The first and overriding thought of the experienced developer given any new development task is, or should be, ‘How the heck am I going to test this?’. I wonder, though, how often developers neglect to ask this question. Nowadays, with Visual Studio, the debugging facilities are so good you can muddle along happily for a … Read more
There are many reasons for wanting to know how data is distributed. Sometimes you just want a rough idea of the way that data is distributed in a column. You may think, wouldn't it be nice to have a SQL function that just showed you roughly what the distribution was, graphically, in the results pane. Phil Factor thought that was well and turned the vague wish into reality.… Read more
Anyone using R in SQL Server employs the procedure sp_execute_external_script, the first parameter of this being the language to use. The documentation rather obliquely says that “the script must be written in a supported and registered language“. Until recently, the only language was R, but now a second supported language, Python, has appeared. Yes, at … Read more
You can produce HTML from SQL because SQL Server has built-in support for outputting XML, and HTML is best understood as a slightly odd dialect of XML that imparts meaning to predefined tags. There are plenty of edge cases where an HTML structure is the most obvious way of communicating tables, lists and directories. Where data is hierarchical, it can make even more sense. William Brewer gives a simple introduction to a few HTML-output techniques.… Read more
Although linear regressions can get complicated, most jobs involving the plotting of a trendline are easy. Simple Linear Regression is handy for the SQL Programmer in making a prediction of a linear trend and giving a figure for the level probability for the prediction, and what is more, they are easy to do with the aggregation that is built into SQL.… Read more
Statistical calculations in SQL are often perfectly easy to do. SQL was designed to be a natural fit for calculating correlation, regression and variance on large quantities of data. It just isn't always immediately obvious how. In the second of a series of articles, Phil factor shows how calculating a non-parametric correlation via Kendall's Tau or Spearman's Rho can be stress-free.… Read more
Many people in IT, even at Redgate where I work, see the job title “Editor” and think I spend most of my time fixing spelling mistakes, adding Oxford Commas, and thwarting an author’s ambitions to end a sentence with a preposition. They are sometimes bemused, therefore, when they learn how long a proper technical edit … Read more
Some people will assure you that you can't do any serious statistical calculations in SQL. In the first of a series of articles, Phil factor aims to prove them wrong by explaining how easy it is to calculate Pearson's Product Moment Correlation.… Read more
If you roll out DevOps across an organization before it is culturally prepared for it, you will see warning signs that the initiative is failing. These are: Team members complain of unmanageable workloads Requirements, quality management and metrics get neglected; customer complaints increase You promote and reward the ‘firefighters’ rather than the staff who prevent … Read more
Three of Redgate’s tools are now part of the 2017 release of Visual Studio Enterprise (as announced last week), as components of the Data Storage and Processing ‘workload’. Some might be surprised to find third-party tools being included in the Visual Studio installer, but it’s an interesting sign of the times. No longer can any … Read more
The new temporal tables in SQL Server 2016 are interesting, in that they seem a much better way of storing any financial information than conventional relational tables. They have been referred to by some as “SQL Server’s time machine”. They are system-versioned tables that allow SQL Server to maintain the different versions each row, using … Read more
I have learned over the years that some people really like it when I am verbose, long-winded, redundant and carry an otherwise small sentence on forever until you wonder to yourself, “Really, what it he point here?”, and then there are the other 98% of the people who stumble on my posts and articles and … Read more
When exploring the use of the Metaphone algorithm for fuzzy search, Phil couldn't find a SQL version of the algorithm so he wrote one. The Metaphone algorithm is built in to PHP, and is widely used for string searches where you aren't always likely to get exact matches, such as ancestral research and historical documents. It is particularly useful when comparing strings word-by-word. With a SQL version, it is easy to experiment on large quantities of data!… Read more
Big Data has its origin in science, but it is now being used commercially to increase the information that organizations have about people. This information can uniquely identify individuals and reveal their likes, habits, propensities and wealth. The power of this information is so great that legislation on its use is having to become more … Read more
Over the history of personal computing, it seems that the best software was written by a team of five or fewer programmers. CP/M, the first PC operating system was built by one guy, Gary Kildall, though he got parts from others such as Gordon Eubanks. MSDOS originated in QDOS, again written by one person, Tim … Read more
Sometimes, you can be asked an awkward question about data that doesn't quite fit with the SQL way of thinking. Although window functions have made SQL more versatile, there are times when you have to reach for your favourite book of algorithms to code your way around an unusual reporting task… Read more
Database source code analysis can flush out weakly-authenticated database users, over-privileged users and roles, or stored procedure code that concatenates a parameter directly into the dynamic SQL string that is to be executed, and so is vulnerable SQL injection. This is great for the development team, but it is also wonderful for the hacker. Getting … Read more
What’s the main obstacle to implementing a DevOps approach in your organization? In a recent “State of DevOps” survey conducted by Redgate, the second most popular answer to this question, after “lack of skills”, was “lack of alignment between development and operations teams“. Hmm, so you can’t do DevOps until you have a DevOps culture. … Read more
An interesting workaround using unique fields Unique fields in SQL Server are created using unique constraints or unique indexes, furthermore, each unique constraint uses a unique index. Regardless of using unique constraint or unique index, the field can accept null values, however the uniqueness will result in only accepting a single row with null value. The solution … Read more
Dear Marjorie, I try my best to keep up with the latest technology. I even read “IT Trends Monthly” religiously, but still become embarrassed in meetings whenever the developers namedrop some hot new technology that has passed me by, or toss out another dizzying TLA. I try to stay quiet and just nod my head … Read more
Subscribe for more articles
Fortnightly newsletters help sharpen your skills and keep you ahead, with articles, ebooks and opinion to keep you informed.
Subscribe to our fortnightly newsletter
How you log in to Simple Talk has changed
We now use Redgate ID (RGID). If you already have an RGID, we’ll try to match it to your account. If not, we’ll create one for you and connect it.
