Blog Post: What Exactly Is This Sysadmin You Speak Of?
Sysadmin ; seems important doesn’t? What exactly is this sysadmin you speak of? SQL is provided with certain fixed server roles out of the box to help manage permissions. This doesn’t mean you should...
View ArticleBlog Post: Optimizing SQL Server Performance: Changing Your Settings
To help professionals address the myriad challenges involved with performance optimization, SQL Server experts Patrick O’Keeffe and Richard Douglas co-authored the “ Ten Tips for Optimizing SQL Server...
View ArticleBlog Post: #SQLRelay 2013 R2 – Week 2
If you haven’t heard of SQL Relay and you live in the UK then shame on you. SQL Relay is an annual community run series of SQL Server training events across the UK. Our aim is to enhance the existing...
View ArticleBlog Post: What Happens In Vegas…
…stays in Vegas, except when it comes to chocolate. After walking more than 1500 miles over the past 9 months, 30 of those in Las Vegas last week, I’ve earned a treat. What’s this have to do with SQL...
View ArticleForum Post: RE: Toad for SQL Server
MSSQL does not support the CONCAT function. The CONCAT function is used in MySQL. You must use the + operator. SELECT ‘BPF’ + t_suno_c as [FieldName] from ttfgld902702 If t_suno_c is not a...
View ArticleBlog Post: Interviews: Doing Your Homework
There was an interesting debate on Twitter the other day over whether or not it’s important for an interviewee to know what a company does, or if they should just know whatever technology the job...
View ArticleBlog Post: Executing powershell script in a SQL Agent job - Host errors
Recently I created a SQL Agent job that’s runs a PowerShell script, I tested the PowerShell script in my PowerShell editor and the script was running fine, but when I ran the same script in SQL agent...
View ArticleBlog Post: Power BI for Office 365 video
A demonstration of Power BI for Office 365, showing you how all the various tools and technologies work together: Power Query, Power Pivot, Power View, Power Map, Power BI sites, Data Management,...
View ArticleBlog Post: Hashing for Indexes
Hashing functions. I’m going to talk about two ways to hash your data inside SQL Server and one way outside SQL Server. CHECKSUM options Let’s talk about BINARY_CHECKSUM () and CHECKSUM (). These...
View ArticleBlog Post: Friday Followup For November 22, 2013
It’s Friday, time to look back at the most popular RealSQLGuy posts of the week. Because it’s Friday and you’re not doing any real work anyway. Posts That Were Popular This Week 20 Abuses:...
View ArticleBlog Post: It sure would be grand to have interesting interviews
Coincidentally, in a week of debate and thinking and writing on IT interviews and candidates, XKCD has gifted us with something beautiful: a comic about an interview more interesting than any I’ve ever...
View ArticleBlog Post: Reblog: November 15 to November 21
I’ve always been a fan of the feeling when I find an old blog post that’s got just the information that I need to solve a problem or answer a question. It’s that whole “cha-ching” – buried treasure!...
View ArticleBlog Post: Are the Excel Add-Ins Alone Considered Power BI? (Nope!)
Recently I had been wondering…if you’re just using one of the four “Power” Add-Ins to Excel, without Office 365, is that still considered Power BI? The answer is no, use of the Excel Add-Ins alone is...
View ArticleBlog Post: Pivoting Data In Power Query
One of the features I’ve loved right from the start in Power Query is the ability to UnPivot data right from the UI (I’m not alone – Ken Puls has written a good blog post summing up this functionality...
View ArticleBlog Post: SQL Server – Kill all sessions using database
Before an existing database can be restored, there should be connections using the database in question. If the database is currently in use the RESTORE command fails with below error: Msg 3101, Level...
View ArticleBlog Post: Reverse or Mirrored Bar Chart in SSRS
There are some pretty charts out there and most of them can be done in Reporting Services. There is one type of chart I had someone ask for that is not natively built in to SSRS. But with a little...
View ArticleBlog Post: Finding the metadata for a query
You know I occasionally find it interesting how I learn new things. I was running through a practice test for the 70-461 and one of the questions had an odd command as one of the possible answers. SET...
View ArticleBlog Post: What Are Your Servers Doing While You’re Sleeping?
Well, do you know? You’re the DBA, the guy in charge, the guy who gets pounced on first thing in the morning with complaints of “my report took FOREVER to run last night, why?”, or “customers are...
View ArticleBlog Post: Overview of Microsoft Capabilities for Self-Service BI Users
From time to time I'll be contributing to the BlueGranite blog which has lots of great BI information published by my coworkers. This week I published a blog entry titled " Overview of Microsoft...
View ArticleBlog Post: Last Weeks Top “Reading” Links #59
Monday morning and it’s time for weekly round-up. If you follow me on twitter ( @StrateSQL ), you’ll know that throughout the day I tweet out some links of things I find interesting. While these...
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