When people start learning a new field, for example T-SQL, it’s tempting to spend very little time trying to understand the fundamentals of the field so that you can quickly get to the advanced parts. You might think that you already understand what certain ideas, concepts and terms mean, so you don’t necessarily see the … Read more
Tables in a MySQL database are commonly related to one another, often in multiple ways, and it is only by linking the tables together that you can derive meaningful information from the data. To connect these tables together, you can use the JOIN clause, which you include in your SELECT, DELETE, or UPDATE statements. The … Read more
Over the years, SQL Server Statistics have been discussed in countless blog posts, articles, and presentations, and I believe that they will remain a core topic for a while when speaking about performance. Why is that? Well, if we were to consider the equivalent of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for database performances, statistics would be … Read more
If you haven’t already heard, SQL Server 2022 introduced a new built-in system function called GREATEST. Simply put, it is to a set of columns, variables, expressions etc. what the MAX function is to a set of values (i.e., rows) of a single column or expression. The opposite of GREATEST function is LEAST function which … Read more
Jenkins is an open-source multi-platform software for continuous integration/continuous delivery and deployment (CI/CD) in DevOps. It is one of the most common CI/CD tools. Jenkins uses CI/CD pipelines to automate the software development and deployment workflows. Jenkins uses plugins to integrate with DevOps tools such as Docker and Kubernetes. Jenkins plugins can also be used … Read more
Over the past 10 years, I have been involved in scheduling speakers at several conferences, most notably the PASS Data Community Summit. Since starting at Red-Gate last September, I have been much less involved in planning the Summit. Still, I have been able to help with the schedule by looking it over and looking for … Read more
MySQL provides a set of constraints that you can include in your table definitions to help ensure the integrity of the data. The constraints let you better control the types of data that can be added to the database. For example, you can use constraints to set a column’s uniqueness or nullability, specify a default … Read more
Microsoft is merging Data Factory and Power BI Dataflows in one single ETL solution. It’s not a simple merging, but still these ETL tools are easier to use then ever. In this article, I will demonstrate how to create a lakehouse and ingest data using a step-by-step walkthrough that you can follow along with. You … Read more
If you’ve been using MySQL for a while and want to learn how to orchestrate MySQL containers, you’ve come to the right place. And while using Docker on its own to manage a single MySQL instance or multiple instances has certain drawbacks, such as lacking the ability to orchestrate multiple instances, scale, and provide services … Read more
In recent years, deep learning has emerged as a powerful tool for deriving valuable insights from large volumes of data, more commonly referred to as big data. Harnessing the computational capabilities of artificial neural networks, deep learning algorithms have the ability to model complex patterns and make accurate predictions based on these patterns. This makes … Read more
MySQL Group replication is a remarkable feature introduced in MySQL 5.7 as a plugin. This technology allows you to create a reliable group of database servers. One of the most important features of MySQL’s group replication is that it allows these servers to store redundant data. This allows the database state to be replicated across … Read more
Agile development has grown in popularity in recent years due to its success in delivering software on time and on budget. If you’re looking for a way to make your software development process more flexible and responsive, Agile might be a good option for you. There are many different Agile methodologies, but some of the … Read more
While there are many features within PostgreSQL that are really similar to those within SQL Server, there are some that are unique. One of these unique features is called VACUUM. In my head, I compare this with the tempdb in SQL Server. Not because they act in any way the same or serve similar purposes. … Read more
Step functions allow complex solutions to process data in the background. This frees users from having to wait on the results while it is running. Imagine a use case where someone uploads a resume because sifting through resumes takes time, a background process can curate the data and have it ready for a recruiter. In … Read more
The simple answer to this question is “a lot.” The funny part, however, is that everyone who reads that question will have similar but very different thoughts on those changes. Unless your job (or hobby) is keeping up with the current trends in technology, the biggest thing that affects our perception is how we have … Read more
At Stack Overflow, our environment has multiple implementations of a largely – but not 100% – identical schema. (By “schema,” I mostly mean the set of tables within a database.) I sometimes need to retrieve or update data across a large number of sites. Let’s say, pulling or removing information from the Users table, and … Read more
In the last blog (When PostgreSQL Parameter Tuning is not the Answer), we compared several execution plans for a SQL statement as we made changes to parameters and indexes. Still, there was no mention of what an execution plan is, how one can obtain an execution plan for a query, and how to interpret the … Read more
The usage of bots in artificial intelligence (AI) has gained significant attention and importance in recent years. Bots, also known as chatbots or intelligent agents, are software applications designed to perform automated tasks or engage in conversations with humans; they are an integral part of AI systems, enabling interactions and delivering various functionalities across various … Read more
In modern software development, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are essential for building scalable and flexible systems. APIs enable applications to communicate and exchange data, amongst other actions. Representational State Transfer (REST) is an API specification for building simple, scalable, client-server APIs based on HTTP, stateless, cacheable, and layered. RESTful APIs provide a medium for interaction … Read more
A challenge that reappears periodically in the world of databases (especially database management) is the need to run code on a subset of databases and to do so in a nuanced manner. Some maintenance or metrics collection processes can be simply run against every database on a server with no ill-effect, but others may be … Read more
