The Data Model Matters
Is a data model important in modern software? Steve thinks it is and gives a few reasons why we might want to spend a little time on ensuring we have good models as we build software.
Understanding SQL Server PARTITION BY with Examples
Introduction When developers first learn SQL aggregation, they usually start with the GROUP BY clause. It works well for summary reports because it combines multiple rows into a single result for each group. For example, you can calculate total sales per region or average salary per department. The limitation of GROUP BY appears when you […]
Complex Data Processing with dbt Python Models: The Fabric Modern Data Platform
Data build tool (dbt) is an open-source command line tool that helps engineers transform data using SQL scripts. However, there are limitations to what can be done with the Structure Query Language (SQL). That is where dbt Python models can be used to perform complex tasks. A dbt Python model is a function that reads […]
Using Containers to Avoid Installing SQL Server
I got a new laptop recently and instead of installing SQL Server, I decided to try and use containers to see how well this works. This article looks at how I got this working relatively quickly. The short list of things I did is: Install Docker Desktop Create a location for data/logs/etc. Create a docker-compose […]
Fixing Impostor Syndrome
Lessons on impostor syndrome from a marketer apply to technologists as well.
Fuzzy String Matching in SQL Server 2025
Learn about the new fuzzy matching functions in SQL Server 2025.
Vibe coding and databases: the hidden risks of AI-generated database code
Explore how Andrej Karpathy’s “vibe coding” trend reached databases. Uncover risks, real incidents, and 5 critical failure patterns
Celebrating 30 years of PostgreSQL, A Thank you message
A Thank You message to the original founds of the PostgreSQL project and members of the community that have been working so hard for 30 years.
Blogs
PostgreSQL 18 Finally Makes BUFFERS the Default. Here Is Why That Matters
You run EXPLAIN ANALYZE on a slow query, stare at the plan, and something...
A New Word: La Guadière
By Steve Jones
la guadière – n. a glint of goodness you notice in something that you...
Microsoft Purview data governance best practices
By James Serra
Microsoft Purview can be the best data governance tool in the world, but it...
Forums
non ascii columns in a utf-8 .txt file
hi, we couldnt get our upstream data source developers to supply what is sometimes...
PolyBase Trace Flags
Are there any good articles on all the trace flags that are enabled on...
The Data Model Matters
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Data Model Matters
Question of the Day
Running SQLCMD I
I run the SQLCMD utility as follows:
lcmd -S localhost -EI then type this (the 1> is the prompt):
1> select @@version goIf I hit enter, what happens? See possible answers