Robert Sheldon How to Get NULLs Horribly Wrong in SQL Server NULLs in SQL are a mixed blessing. The Three-Valued Logic of SQL has its uses but can cause difficulties to... 25 June 2015 36 min read
Feodor Georgiev Getting to know your customers better – cohort analysis and RFM segmentation in R It often pays to use a tool like R, in conjunction with a relational database, to quickly perform a range... 12 June 2015 14 min read
Feodor Georgiev Using R to Explore Data by Analysis – for SQL Professionals What's the best way for a SQL programmer to learn about R? It's probably by trying out various experiments with... 02 June 2015 17 min read
Adam Aspin SQLXML Bulk Loader Basics SQLXML isn't exactly new technology, but like the even more venerable BCP, it remains the quickest and most reliable way... 02 June 2015 26 min read
Alex Kuznetsov Reusing T-SQL Code Database programmers are often caught in the paradox of wanting to implement business rules and complex functionality in one place... 28 May 2015 27 min read
Robert Sheldon How to Get SQL Server Dates and Times Horribly Wrong One of the times that you need things to go right is when you are doing analysis and reporting. This... 28 May 2015 35 min read
Dwain Camps Using the T-SQL PERCENTILE Analytic Functions in SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 Percentiles give meaning to measurements by telling you the percentage of the population being measured who get higher or lower... 18 May 2015 27 min read
Dennes Torres Optimizing Batch Process in SQL Server SQL Server batch processes are usually run from SQL Agent in background. They can take significant time and resources, especially... 08 May 2015 32 min read
Phil Factor Documenting your SQL Server Database One of the shocks that a developer can get when starting to program in T-SQL is that there is no... 06 May 2015 27 min read
Robert Sheldon How to Get SQL Server Security Horribly Wrong It is no good doing some or most of the aspects of SQL Server security right. You have to get... 29 April 2015 24 min read
Feodor Georgiev Making Data Analytics Simpler: SQL Server and R R and SQL Server are a match made in heaven. You don't need anything special to get started beyond the... 28 April 2015 13 min read
Dwain Camps Time Slots – An Essential Extension to Calendar Tables After answering many forum entries from developers asking for help with dealing with SQL that involved time intervals and ranges,... 22 April 2015 24 min read
Adam Aspin Mobile BI with SQL Server Reporting Services For users to get the information they need from mobile reports, we frequently have to tailor the way we design... 15 April 2015 30 min read
Grahaeme Ross Understanding Cross-Database Transactions in SQL Server Microsoft 'Always On' technology does not support distributed or cross-database transactions. Why not? Grahaeme Ross shows how to investigate cross-database... 11 April 2015 19 min read
Phil Factor Schema-Based Access Control for SQL Server Databases Access-control within the database is important for the security of data, but it should be simple to implement. It is... 09 April 2015 25 min read
Robert Sheldon How to Get SQL Server Data-Conversion Horribly Wrong One of the most certain ways of going wrong with any relational database is to get data conversion wrong. Implicit... 02 April 2015 34 min read
Joshua Feierman How DBAs Can Adopt the Craftsman Mindset The job of a DBA requires a fusion of skill and knowledge. To acquire this requires a craftsman mindset. Craftsmen... 01 April 2015 16 min read
Alex Kuznetsov Painless Refactoring of SQL Server Database Objects Refactoring a database object can often cause unexpected behavior in the code that accesses that object. In this article, adapted... 26 March 2015 25 min read
Fabiano Amorim Never Ignore a Sort Warning in SQL Server It is always bad news if your SQL queries are having to use the SORT operator. It is worse news... 18 March 2015 9 min read
Roy Ernest SQL Server Spatial Indexes Spatial Data in SQL Server has special indexing because it has to perform specialised functions. It is able, for example,... 18 March 2015 20 min read
