If we’ve ever sat down and discussed how I look at work, career, and professional development in general, you know I see every job as a partnership between two companies. The company you’ll be working for, and you. You are a company of one. That partnership has to benefit both companies. The company is getting…
SQL201-On Handling Errors
Let’s get back into SQL 200 by learning to deal with errors. Churchill had a great quote that applies to development (database or not) “He who fails to plan is planning to fail.” No matter how well you think you’ve planned your code, it’s going tofail. The question is, will it fail gracefully,…
Why I Went with SQL Sentry
In my SQL Saturday #80 Session I spoke about how to get started as a DBA. One of the greatest advantages you can have as a DBA is setting up a fully featured monitoring solution. I mentioned three different solutions: Redgate Monitor, Confio Ignite, and SQL Sentry Power Suite. I mentioned the pros and cons…
SQL201–The OUTPUT Clause
Starting with SQL 2005 SQL introduced a new clause for your INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and MERGE statements…the OUTPUT clause. If you’re not using it yet, it might be because you’re not sure what you could use it for. Let’s go through a scenario where the OUTPUT clause could save you from doing a RBAR (Row…
SQL 201-Table Variables
It’s been a while since I’ve added to my SQL 201 series, so I thought I’d pick up with table variables. In an earlier post, I covered temp tables. Temp tables are a great place to dump in raw data, then transform it into another form so you can use it in a different way. …
Don’t Miss My Session at SQLSaturday #80
That’s right! I’ll be speaking at this weekend’s SQL Saturday event in Wheeling, WV. I’m the last speaker in track #3. I’m looking forward to Ed Wilson’s PowerShell session at 9:10AM, I need to use more PowerShell in my daily job. I have a couple of scripts that really work for me now, it’s time…
SQL 201-Ranking Functions
It’s been a while since I’ve covered a SQL 201 topic! I want to jump back into it with ranking functions. These are functions that let you represent orders in your data. When you were in school I’m sure you had to take standardized tests. When you did you were given a percentile score. This…
Some Blogging Changes
You may have noticed there are fewer posts on here than there have been in several months. Well, I’ve been sitting on some news. I’m working with several new sites to publish articles. I’ve made the decision to make this site a central hub. I’ll link out to all my articles as they become live…
2011 Resolutions Checkup
Earlier this morning Tom LaRock (@SQLRockstar) reminded us all the year was half over. He also suggested we take a look at our new year’s resolutions. So I decided to give it a go and see how I had been progressing this year. I had broken down my goals for the year into several sections,…
Going Paperless: Is it time to buy a tablet?
My latest article has been published over at Salary.com! Check it out. Going Paperless: Is it time to buy a tablet? Think about how much paper you use at your job on a daily basis. You print out emails and spreadsheets, take notes during meetings and fill out forms which are then shipped across the…