Databases Archives

Robert Sheldon in BI

Importing Excel Data into Power BI Desktop

In any commercial setting, Excel Spreadsheets remain the preferred way of collecting and analysing data, and it makes sense that...

26 October 2016 13 min read

Database Administration

Robert Sheldon in Database Administration

Retrieving SQL Server Query Execution Plans

Execution plans explain all you need to know about query performance, and how to fine-tune. Sure, you can see them...

18 October 2016 26 min read

David Njoku

JSON For Absolute Beginners: Part 5 – Generating JSON in Oracle

In this fifth article in our series on JSON and the Oracle database we’ll be pulling the curtains back on...

11 October 2016 7 min read

Database Administration

Phil Factor in Database Administration

Exporting SQL Server Query Results and Configuration as YAML with PowerShell and SMO

Exporting SQL Server query results and configuration data as YAML using PowerShell and SQL Server Management Objects (SMO). Handling XML...

06 October 2016 21 min read

T-SQL Programming

Grant Fritchey in T-SQL Programming

Who the Devil Wrote This SQL Code?

The way that you format T-SQL code can affect the productivity of the people who have to subsequently maintain your...

05 October 2016 12 min read

T-SQL Programming

Edward Elliott in T-SQL Programming

Which Edition of SQL Server is Best for Development Work?

You might think, as a developer, that nothing but the best is good enough as a development database. You might...

04 October 2016 15 min read

Jonathan Lewis

Hacking Indexes

Indexes are expensive to maintain so we want to get the greatest benefit we can from them and make sure...

03 October 2016 14 min read

David Njoku

JSON For Absolute Beginners: Part 4 – Retrieving JSON in Oracle

There’s a possibility you’ve parachuted into this series on JSON and Oracle at this point. If you are already familiar...

03 October 2016 11 min read

Anju Garg

Migrate Oracle Database To ASM Using ASMCMD

Introduction Oracle Database 10g Release 1 introduced Automatic Storage Management (ASM), a new framework for managing Oracle database files. ASM...

29 September 2016 9 min read

Jonathan Lewis

Investigating Indexes

Rebuilding indexes is an activity that you shouldn’t need to do often. There are always a few special cases –...

28 September 2016 16 min read

Anju Garg

Oracle Database 12.1.0.2c: Hot Cloning Of Pluggable Databases

Cloning of a Pluggable Database (PDB) in Oracle Multitenant is a great feature and is very useful. Oracle Database 12c Release 1 has...

20 September 2016 8 min read

BI

Robert Sheldon in BI

More Power BI to your Elbow

Power BI Desktop continues to evolve. There have been many improvements to the reporting side that together make it easier...

20 September 2016 14 min read

David Njoku

JSON For Absolute Beginners: Part 3 – Storing JSON in Oracle

Welcome to part three in this series of articles about Oracle and its uneasy romance with JSON. Uneasy? Well, that’s...

16 September 2016 7 min read

BI

Adam Aspin in BI

Power BI for Data Modelling

Power BI has a lot of uses, but one of the most interesting of them is to model and shape...

16 September 2016 24 min read

Database Administration

William Brewer in Database Administration

Database Cloud Backup Cribsheet

Several database backup providers are now offering ‘Database Backup to the Cloud’, or ‘Backup As A Service’ (BaaS). There is...

12 September 2016 14 min read

Anju Garg

Oracle Database 12.1.0.2c : Hot Cloning of Non-Container Databases

In the initial release of Oracle 12c (12.1.0.1c), a non-Container Database (non-CDB) could be converted to a pluggable database (PDB)...

05 September 2016 7 min read

Jonathan Lewis

Text Indexes

The Oracle database has many features that are not spoken of frequently and a recent note by Connor McDonald reminded...

05 September 2016 14 min read

Oracle

Aman Sharma in Oracle

Oracle SQL Query Parsing: Hard Parse vs Soft Parse, Cursor Caching, Library Cache, and Query Transformation

Oracle SQL query parsing explained - the query processing workflow from SQL statement to execution plan, the difference between hard...

05 September 2016 16 min read

Database Administration

Shel Burkow in Database Administration

In-Memory OLTP: Row Visibility in SQL Server’s MVCC

SQL Server's In-memory OLTP is fast, due to its multi-valued concurrency control (MVCC). MVCC avoids the need for locks by...

05 September 2016 15 min read

Jonathan Lewis

Massive Deletes – Part 4

In the previous installment of this series I produced some figures highlighting the main differences between doing a large delete...

05 September 2016 10 min read