This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by TJay Belt (@tjaybelt). 2020 and 2021 brought changes for many of us, and TJay wants to know what we have learned, tried, or implemented for balancing work and life during this time. This is an interesting topic for me because I absolutely failed at it in 2020. It was only a few months into 2021 that I started figuring things out for myself. In this post, I will be sharing and explaining the yeps and nopes I have implemented for myself while working from home.
(Side note: After figuring out how to spell dos and don’ts, and deciding that all of the correct options look weird, I chose to use “yeps and nopes” instead. Just… just roll with it 😅)
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Anthony Nocentino (@nocentino). He wants to know what we’ve been up to with containers. Perfect timing, because I have just spent the last couple of weeks learning how to develop in containers using Visual Studio Code! I was planning to write this for myself anyway, but perhaps it can be interesting for others as well 🤓
What is the use case?
One of my clients are using dbt (Data Build Tool) for their data transformations. In short, this means that developers write data transformations in SQL as SELECT statements. All SQL code can be combined with Jinja templates. Inside of these Jinja templates, developers can reference other tables, use control logic, or define common SQL code snippets as reusable macros. Dbt then compiles the SQL+Jinja code into pure SQL.
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Jess Pomfret (@jpomfret). She wants to hear about life hacks to make your life easier! In this post, I share two of my most-used keyboard shortcuts. One for moving text lines up and down without copying and pasting, and one for moving windows around without dragging and dropping. I use these all the time :)
Moving text lines up and down
Previously, I was moving text lines up and down in a couple of different ways. Have you ever marked all the text on a line, copied it, then pasted it again? Yeah, I did that all the time. And then I discovered there’s an easier way! Yay 🤩
There are a couple of different flavors to this keyboard shortcut.
In Office applications like PowerPoint and OneNote, you use Shift+Alt+Up and Shift+Alt+Down:
In other applications like SQL Server Management Studio, Azure Data Studio, and Visual Studio Code, you simply use Alt+Up and Alt+Down.
Moving windows around or between screens
Similarly, I was previously dragging windows around multiple monitors using my mouse. Then I discovered you can use Win+Arrows to move windows around. And then I discovered that you can use Win+Shift+Arrows to immediately move windows to the same position on other monitors. Are you showing a full-screen application while presenting? Just win-shift-arrow it to the extended screen and you look like a total pro. Whaaat! 🤯😁
Keyboard all the things!
There you go. Two of my favorite, useful, and timesaving keyboard shortcuts! I use these so much that I don’t think about them anymore - until someone goes “whoa whoa whoa wait what magic did you just do!?” 😎
The March 2019 edition of T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Shane O’Neill (@SOZDBA). This month, Shane wants us to share our cookies. Wait… what? Yes! Cookies 🍪 In this analogy, cookies are accomplishments or memories you can look back on when things get tough. Something that will give you an energy kick to keep you going when you think you’re completely done.
I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on this since the topic was announced. My cookie jar definitely consists of two types of cookies: technical and non-technical. There are more of the latter, which I believe is a good thing 😊
In this post, I’ll highlight some of the technical accomplishments I’m proud of, and share some of my happy memories that always make me smile. (I mean pictures. I will share lots and lots of pictures.)
This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Andy Leonard (@AndyLeonard). Andy wants to know what is our “why”, or why we do what we do. Before I can answer the why, I will briefly explain the what 😊 I work as a Business Intelligence consultant, focusing on Data Warehousing, Data Integration, and Data Visualization.
The short answer to “why?” is because the work is both challenging and rewarding. As a Business Intelligence consultant, I get to use all my skills from programming to design. I get to satisfy my instinctive need to group, organize, and sort things when working with data. Then I get to make things shiny and pretty. Finally, I get to work with other people, learn about their industries, and help them do their jobs better.
The long answer is… longer 😅 I absolutely love my job now, but I ended up in the world of data completely accidentally. I’ve gone from Web Development to Graphic Design to Interactive Design to Java Programming to SharePoint Development to Data Warehouse Architecture to Community Evangelizing… And now I’m here 🤓 (Phew!) So why am I a Business Intelligence consultant?
The first T-SQL Tuesday of 2019 is hosted by Garry Bargsley (@gbargsley), and the topic is “Automate All the Things”. Garry wants to know what this phrase means to each of us. What do we want to automate? What is our go-to technology for automation? To me, this was super easy. Surprise, surprise! It’s Biml, of course 🤓 Since this post is part of T-SQL Tuesday, I wanted to go back to the basics and write about how you can generate SQL using Biml. But first, a little bit of background for those who are not that familiar with Biml.
T-SQL Tuesday #101 is hosted by Jens Vestergaard (@vestergaardj), and the topic is My Essential SQL Server Tools. There are several tools that I use every single day, such as Notepad++, Redgate SQL Prompt, and BimlExpress. Since I have already covered my favorite tools in other blog posts, I want to take a slightly different approach this time and share some of my favorite online tools.
