belle's sql musings

Refactor This: Runaway T-SQL to Print YYMMDD

belle — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:04:12 +0000

Recently trying to debug some really cryptic T-SQL scripts. Guess what this is trying to do? -- DECLARE @dt varchar(6) SET @dt = RIGHT(CONVERT(varchar(4), YEAR(getdate())),2) + REPLICATE('0', 2 - LEN(CONVERT(varchar(2), MONTH(getdate())))) + CONVERT(varchar(2), MONTH(getdate())) + REPLICATE('0', 2 - LEN(CONVERT(varchar(2), DAY(getdate())))) + CONVERT(varchar(2), DAY(getdate())) -- Answer: It’s trying to print the current date in YYMMDD format. Uhm, there’s a much better way to [...]

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Becoming a DBA – the Right and Not-So-Right Reasons

belle — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:34:37 +0000

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. – Confucius It’s amazing how many, and how consistently, I get “reluctant would-be DBAs” in my class. I always do a quick survey or poll when the course starts where I ask the students why they’re taking [...]

I’ve been tagged – Three Things That Got Me Here

belle — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 07:06:23 +0000

Glenn Alan Berry (@GlennAlanBerry) tagged me, so here goes my version of “3 things that got me here” … I wanted a job that didn’t involve hiking up the mountains in winter … I took Geology in University (while working almost full time closing shifts at a local McDonald’s), spent a lot of years trying to get [...]

Becoming a DBA – the Right and Not-So-Right Reasons ...

SQLPASS – Sessions, “tweeps”, swags, inspirations and lessons learned – looking forward to SQLPASS2010

belle — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:57:55 +0000

This is my SQLPASS : Sessions Day 0 – Pre-Conference Building a Microsoft Data Warehousing Platform by Brian Knight – excellent introduction to data cleansing, warehousing, and even data mining! Day 1 Keynote Spotlight: SSRS in the Enterprise – How to Survive with a Smile (Wayne Snyder) To Partition or Not To Partition – The Questions … and the answers [...]

SQLPASS Pre-Conference Lessons Learned – Building a Microsoft Data Warehousing Platform (Brian Knight)

belle — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 01:12:29 +0000

I just finished the SQLPASS pre-conference from Brian Knight – Building a Microsoft Data Warehousing Platform, and I’m so pumped to do more BI! Reporting, Data Warehousing, Data Mining – all fun stuff. In a gist, this is what we learned today (and it’s a lot of acronyms): - SSIS, ETL - SSAS - Cubes, Data Warehouse - Data Mining - [...]

Resizing your VMWare Disk in 12 Steps

belle — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 06:55:24 +0000

Every now and then I need to resize my VMWare Server disks. The is the easiest and least troublesome way, from my experience, is to use GParted Live (Gnome Partition Editor) Prep Work: 1. Download GParted (Gnome Partition Editor) Live (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/gparted-live-stable/). It is an iso file that we will mount to our vm 2. Locate where your vmware-vdiskmanager.exe is. [...]

Step by Step Guide to Creating a SQL Server VM Using VMWare ...

Are Vendor Certifications Still Valuable?

belle — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:56:43 +0000

Are they? I personally find them still valuable. Poured my thoughts into our company blog : Black Ninja Software – Are Vendor Certifications Still Valuable? How about you? What’s your take on it? Related posts:Looking for another Ninja (that is Ninja talk for looking for a good developer) ...BlackNinja Posts: Invoking Javascript and Impersonating Users in SharePoint ...DevTeach/SQLTeach in [...]

Excellent Free Ebooks from RedGate

belle — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:39:25 +0000

Excellent Free Ebooks from RedGate SQL Server eBook Selection 1. Protecting SQL Server Data by John Magnabosco 2. The Art of High Performance SQL by Grant Fritchey 3. The Art of XSD by Jacob Sebastian 4. Two Minute SQL Server Stumpers Vol. 5 DBA Ebooks Bundle 1. Mastering SQL Server Profiler 2. Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008 3. Brad McGehee’s DBA Best [...]