How to use a Script Activity in ADF as a Lookup
In Azure Data Factory (ADF, but also Synapse Pipelines and Fabric Pipelines), you have a typical scenario where you retrieve some metadata from a database and then loop over...
2024-06-27
123 reads
Koen Verbeeck
Database Build Error – Incorrect syntax near DISTINCT
I wrote a piece of SQL that had some new T-SQL syntax in it: IS DISTINCT FROM. This predicate checks if two expressions are equal taking NULL into account....
2025-01-03 (first published: 2024-06-24)
702 reads
Speaking at dataMinds Connect 2024
I’m very excited to announce I’ve been selected as a speaker for dataMinds Connect 2024, Belgium’s (and maybe/probably/most likely mainland Europe’s) best and greatest Microsoft data platform conference. My...
2024-06-17
15 reads
Dynamic Warehouse & Lakehouse Connections in Microsoft Fabric Data Pipelines
When you develop data pipelines in Microsoft Fabric (the Azure Data Factory equivalent in Fabric, not to be confused with deployment pipelines), you will most likely have some activities...
2024-07-01 (first published: 2024-06-13)
441 reads
System Views in Microsoft Fabric – Query references an object that is not supported in distributed processing mode
I have a metadata-driven ELT framework that heavily relies on dynamic SQL to generate SQL statements that load data from views into a respective fact or dimension. Such a...
2024-07-08 (first published: 2024-06-08)
761 reads
PostgreSQL error in Fabric Pipelines – No pg_hba.conf Entry for Host
I came across a bit of a weird error when I was trying to connect to a PostGreSQL database (hosted as an Azure DB for PostGreSQL), where “xx.xx.xx.xxx” is...
2024-06-07
233 reads
Book Review – Fundamentals of Data Engineering
This book was recommended by some of my colleagues, so I decided to give it a try. After finishing the book, I was pleased that I did. As the...
2024-06-24 (first published: 2024-06-05)
466 reads
Planview Portfolios REST API with ADF – Retrieving Actual Data
In the introduction of this blog post series, I explained the use case: extracting data from the Planview Portfolios REST API using Azure Data Factory. Any tool that can...
2024-06-19 (first published: 2024-05-26)
215 reads
Planview Portfolios REST API with ADF – Fetching the Access Token
In the introduction of this blog post series, I explained the use case: extracting data from the Planview Portfolios RESET API using Azure Data Factory. Any tool that can...
2024-05-28 (first published: 2024-05-26)
28 reads
Planview Portfolios REST API with ADF – The OData Feed
In the introduction, I explained the setup of the use case and why we need to use the OData feed: to get the list of Project IDs, because the...
2024-05-28 (first published: 2024-05-26)
27 reads
Blogs
2025 Wrapped for Steve
By Steve Jones
I’ve often done some analysis of my year in different ways. Last year I...
The Book of Redgate: Spread across the world
By Steve Jones
This was Redgate in 2010, spread across the globe. First the EU/US Here’s Asia...
Merry Christmas
By John
Today is Christmas and while I do not expect anybody to actual be reading...
Forums
Database security permissions save script
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Database security permissions save script
Database backup job steps
I have a SQL Agent job for backing up a set of Analysis Services...
SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression Algorithm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server 2025 Backup Compression...
Question of the Day
The Large Encoded Value
I want to use the new BASE64_ENCODE() function in SQL Server 2025, but return a string that isn't large type. What is the longest varbinary string I can pass in and still get a varchar(8000) returned?
See possible answers