T-SQL Tuesday #99 is hosted by Aaron Bertrand (@AaronBertrand) and the topic is Dealer’s Choice. What does that mean? Aaron wanted us to choose between two topics: write about something we are passionate about outside the SQL Server community, or write about T-SQL bad habits and best practices. I’m too afraid to argue with Aaron, so I chose the first option 😅
But what did I want to write about? Truth be told, I’m pretty boring. I don’t have any real hobbies outside of tech, just a few interests. I first considered writing about hiking. I need to disconnect completely once in a while, and my favorite way of doing that is to get sweaty while walking for hours up a mountain or waterfall. My Instagram (@cathrinesqueee) is my highlight reel, full of pictures and happy memories from my trips.
However, instead of embedding all the pictures that are already on Instagram, I decided to write about something completely different. Something obscure. Something fun and geeky from way before I got involved in the SQL Server community. Something from my good old teenage fangirling days…
T-SQL Tuesday #68 is hosted by Andy Yun (@SQLBek). Many SQL Server defaults are not ideal, and most of us have a list of defaults we always change. Andy wants us to Just Say No to Defaults and blog about what, why or how we change defaults.
If you are an SSIS developer like me, there is a big chance that the ProtectionLevel in SSIS Packages is on top of your list of defaults to change. The default ProtectionLevel is EncryptSensitiveWithUserKey (ugh), but most of the time it is not the best option. Raise your hand if you have ever asked your favorite search engine for advice on issues like “SSIS package fails in SQL Server Agent job” or if you have ever heard someone exclaim “but it works on my machine!?” 😅
There are many great blog posts about the different ProtectionLevels, why you probably want to change to DontSaveSensitive as your default, and how to use configurations and parameters instead of encrypted SSIS packages. I will not go into details about any of that in this post, but I will use ProtectionLevel as an example default property you want to change in many SSIS packages at the same time.
How do you batch update properties in existing SSIS packages? You probably don’t want to open up every single package and change them manually?
T-SQL Tuesday #66 was hosted by me on May 12th. The topic of the month was Monitoring. We all monitor something while working with SQL Server, and this month’s blog posts covers all kinds of topics by DBAs, developers and BI professionals 🤓
T-SQL Tuesday #66 is hosted by me (yay, fun!) and is all about monitoring. We all monitor something while working with SQL Server, and there are so many topics to choose from. As a Data Warehouse developer I use Adam Machanic’s sp_WhoIsActive all the time, I look at the Integration Services Dashboard in SSMS to monitor SSIS package executions and I check the Job Activity Monitor for a quick overview of what’s currently running on our servers.
However, I decided to write about a custom Real Time Monitoring solution we use in my company (Storebrand) that my coworkers in Lithuania created. I couldn’t resist this opportunity to show one of our cool solutions that I get to use and to brag about how talented my coworkers are 👏🏻
Welcome to T-SQL Tuesday #66! My name is Cathrine Wilhelmsen (@cathrinew) and I’m very happy to be your host for the T-SQL Tuesday on May 12th, 2015. The topic of the month is monitoring.
Much Monitoring in the Month of May
We all monitor something while working with SQL Server: Maybe you’re a DBA who monitors database performance, an SSIS developer who monitors job and package execution, an application developer who monitors queries or a BI analyst who monitors report usage? Do you use T-SQL or PowerShell scripts? Have you created your own monitoring reports or applications? Have you invested in a complete monitoring solution from a vendor? What is monitored manually and what is automated with alerts? If a brand new SQL Server professional in your role asks you for advice, what do you say is the number one most important thing to monitor? Have you ever stayed awake for a week solving a problem that could have been avoided with proper monitoring? Did you implement a monitoring solution that saved your company?
T-SQL Tuesday #65 is hosted by Mike Donnelly (@SQLMD). There is no specific topic to write about this month, Mike simply wants us to learn something new and then write a blog post to teach it to others. I want to share something that I only recently learned, something I wish I had known about years ago, something that became part of my toolbox as soon as I discovered it: the Numbers Table. It is so simple and solves so many problems that everyone should know about it 🤓
A Numbers Table (perhaps most known as a Tally Table, sometimes called an Auxiliary Table of Numbers and even referred to as the Swiss Army Knife of SQL Server) is a one-column helper table that contains the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and so on all the way up to the-highest-number-you-could-possibly-need.
It can be used to replace slower loops and row-by-row operations with faster set-based operations, generate dates, split strings, find gaps in data sets, expand data sets, insert test data and probably hundreds of other things. There are so many great and detailed articles already published about this topic, so I will stick to the T-SQL Tuesday topic of “Teach Something New” and share the two most recent things I learned: different ways to create a numbers table, and different ways to quickly insert test data by using a numbers table.
T-SQL Tuesday #57 is hosted by Jeffrey Verheul (@DevJef) and the topic is #SQLFamily. This is a topic close to my heart and even while writing this I’m all excited to read other stories. I can go on for ages about #SQLFamily, but I’ve decided to focus on one thing: pay it forward.
One year ago I had never heard about #SQLFamily and I didn’t even know the SQL community existed. I knew people wrote blogs and forum posts, I knew some taught classes and others published books, but I was your average employee: I did my job, learned what I had to learn to do my job well, and searched online to find solutions and better ways to do things.
Then I went to PASS Summit 2013 and the experience turned my life upside-down.