insurance Ads, Any Tips - Hey everyone, I’ve been experimenting a bit with digital ads for car insurance, and one thing that keeps confusing me is how small changes in call-to-action buttons can really affect clicks. I figured I’d share what I’ve noticed so far and maybe get your thoughts too. Pain Point So here’s the deal. I was running […]
ssms aborting in object explorer details - Hi i just set up a new pc after my touch pad went bad.  our tech guy installed a version of ssms that says its this  SQL Server Management Studio 21.4.12+5.36408.4.  its not the version i used before.   I'm not 100% certain what image he uses to set up a new pc. I'm getting the […]
 

 

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