Good day, everyone! I have not written in a while, so I hope these words find you well. Yesterday, I had the pleasure of participating in a round-table discussion on what makes a good expert. The context was specific to Experts Exchange, an online technology community. However, I think the answers also apply to our SQL community—online [...]
First 2013 Event: CincyPASS User Group
The CincyPass user group is alive and well thanks to Anthony Mattas (blog | twitter). I had the pleasure of not only attending my first meeting but also presenting at my first event of the year. The group wanted to hear my presentation on PIVOT and UNPIVOT, so I dusted off my “Blue-collar SQL: Building and Leveling [...]
Date-Time Math
It is October 20, Sweetest Day and Syntax Saturday. Yes, I finally got time to write another SQL syntax tip. No, it does not involve multiplying numbers with your date. Speaking of multiplying, my sweetest and I are expecting the newest addition to our family any day now. *smile* We are ready to discuss this [...]
Blue-collar SQL: How to Frame a Window
A cross-platform—Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Database, and MySQL—perspective on SQL’s windowing functions and analytical OVER() clause and some of their more advanced capabilities or lack thereof. The journey to this presentation started last year at the Columbus PASS SQL Saturday. During my research, Jeremiah Peschka (blog | twitter), who coincidentally was a member of Columbus [...]
A Sprinter’s Understanding and Approach to Agile Software Development
Good morning, Dayton, Ohio! Today is Syntax Saturday — no SQL tips this month. I spent February head-down coding and finalizing projects. When not immersed in project management, I was writing about it. Therefore, this month’s Syntax Saturday is a summary of my personal guide to agile software development as a “Sprinter.” 5 Tips For Long Jumpers — [...]
Managing Fragmentation for the Accidental DBA
If you have periodic processes such as an end of month purge or archive, then schedule [index REBUILD or REORGANIZE] type of activity via maintenance plans to follow the periodic processes.Mark Wills
Doing some early morning maintenance, working on fragmentation, I thought of Mark’s article “Managing Fragmentation for the Accidental DBA” — a very nice read and useful resource!
A Column Referencing Multiple Tables
Cold, ice, and snow surrounds me! Never-the-less, it is Syntax Saturday once again in Dayton. Today, I am writing about creating a column with multiple-table referential integrity in SQL Server. This comes up every now and again it seems. A few weeks ago, a user on Experts Exchange asked a question about having one column [...]
T-SQL Fun with DIR Command Line
Another hectic month for me, but it is once again Syntax Saturday in Dayton area. This month I am re-posting an answer I gave on Experts Exchange (http://rdsrc.us/XdDQ96) where the question Author needed to “clean up the results of a premature move to production of a small application.” To accomplish this cleanup, the Author needed [...]
Extensible Shredding with T-SQL
For this month’s Syntax Saturday, I do not have much time, but wanted to share two very useful XQuery extension functions introduced in SQL Server 2005′s enhancements in XML-support arena: sql:column() and sql:variable(). These functions can be used to spice up one’s XPath a bit. Consider shredding XML based on a variable or column value. Here [...]
Water Wells in Ethiopia
It is one thing for the needs of humanity to empower technologists to maintain what and how technology lives, but it is another for technology to empower technologists to sustain the needs of humanity. With respect to the latter, Experts Exchange’s knowledge-sharing technology has done just that. For a community of enthusiasts in database and [...]
