Recently I have been looking into the integration of Dot Net to Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services. There are a number of different ways Reporting Services can integrate or take advantage of Dot Net capabilities You can actually use a Dot Net object and or collection as a data source. A collection can return multiple objects of the same type, […]
Author: Ben Taylor
Integrating Dot Net Code in SSIS
SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) is a really great platform for ETL processes. Most of you have used it at one time or another. It has some really amazing capabilities such as the ability to use fuzzy logic for comparisons when your data isn’t highly standardized. For example, the English names Robert, Rob, Robby, Bob, Bobby are all interchangeable to […]
Temporal Queries
Yesterday we did a review on Temporal tables. In short, a temporal table has two new columns added to it that are maintained by the database engine, instead of by the queries you write yourself. It maintains time segment columns with a beginning date/time and an ending Date/Time. You could add these columns yourself and maintain them. The difference here […]
The Power of the Temporal Table
One of the coolest things about the latest versions of SQL Server is the ability to have concurrent versions of the same row of data in a table, and know what version is appropriate for each connection. This results in less blocking for a very active database with many concurrent users. Think of this kind of table as being three […]
WHERE vs. HAVING
Today I wanted to talk about the difference between the WHERE clause and the HAVING clause in a SQL query. They both filter the data that is returned from the query, but the work quite differently. The WHERE clause is completely independent of the HAVING clause. If you specify a where clause in your query, every record returned from the […]
Basic Joins – CROSS JOIN
A while back I was sharing some of my favorite SQL Developer interview questions. The one I shared was about the different kinds of JOINS operations you can do in any SQL relational engine. We talked about INNER JOIN, LEFT OUTER JOIN, RIGHT OUTER JOIN and FULL OUTER JOIN. One of the joins I left out of the basic set […]
Think Small To Make Big Changes
One of the best resources I have found for database development was by Scott Ambler, “Agile Database Techniques.” The primary reason I say that is not to espouse the Agile Software Development Lifecycle as much as to encourage many incremental improvements. One of the things the Japanese auto makers started was a different way to introduce new features in their […]
Budget For Long Term IT Resources
Why can’t we budget to replace IT Systems? This is a common problem for many companies. They are willing to purchase many things to make their business run. But, it is difficult to absorb the cost of those resources that have a shorter duty cycle. A manufacturer can purchase a CNC machine, and have reasonable use if operated properly for […]
VbScript Is Not Dead
One of the cool things (or bad things depending on how you look at it) about my job is that I get to work with many different tools at different application layers. I get to do DevOps kinds of work, data warehousing, transactional databases, Object/Relational Mapping, REST Services, WCF Services, Java Script, MVC Applications on both the server or on […]
Learning Linq From SQL
One of the things I like about working in Dot Net is the Linq libraries. Having worked in SQL for so many years I have found my brain twisted to think in sets. There are so many things we do with sets, yet the sets we have available are not always in a relational database. Linq fills that gap quite […]