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The second (and most important) software test
Read more: The second (and most important) software testThere is an old computer science adage that the sooner you find a bug, the less impact it has. In this post I want to talk about the first test that every programmer does, and why you need to be as purposeful with this test as possible. No matter who you are, or how well…
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T-SQL Tuesday #197 – An impactful session or two from a conference
Read more: T-SQL Tuesday #197 – An impactful session or two from a conferenceThis month the host is Steve Hughes/Data on Wheels. His topic idea is “to tell us about one or more things you learned at ANY conference you have attended that has impacted you or how you work.” Here is the link: This is a really great invite and it really made be (continue) to ponder…
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SUBSTRING Optional Length In SQL SERVER 2025
Read more: SUBSTRING Optional Length In SQL SERVER 2025Sometimes along comes a feature that seems so obvious, so natural, that you wonder why it took so long for Microsoft to implement it. One of those features in SQL Server 2025 is the optional length parameter in the SUBSTRING function. It has long been one of those questions when you wrote a SUBSTRING expression…
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Day of Data Richmond is THIS WEEK!
Read more: Day of Data Richmond is THIS WEEK!Time is a weird commodity. From one point of view, the supply is inexhaustible. No matter how many minutes I spend here at my iPad writing, there are more minutes in supply. I keep writing and time doesn’t stop at some certain time. But at the same time, I never have enough time despite this…
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Two often forgotten, yet important tracks at a tech conference
Read more: Two often forgotten, yet important tracks at a tech conferenceI recently got back from several conferences DataTune in Nashville, TN; then FABCON/SQLCON and SQL Saturday Atlanta BI in Atlanta, GA. And over these few weeks, I spent time between sessions thinking about how to make the most of my time. At a tech conference, we generally have tracks for what you are learning (Data,…
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Read/Write Ratio in a SQL Server database
Read more: Read/Write Ratio in a SQL Server databaseRepost (with some cleaning up since the book referenced was posted 18 years ago Read/Write Ratio versus Read/Write Ratio?.And I kind of hate that title now that I read it again. When I wrote this post, I had a very strong belief that my OLTP databases are heavy writes and OLAP heavy reads. But in…
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(Satire) New vlog series: Blogging for AI
Read more: (Satire) New vlog series: Blogging for AIWhile this was satire for April Fools day, it has shadows of being way too true. FranksterAI is powered by Rick Astley of course, but let’s be fair, this is kind of true, and as time passes it could become more true. And even if AI is going to read and listen to everything you…
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Define the question before writing the query
Read more: Define the question before writing the queryI am writing a presentation to do a couple of times this year on SQL techniques you ought to know. In the abstract, I defined the story as basically, you get an urgent request for a new report that does some aggregation and I am going to give you some techniques to help you out.…
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DATE_BUCKET performance versus conventional methods
Read more: DATE_BUCKET performance versus conventional methodsA month and a half ago, I wrote a blog on using DATE_BUCKET. It is a cool feature thta makes doing some grouping really quite easy. It is here: Cool features in SQL Server I missed…DATE_BUCKET. One of the comments that came in was about performance of the DATE_BUCKET versus using things like DATEDIFF or…
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The Opposite of Mental Rest
Read more: The Opposite of Mental RestSo, I wrote a blog about getting Mental Rest on Simple Talk a while back, and the concept is that I go to theme parks (Walt Disney World whenever it is long, or @dollywood is my home park). and then I work my physical body to complete exhaustion, but my brain… it is completely in…
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Hello,
I’m Louis
I have been at this database thing for a very long time, with no plans to stop.
