April 5th, 2011 
When a project starts to go sideways and you’re cursing Naive Past You who signed off on the “aggressive” time estimates as you feed quarters into the vending machine in hopes that powdered donuts and honey buns won’t give you a heart attack before you hit the deadline, the last thing you want to talk [...]
Author Archive
What Are We Doing Here, Exactly?
There’s a secret about being a developer that I forget all the time. I know it, and I should remember it, but in the daily drama of life, I tend to forget it. Here it is: Knowing how to do something is the easy part. Knowing what to do… that’s hard. Technical skills allow me [...]
Noir SQL… Or, a Hardboiled Approach to Getting the Job Done
You can tell a lot about my state of mind by the books I’m reading. Lately, it’s Urban Fantasy with a Noir feel to it. Specifically, I’m reading Mike Carey’s Felix Castor series, and I just finished a book by Richard Kadrey called Sandman Slim: A Novel. I love the anti-hero. The protagonist who is [...]
Open Invitation: Atlanta SQL Server Writer’s Workshop
The Short & Sweet: WHAT: Atlanta SQL Server Writer’s Workshop WHO: Anyone who writes, presents, or is thinking of getting started in either WHEN: Thursday, January 6, beginning at 6:30 PM (First Thursday of the month going forward) WHERE:
Adventures in MDX – Sets
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m just not good at MDX. No excuses… I’m just not. Rather than jumping in and memorizing functions and complex structures, I’m trying to train my over-saturated brain to comprehend how the data is structured, and subsequently, how to get said data out of the cube and into a result set. [...]
Adventures in MDX – Tuples
Personal Note: I wrote the bulk of this post last night. Before I read Chris Webb’s blog post about the future of SSAS and MDX. I almost didn’t post this after reading that. But you know what? I’m learning MDX anyway. I hate the idea that Microsoft would potentially remove aspects of the BI stack [...]
Use a Common Table Expression and the ROW_NUMBER() Function to Eliminate Duplicate Rows
Or, removing duplicates with panache… I think of them as rogue tables. They’re quick and dirty and cause you a world of hurt before it’s all over. We’ve all got them. Like those photos from college that guarantee you’ll never run for public office, rogue tables are best left hidden. But, you’re always wondering when [...]
Getting Schooled on Dynamic PIVOT
I wrote a post about Deconstructing Pivot. With my newfound confidence, I decided to tackle dynamic pivots. This is a common scenario where you need to PIVOT, but you don’t know exactly what you’re going to end up with. Basically, you want to allow all of the possible column headers to come back with the [...]
Deconstructing PIVOT
I’m intimidated by PIVOT. I’ve had a heck of a time wrapping my head around it, which is shameful, because Junior Accountants have been making pivot charts in Excel for years. They get it, so why can’t I? Well, I’ve got a few theories… Anyway, I finally got into a situation where I couldn’t avoid [...]
Trusted Foreign Keys
Hey friends! Long time, no see. I know, you’re wondering where I’ve been. Lately, I’ve had the luxury of taking some time to work on Microsoft certifications. I just got through 70-448, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. Now, I’m working on 70-433, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Database Development. I’ll admit… I [...]
Posted in Database Development, Performance, T-SQL 
Tags: Database Development, Foreign Key, SQLServer, T-SQL 
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