It’s time to try another video. In this one, I’m talking about some of the changes with SQL Server 2022 that we always forget to look at – enhancements to the T-SQL language.
Here are a couple of those enhancements that I found interesting:
Thanks for watching and let me know what you think!
Happy T-SQL Tuesday! I wasn’t really sure I’d be able to crank something out for this one but somehow I managed to squeeze it in. Tim Mitchell ( b ) is hosting and he has a great topic for us: What’s in our Data Detective toolkit?
I love this topic for so many reasons. Partly because I feel like I’m asked to look at so many projects where I’m dropped in and asked to figure things out, usually performance related but occasionally new functionality or features. But as I’m asked to do this fairly often, I may have to see if Data Detective can be my new title… hmm…
Continue reading “T-SQL Tuesday #179 – My Data Detective Toolkit”I’m doing something new – instead of a full post with lots of text, I’m doing a video! While it’s not as polished as others in the community, I didn’t want making it perfect get in the way of getting this done. I’m hoping to do more of these so I will definitely be upping in my game in the production department in the future.
But it’s really the content that I wanted to focus on. It’s a quick look at Parameter Sensitive Plan Optimization and Memory Grant Feedback and what they can do. This is just an introduction to seeing them in action and understanding how we can use that to help tune our queries long term.
I’m not sure I emphasized this enough in the videos but I would not have been able to do this if I hadn’t used a lot of the resources Microsoft has made available to us to recreate these on our own. If you’re trying to understand how these work, take some time to look into these more:
Take a look and let me know what you think!
I feel like I’ve been neglecting my blog this summer so there’s nothing like T-SQL Tuesday to help bring me back. A big thanks to Mala Mahadevan (b) for this month’s topic, since it is one near and dear to my heart. She asked us how we manage our database code.
One of the earliest projects at my first job as a junior DBA was to script out the database and check everything into source control. Later, a coworker told me that they were intimidated when they met me: The source control application put my name as the creator (since I was the one who checked in the initial version of the script) so they thought I designed the entire database.
Continue reading “T-SQL Tuesday #177 – Maintaining Database Code”Last year, Tracy Boggiano (blog | LinkedIn) and I were excited to announce the formation of WITspiration, a women in tech mentoring circle.
So where are we a year later? We’re still going and have started our next cohort!
We definitely learned a lot from last year. I think the biggest lesson has been how hard it is to get started. Some circles were able to connect quickly while others kept having problems, with simple things like emails constantly hitting spam filters or life in general getting in the way. By the time we were able to step in, it made the timeline that much longer which made it even harder to help at that point.
One of the things we’re most excited about this upcoming year is that we’re going to do more to help fix some of these issues. Tracy and I are now admins of the SQLWIT Community Slack, which will enable us to resolve some of the email issues by creating a better way for circles to communicate with each other. Not only that, but it’s allowed us to create channels to have virtual circles where members can chat rather than try to find a time to meet. Another advantage is the ability to have a general channel to allow us to have larger group conversations and connections.
(As a side note, Tracy and I would love to see the SQLWIT Slack be used for more than just WITspiration, like it was when it was first started. Maybe we’ll tackle that in year 3, so stay tuned for what comes next.)
We also introduced monthly drop-in meetings, where anyone can join if they’re able. There are two times for these meetings so all time zones can have at least one that they can make.
Another change that we are making is allowing people to sign up at any point rather than once a year. While it means it may take a while to add people to a circle, no one has to wait to join for any of the other online conversations or drop-in meet ups that occur.
What’s been the best part of this first year? Hearing about the connections that some people have made in their circles. It sounds cheesy but making these connections and being able to share issues we face at work in a space designed to help each other figure out these problems. It’s what makes us want to keep this going and build upon the successes.
If you’re a woman in tech and this sounds like something you’re interested in, you can fill out the form here: bit.ly/witspirationsignup. And help us spread the word.
Happy T-SQL Tuesday! This month’s topic comes from Kevin Feasel (b | t), who wants to know: What is your favorite job interview question?
As an interviewer, I’m going to ask you questions about the things I see on your resume, how do you learn, have you done the things you’ll be working on yet, etc. But I think my favorite question is along the lines of “Tell me about a time when things went wrong.” Because things inevitably go wrong. It’s all about how you handle them. And depending on how big the disaster was, the story that goes with it is probably a pretty interesting one. But what I look for is the lessons learned and how you learned them.
On the other hand, one of my favorite interview questions as a candidate came from a technical interview. A previous company used the technique of showing interviewees code and then they would ask the person to tell them about the code. These types of questions can be problematic if you’re trying to trick the candidate and then figuring out how much do you help the interviewee if they are getting the answer wrong. However, during my interview with this company, the interviewer gave me a question: given this scenario, how many ways can you write a query to give you everything in A that doesn’t have a record in B. (They told me they stole that question from someone interviewing them for a difference company.) In the end, I came up with all but 1 way to do this. But it wasn’t necessarily the question itself that made me a fan but it was the conversation that came out of that question. Not only did I learn the technique that I was missing but it created a connection that led to more conversations through the interview where I became excited about a job I wasn’t sure about how I felt. Why? Because these questions and conversations were with someone I wanted to work with because I felt like it was going to be a place where I could learn and grow my skills. And that’s what I was looking for.
I don’t do a whole lot of interviews but what I do look for is a sense of who you are, what you have done, and a sense of how you are going to learn the things you haven’t done yet. And if there’s a connection made where I want to work with you, even better!
Power Platform is part of the Microsoft universe of products, for lack of a better phrase. But the one thing I find interesting is that the default connectors for data in the PowerPlatform sphere is Dataverse or Sharepoint. At least, when I see people talking about PowerApps is you’re connecting to one of those two connectors for your data. (Fun fact, PowerApps solutions use Dataverse to store configurations.) One would think that SQL Server database, wherever it may live Azure or on prem, would be part of that combination, but it’s actually considered a Premium connector.
Continue reading “Power Apps Connection References to SQL Server”As a developer, I have two things I have to do: 1. Check code into source control and 2. Make sure I can use that code to deploy to any and all environments repeatably and successfully. The question then becomes, how do you do this when the development environment is in a portal?
Continue reading “Unpacking and Packing Solutions with PowerApps CLI (PAC)”One of the big challenges I had was how to move the app from different environments. Following best software development practices, we have a development environment in our Power Platform that uses a development database as well as a production environment that points to a different production database. This has been a multi-step process with hurdles along the way.
Continue reading “Deploy PowerApps – Solutions vs Apps”When I write a SQL Query, I never have to worry if the way I’m writing a query will automatically create a limit on the number of records being returned if I’m not specifying TOP or OFFSET…FETCH. If my query wants to return 1 million records, it will return 1 million records.
PowerApps doesn’t work that way. It uses something called delegation to figure out if the data source can do the filter work required. Otherwise it puts a limit on the number of rows returned. By default, the value is 500 but you can change the limit to 2000, as seen below.
Continue reading “PowerApps Delegation & Database Design”
Deb the DBA 