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SQL Alphabet Table: Get Next Character
While writing some dynamic SQL to cycle through a set of Active Directory LDAP queries (don’t ask, ugh) I needed to dynamically create a table with the values 0-9 and A-Z in it. After a few minutes,
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Clearing the SQL Server Analysis Services Cache
Preparing to do some MDX performance testing? Step one for each and every test should be to clear the cache. This will ensure you are seeing the performance results without the benefit of having data already loaded up in memory. How do you empty the MS SQL Analysis Services cache prior to running your query?
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The Four Database Design Principles You Should Be Using
“Obey the principles without being bound by them.” -Bruce Lee Do you have some guiding principles you use when designing a new feature or when implementing a new requirement? I do. And you should too. I put them to paper a few years ago while we were undergoing a hiring binge and I wanted […]
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Free Zip Code, City, County, State, CSV
Free Download of the zip code CSV file available at the bottom of this post. Why this is so hard to track down I don’t know. We were looking for a comma delimited list which would map zip code to county since county is the lowest grain available in the out of the box SQL […]
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Execute Stored Procedure From Excel With Temp Table
Do you want to execute a stored procedure from Excel? No problem! Does your proc contain a temp table? Problem! Actually, don’t panic. The fix is incredibly simple. Tracking down this post was probably the most difficult part. When executing a SQL Server proc with a temp table you must remember to “SET NOCOUNT ON” […]
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The Three Best Tips For Effective Code Reviews And Preventing Knife Fights!
Bring a group of senior business intelligence professionals or SQL Server pros together to review each others code and you have all the potential for a good knife fight. As our team is getting ready to make design/code reviews a regular part of our development process we’re looking to make sure we get off on […]
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Is Your Team Defending The Status Quo? (Are you?)
Saw this blog post from Seth Godin. It outlines a number of points that might indicate you are defending the status quo. Don’t get me wrong, in many cases there are benefits to the status quo. It’s proven, it’s understood, you know the pros and you know the cons. In many cases sticking with the […]
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SQL Server Partition Lock Escalation Property Query
Whenever I want to check a setting in SQL Server I always prefer to find it using a query. Every once in awhile these settings turn out to be on the verge of being undocumented. This is the case with table level lock escalation (also known as partition level lock escalation). The T-SQL query below […]
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The Houston Rockets Say “Better Data, Not Better Analysis” Is The Key
Came across this post on the Harvard Business Review site by the GM of the Houston Rockets. Thought provoking stuff. As the title implies the data you have is more important than the analysts using the data. If you’re too lazy to read it here are my cliff notes (you lazy bum):
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We can’t do that here
Hmm, first thought was: “we can’t do that here”… Second thought: “that first thought was lame”.