On Looking and Acting the Part
Phil Factor's offers tips for longevity in the world of IT consultancy: listen well, humiliate no-one and convince others that it was their expertise that solved the problem.
Reducing the Cycle Time
Building software can be hard and lots of people have tried various methodologies to improve the way their teams work. Steve notes a lot of the process is the same, but he has a preference.
Stairway to SSAS Tabular Level 4: Implementing Date Dimensions
In this first level of the SSAS Tabular stairway, learn how to implement and format a date dimension.
Data Control Language (aka Security)
Like ancient Gaul, SQL is divided into three sub- languages. The DDL (Data Declaration Language) declares the data. This is where we find the data types, constraints, references and other structures that have to do with how the data stored . The DML (Data Manipulation Language) uses those declarations to change their contents or to invoke them. It does not change structures and schema objects.
The Data Center that Exploded
A while back, in a Simple-Talk editorial meeting, someone bet Phil Factor that he couldn't come up with a Halloween story. To our surprise he said he could, as long as he didn't have to keep to the strict literal truth. In the end, he came up with a story about a story, and it is true that he first told the story in a data Centre at Halloween!
An introduction to Terraform
As a Data Engineer I found myself having to learn rather more about cloud infrastructure than I had expected.
Doing a Little Research
I've been very pleased with the direction of SSMS the last few years. As it's been separated from SQL Server releases and gets updated more often, I think the changes from v17 though v20 have been improvements. There are still issues, but it's been better. Now we finally have SSMS moving to a modern shell […]
SQL IS NULL and SQL IS NOT NULL Examples
This article looks at how to use SQL IS NULL and SQL IS NOT NULL operations in SQL Server along with use cases and working with NULL values.
Lies You Should Believe - Anything is possible
We have all heard the saying I based this week's editorial on. It has been credited to Benjamin Franklin and goes like this, “You can do anything you set your mind to”. This is such a powerful way of thinking when you are starting a task. “I can do it, no matter what anyone says.” […]
Improving Performance for Some LIKE “%string%” Searches (SQL Spackle)
If you've ever wondered if you can do better than an INDEX SCAN when you do a LIKE "%string%" search, read on...
Blogs
My 2024 in Data: Music
By Steve Jones
This is my last week of the year working (I guess I come back...
A New Word: Suente
By Steve Jones
suente– n. the state of being so familiar with someone that you can be...
Side Projects
Anyone (everyone?) who has ever tried to learn a programming language knows that to...
Forums
Timeout Error while executing a TSQL statement in Sql server Express Edition
I am getting the below error when I execute a SQL command in SQL...
Timeout Error while executing a TSQL statement in Sql server Express Edition
I am getting the below error when I execute a SQL command in SQL...
Sql script replace and rearrange numbers
Hi everyone. I have this table and this information. (left side of the image)...