This morning I was listening to a podcast where the new features coming out for SQL Server 2022 were being discussed. This starting me thinking about what would be involved in upgrading. Upgrading production environments is complex and there are licensing considerations to take into account. However for non production...
I use sp_send_dbmail to send results of sql queries by email to business users. Recently an issue was raised that data was being cut off after 255 characters. To fix this I added @query_no_truncate = 1, however this stopped the column headings from being included. No idea why you can’t have all the data and column...
Recently I have been investigating what all the fuss is about Docker and it has been well worth my time as Docker is pretty awesome for automating stuff. My development environment has typically required installing SQL Server. SQL is a bit of a beast with lots of options and takes time to setup how you want. However...
Azure Table storage is cheap way to store data, however it has some drawbacks that you should be aware of. Azure Table storage is a simple way to store NoSQL data with key/attribute pairs. I am very familiar with storing data in SQL databases and would still choose SQL over Table storage, however Table storage is...
Source control is bread and butter for web developers, however not so much for SQL developers and other business people. One of my goals for the coming year is to get the whole of my team using source control processes. One of the arguments against using source control is there will always be a few exceptions where it...
Writing SQL queries is typically done with SQL Management Studio (SSMS). However this tool is a bit of a beast so let’s look at how you could use Visual Studio Code instead. Visual Studio Code is a free text editor but it is so much more than just a text editor. VS Code can be downloaded from...
The term Business Intelligence (BI) refers to technologies, applications and practices for the collection, integration, analysis, and presentation of business information. The purpose of Business Intelligence is to support better business decision making. Essentially, Business Intelligence systems are data-driven...
High Charts is a javascript library that allows graphs and charts to easily be added to web pages. A chart like this can easily be added with a few lines of html and javascript. <script src="https://code.highcharts.com/highcharts.js"> <script src="https://code.highcharts.com/modules/exporting.js"> <div...
So recently I started working on a new codebase. I will be honest when I first saw it, it was a mess. Here are a few of the things I did to try and regain control. I was given access to the source code on Visual Studio Team Services. However this consisted of a single commit 3 months ago. When I looked at what was...
Like many DBAs I spend a lot of time maintaining my SQL Server backups. From SQL Server I maintain both full backups and transaction log backups. I have often restored my full backups but until recently I have never restored a transaction log backup. All backup strategy’s are only as good as the last time you tested...