Robert Sheldon

After being dropped 35 feet from a helicopter and spending the next year recovering, Robert Sheldon left the Colorado Rockies and emergency rescue work to pursue safer and less painful interests—thus his entry into the world of technology. He is now a technical consultant and the author of numerous books, articles, and training material related to Microsoft Windows, various relational database management systems, and business intelligence design and implementation. He has also written news stories, feature articles, restaurant reviews, legal summaries, and the novels 'Last Stand' and 'Dancing the River Lightly'. You can find more information at http://www.rhsheldon.com.

Robert Sheldon 21 August 2018

Power BI Introduction: Building Reports in Power BI Desktop — Part 7

Power BI contains rich visualizations that allow anyone to build insightful dashboards. In this article, Robert Sheldon shows you how to create Power BI charts, tables, maps, and slicers, … Read more

Robert Sheldon 15 August 2018

Introduction to HIPAA and SOX

Data Protection and Privacy

Despite the attention to data privacy and protection caused this year because of the GDPR, regulations governing how data is handled are nothing new. In this article, Robert Sheldon provides an overview of two US regulations, HIPAA and SOX, and explains how these regulations affect DBAs. … Read more

Data Protection and Privacy

Robert Sheldon 01 August 2018

Power BI Introduction: Power Query M Formula Language in Power BI Desktop — Part 6

In this article of the Power BI series, Robert Sheldon demonstrates how to work with the Power Query M language to import and transform data.… Read more

Robert Sheldon 17 July 2018

Power BI Introduction: Working with SQL Server data in Power BI Desktop — Part 5

Data for Power BI can come from many sources, but often the data is hosted in SQL Server. In this article, the fifth of the series, Robert Sheldon demonstrates how to work with SQL Server data in Power BI Desktop, including relationships between tables. … Read more

Robert Sheldon 05 July 2018

Power BI Introduction: Working with Parameters in Power BI Desktop —Part 4

Power BI allows you to use parameters to make your reports dynamic. In this article, Robert Sheldon demonstrates how parameters can be used to substitute connection information, query filters, or even calculations within the query.… Read more

Robert Sheldon 20 June 2018

Power BI Introduction: Working with R Scripts in Power BI Desktop — Part 3

R is a powerful language for manipulating data and creating visualizations. In this article in the series, Robert Sheldon demonstrates how R can be used within Power BI Desktop to import data and to create visualizations.… Read more

Robert Sheldon 06 June 2018

Power BI Introduction: Working with Power BI Desktop — Part 2

Power BI Desktop is the free tool from Microsoft for developing in Power BI. In this article, Robert Sheldon walks you through importing and manipulating data with the Query Editor in Power BI Desktop.… Read more

Robert Sheldon 10 May 2018

Power BI Introduction: Tour of Power BI — Part 1

Power BI has been available for a number of years, but new functionality is added regularly. In this new series from Robert Sheldon, you will learn about the latest developments or get started with Power BI if you are new to it. Robert provides an overview of Power BI, the services and tools available in this article. … Read more

Robert Sheldon 30 April 2018

SQL Server Graph Databases – Part 5: Importing Relational Data into a Graph Database

T-SQL Programming

In the final article of this series, Robert Sheldon shows how to move from a relational structure to a graph structure using the Graph Database feature.… Read more

T-SQL Programming

Robert Sheldon 23 April 2018

SQL Server Graph Databases – Part 4: Working with Hierarchical Data in a Graph Database

T-SQL Programming

The Graph Database feature, new with SQL Server 2017, can be used to represent hierarchies. In this article of the series, Robert Sheldon demonstrates how to represent hierarchies in data with complex relationships.… Read more

T-SQL Programming

Robert Sheldon 10 April 2018

SQL Server Graph Databases – Part 3: Modifying Data in a Graph Database

T-SQL Programming

Modifying data in Graph Database tables is similar to working with traditional tables, but there are several things to consider. Robert Sheldon explains how to insert, update, and delete rows of Graph Database tables and explains how to use several new helper functions. … Read more

T-SQL Programming

Robert Sheldon 22 March 2018

SQL Server Graph Databases – Part 2: Querying Data in a Graph Database

Along with Graph Databases, Microsoft has introduced the new MATCH function for querying them. Robert Sheldon explains how to use the new function.… Read more

Robert Sheldon 06 March 2018

SQL Server Graph Databases – Part 1: Introduction

SQL Server 2017 now includes a new feature to represent complex relationships in data called Graph Databases. Robert Sheldon introduces Graph Databases in the first article of this new series. … Read more

Robert Sheldon 28 February 2018

SQL Server Machine Learning Services – Part 6: Merging Data Frames in Python

In the final article in this series, Robert Sheldon demonstrates combining data sources with multiple formats into one Python data frame. … Read more

Robert Sheldon 07 February 2018

SQL Server Machine Learning Services – Part 5: Generating Multiple Plots in Python

Visualization is often the first step in analyzing data. Python makes visualization easy. In this article, Robert Sheldon demonstrates how to generate multiple charts from one dataset using Python with SQL Server Machine Learning Services.… Read more

Robert Sheldon 16 January 2018

SQL Server Machine Learning Services – Part 4: Finding Data Anomalies with Python

Python is widely used to analyze data. One such use is to find anomalies or outliers. In this article, Robert Sheldon demonstrates how to create a support vector machine (SVM) to score test data so that outliers can be viewed on a scatter plot. … Read more

Robert Sheldon 02 January 2018

SQL Server Machine Learning Services – Part 3: Plotting Data with Python

One of the advantages of running Python from SQL Server is the ability to create graphics to assist in analysis of data. Robert Sheldon demonstrates matplotlib, a 2D plotting library, widely used with Python to create quality charts.… Read more

Robert Sheldon 18 December 2017

SQL Server Machine Learning Services – Part 2: Python Data Frames

SQL Server Machine Learning Services provides the ability to run Python scripts directly against data in SQL Server. To do so, you must understand how to work with the data frame object. Robert Sheldon explains how to get started using the data frame object, how to pass data from SQL Server to it, and how to manipulate it with Python and pandas commands. … Read more

Robert Sheldon 30 November 2017

SQL Server Machine Learning Services – Part 1: Python Basics

Python is a very popular language used for many purposes including machine learning. SQL Server 2017 supports Python with its Machine Learning Services component. Robert Sheldon explains how to get started using Python in SQL Server in the first article of this series.… Read more

Robert Sheldon 17 November 2017

Still More SQL Server Features that Time Forgot

Data Platform

As the final entry in this series, Robert Sheldon leads you through a group of forgotten features that have been removed from recent versions of SQL Server. In some cases, the features were widely used and often loved, while others had lost their usefulness over the years or were replaced with something much better. In this article, he remembers Data Transformation Services (DTS), a handful of DBCC commands, a few utilities, Active Directory Helper Service, English Query, Web Assistant, SQL Mail, Native XML Web Services, Notification Services, SQL Distributed Management Objects, Surface Area Configuration Tool, and the Pubs and Northwind databases.… Read more

Data Platform

OVERVIEW

BY NEED

BY ROLE

BY INDUSTRY