The Bit Bucket

I had a previous life as a developer and ran a software-development house. Even then, I was very focussed on data. I don’t think I’ve ever had a BD (before data) period. I see almost everything I’ve ever worked on in data-related terms, so perhaps it’s the time before I focussed on data.

But what this does mean is that whenever I get together with other data-related people, I’m one of the people who is asking why things that are taken for granted in the developer community, aren’t present in SQL Server and its T-SQL language.

2018-03-16

I’ve mentioned in an earlier article about scripting multiple objects at once, how useful the Object Explorer Details window is, and how little understood it is.

Another useful option in it, is that the displayed columns can be changed. In particular, you can add columns that would be useful. Let’s look at an example.

In Object Explorer, I’ve expanded the WideWorldImporters database and clicked on the word Tables:

Next, I hit the F7 key, and the Object Explorer Details pane opens showing this:

2018-03-15

When you create script out a table in SQL Server using SQL Server Management Studio, you’ll notice that it scripts more than just the table itself. Before the table, it scripts the values for ANSI_NULLS and QUOTED_IDENTIFIER.

A common problem that I see is that someone highlights the CREATE TABLE statement and runs it, without highlighting the SET options above it. That has the chance of leading to the wrong values. I don’t run into big issues with QUOTED_IDENTIFIER but I certainly run into issues with ANSI_NULLS.

2018-03-14

I spend a lot of time with developers and with ISVs (Independent Software Vendors). Often, I come across really weird table designs. A common problem is the creation of tables that hold many different types of objects.

If I look at one of your tables, and ask you what it holds, your answer shouldn’t start with “It depends”.

A worse design is one where the same discussion happens about columns. If I ask you what is held in the ObjectID column, and you say “that depends upon what’s in the ObjectType column”, you’d better be building some sort of utility, not a relational database to support an application. There are so many downsides to this type of design but that’s a topic for another day.

2018-03-12

I’ve recently been making use of SQL Clone from Redgate, at various client sites. I have to say that I really like it.

The basic concept is that you take an existing SQL Server database, you create an “image” from it, then you create database clones from that image.

Under the covers, it’s basically a differencing technology. The initial image is like an initial set of database files, and each clone is then files that are differenced from that. That makes it very easy to spin up clones, and to break them down again. While this isn’t really suitable for much in the way of performance or load testing, as everyone is sharing the same base, it’s perfect for general development.

2018-03-09

It’s great that SQL Server Management Studio has moved into the latest Visual Studio shell. Unfortunately, there are one or two things that are a little harder at first for people who want to use SSMS to write T-SQL. One that was driving me crazy was the scroll bar. Visual Studio tries to give so much information on that bar, about what’s changed, where the insertion carat is, etc. The problem with this is that I often now can’t even find the handle when I want to scroll the window. For example, how do you grab the handle with your mouse and slide the window when it looks like this?

2018-03-08

One of the first things that I often do when familiarizing myself with a database, is to get a list of all the tables, columns, and data types. This immediately tells me a lot about how the database was designed.

For example, have they made newbie mistakes like using float for storing amounts of money.

One of our free SDU Tools makes this easy.

In the image above you can see the ListAllColumnsAndDataTypes procedure in use.

2018-03-07

I was interested to see our old buddy Pinal Dave recently post a link to one of another old buddy Brent Ozar’s posts from 2015:

What’s the difference between a contractor, and consultant, and FTE?

Brent defined consultants as giving advice on what the client should do; whereas contractors turn up and do what they’re told. This distinction is pretty clear and I agree with him.

I always thought that was a great post but I also always thought it misses one additional category: mentor.

2018-03-06

There is an old saying about not reinventing the wheel yet this is something that I see happening at client sites every day. I see two main reasons why this happens:

Discoverability

[caption id=“attachment_2809” align=“alignnone” width=“339”] Image by Nathan Dumlao[/caption]

There are so many tools and frameworks in this industry, that you can’t be expected to know them all. I remember when I worked a lot with the .NET framework. I’d go into client sites and see them designing and building classes that were already in the framework. Worse, the framework classes were usually very well designed and tested.

2018-03-06

I spend quite a bit of time tracing queries sent from applications to SQL Server.

Having now done this for a long time, I can recognize many of the data frameworks that are used by various developers. I think that if any of the developers ever spent much time looking at traces, they’d be amazed at how the requests they have made to the framework are translated to commands that are sent to SQL Server.

2018-03-05