Michael Coles: Sergeant SQL

SQLSaturday #69 - Philly Love

Mike C — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 01:38:00 GMT

Thanks to the Philly SQL Server User Group (PSSUG) and to everyone who attended SQLSaturday #69 in the City of Brotherly Love yesterday. It was a great event with a lot of great people. My presentations are available for download at the links below: http://www.sqlsaturday.com/viewsession.aspx?sat=69&sessionid=3333...(read more)

SQLSaturday #60 - Cleveland Rocks!

Mike C — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:44:00 GMT

Looking forward to seeing all the DBAs, programmers and BI folks in Cleveland at SQLSaturday #60 tomorrow! I'll be presenting on (1) Intro to Spatial Data and (2) Build Your Own Search Engine in SQL. I've reworked the Spatial Data presentation based on...(read more)

Why "Tailoring" Your Resume Is Bad

Mike C — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 03:16:00 GMT

I was just writing a response to a comment on my "Sell Yourself!" presentation ( http://sqlblog.com/blogs/michael_coles/archive/2010/12/05/sell-yourself-presentation.aspx#comments ), and it started getting a little lengthy so I decided to turn it into...(read more)

This Year's SQL Christmas Card

Mike C — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 19:42:00 GMT

This year's Christmas Card is similar to last year's. I used the geometry data type again for a spatial data design. Just download the attachment, unzip the .SQL script and run it in SSMS. Then look at the Spatial Data preview tab for the result. Also...(read more)

Here Comes the FY11 Earmarks Database

Mike C — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 04:51:00 GMT

I'm really interested in politics (don't worry, I'm not going to start bashing politicians and hammering you with political rage). The point is when the U.S. FY11 Omnibus Spending Bill (the bill to fund the U.S. Government for another year) was announced...(read more)

Sell Yourself! Presentation

Mike C — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 23:01:00 GMT

Thanks to everyone who attended my "Sell Yourself!" presentation at SQLSaturday #61 in Washington, D.C., and thanks to NOVA SQL for setting up the event! I'm uploading the presentation deck here in PDF, original length, with new materials (I had to cut...(read more)

Try-N-Save SSIS Packages

Mike C — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:17:00 GMT

The Try-N-Save SSIS Packages from my SSIS Dimensional Data Optimization presentation are available at http://cid-8f7e6c950afc6b3e.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Presentation/TryNSave.zip . I'm still working on getting the sample database uploaded -...(read more)

High Performance Dimensional Data Loads With SSIS Presentation

Mike C — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 18:25:00 GMT

Just finished giving the SSIS High-Performance Dimensional Data Load presentation at SQLSaturday #59 NYC . Here are the slides in PDF format. I'll upload the Try-N-Save code and sample data later for attendees to play with. Thanks to everyone who attended...(read more)

Dynamic SQL and Late Binding

Mike C — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 16:54:00 GMT

We all know that dynamic SQL runs in its own scope (see here for details), and that if used improperly it can have serious security implications. But it's also important to realize that dynamic SQL evaluates your SQL statements more like a stored procedure...(read more)

T-SQL Tuesday #006 Round-up!

Mike C — Thu, 13 May 2010 23:40:00 GMT

T-SQL Tuesday this month was all about LOB (large object) data. Thanks to all the great bloggers out there who participated! The participants this month posted some very impressive articles with information running the gamut from Reporting Services to...(read more)

T-SQL Tuesday #006: Tiger/Line Spatial Data

Mike C — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:11:00 GMT

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday post is about LOB data http://sqlblog.com/blogs/michael_coles/archive/2010/05/03/t-sql-tuesday-006-what-about-blob.aspx . For this one I decided to post a sample Tiger/Line SQL database I use all the time in live demos. For...(read more)

T-SQL Tuesday #006: "What About BLOB?"

Mike C — Mon, 03 May 2010 23:29:00 GMT

Invitation for T-SQL Tuesday #006: "What About BLOB?" It's getting warm outside just in time for the May T-SQL Tuesday blog party. I’ll be your host this month--and the secret word for this T-SQL Tuesday is "Large Object (LOB) Data" . What’s T-SQL Tuesday?...(read more)

Find a Hash Collision, Win $100

Mike C — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:38:00 GMT

Margarity Kerns recently published a very nice article at SQL Server Central on using hash functions to detect changes in rows during the data warehouse load ETL process. On the discussion page for the article I noticed a lot of the same old arguments...(read more)

T-SQL Tuesday #005: Creating SSMS Custom Reports

Mike C — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:14:00 GMT

This is my contribution to the T-SQL Tuesday blog party, started by Adam Machanic and hosted this month by Aaron Nelson . Aaron announced this month's topic is "reporting" so I figured I'd throw a blog up on a reporting topic I've been interested in for...(read more)

Bit-Twiddling in SQL

Mike C — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 03:40:00 GMT

Someone posted a question to the SQL Server forum the other day asking how to count runs of zero bits in an integer using SQL. Basically the poster wanted to know how to efficiently determine the longest contiguous string of zero-bits (known as a run...(read more)