Phil Factor Getting Data between Excel and SQL Server using ODBC With ODBC, you can summarise, and select just the data you need, in an Excel workbook before importing it into... 16 August 2013 28 min read
Grant Fritchey Database Administration as a Service A DBA should provide two things, a service and leadership. For Grant Fritchey, it was whilst serving a role in... 14 August 2013 11 min read
Robert Sheldon Columnstore Indexes in SQL Server 2012 The columnstore index in SQL Server 2012 stores columns instead of rows, and is designed to speed up analytical processing... 30 July 2013 11 min read
Dwain Camps Gaps and Islands in SQL Server data The fun of exploring problems such as Gaps and Islands is all the greater when we have a test-harness to... 25 July 2013 16 min read
Robert Sheldon Using Microsoft Excel to Retrieve SSAS Tabular Data Although it is well-known how to create a tabular database in PowerPivot, it is less obvious that there are several... 16 July 2013 19 min read
Phil Factor SQL Server ALTER TABLE syntax diagrams The words in the documentation for the ALTER TABLE syntax on MSDN are accurate with forensic precision, but the potentially-useful... 09 July 2013 8 min read
Louis Davidson Baselining with SQL Server Dynamic Management Views When you're monitoring SQL Server, it is better to capture a baseline for those aspects that you're checking, such as... 02 July 2013 18 min read
Feodor Georgiev Collecting the Information in the Default Trace The default trace is still the best way of getting important information to provide a security audit of SQL Server,... 02 July 2013 14 min read
Rob Garrison Exploring In-memory OLTP Engine (Hekaton) in SQL Server 2014 CTP1 The continuing drop in the price of memory has made fast in-memory OLTP increasingly viable. SQL Server 2014 allows you... 25 June 2013 12 min read
Robert Sheldon Using DAX to retrieve tabular data Data Analysis Expressions (DAX), originally the formula language for PowerPivot workbooks, can also be used within the MDX query window... 24 June 2013 17 min read
Jonathan Allen Preparing to Upgrade your SQL Server It isn't a problem to use deprecated TSQL features until it comes to the time to move the database to... 12 June 2013 17 min read
Hugo Kornelis Painless management of a logging table in SQL Server Tables that log a record of what happens in an application can get very large, easpecially if they're growing by... 11 June 2013 26 min read
Alexander Karmanov Automating SQL Server Database Deployments: Scripting Details To wrap up the series on Database Deployment Challenges, Alexander takes a dive into the details of how he scripted... 06 June 2013 30 min read
Phil Factor SQL Server CREATE TABLE syntax diagrams Many of us have seen, on MSDN, the heading 'Syntax', followed by a rash of nested brackets and keywords, enough... 06 June 2013 8 min read
Joe Celko The SQL of Parts Explosions Parts explosions present a classic IT problem. How can one calculate such things as weight or cost of assemblies in... 30 May 2013 11 min read
Tools Michael Sorens in Tools MySQL Data Compare: The Manual that Time Forgot MySQL Data Compare can both compare the data in MYSQL databases and also synchronise them. It is handy for a... 28 May 2013 16 min read
Robert Sheldon Getting Started with the SSAS Tabular Model SSAS Tabular models are in-memory databases that model data with relational constructs such as tables and relationships, in order to... 22 May 2013 16 min read
Andy Brown Moving Data From Excel to SQL Server – 10 Steps to Follow SQL Server Integration Services provide a versatile way of reading Excel files into SQL Server. A task like this illustrates... 21 May 2013 15 min read
Grant Fritchey The DBA Detective: The Case of the Missing Index When problems arise in SQL Server, we're faced with a server full of suspects, including disk I/O, memory, CPU, incorrect... 15 May 2013 12 min read
Tools Michael Sorens in Tools MySQL Compare: The Manual That Time Forgot, Part 1 Although SQL Compare, for SQL Server, is one of Redgate's best-known products, there are also 'sister' tools that allow you... 03 May 2013 14 min read
