It's Time to Play (DBW 2024-08-31)

Database Weekly for August 31, 2024 Problems displaying this newsletter? [View online](. [Database Weekly]( The Complete Weekly Roundup of SQL Server News by SQLServerCentral.com Hand-picked content to sharpen your professional edge Editorial  It's Time to Play Writing editorials every few weeks for a technical mailing list has been one of the more challenging responsibilities in my (nearly) two years with Redgate as an advocate working with Steve, Grant, and Louis. Each week, it’s interesting for me to see the mix of technical insights and everyday life stuff that each of us think about and share. It’s equally interesting and encouraging to see what you, the readers, engage with, too. One thing’s for sure, we’re not just a group of one-dimensional database geeks. Which is why I was encouraged by Grant’s Database weekly editorial last week. It struck a (good) nerve for me. Sometimes you just need a reminder that there’s more to life than a keyboard and data. One thing I’ve been better about over the last year is listening to audio books by investing in an Audible account. While I’m not opposed to a good fiction book now and again, you’ll mostly find my library full of non-fiction books, including research and biographies. Of particular interest in recent months has been a series of books focusing on raising children in this fast-paced, always-on world. As a father of six children, it feels more pertinent with each passing year. My most recent book, started on recommendation from a friend, is “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt. I’m not done with it yet, so I can’t give you a full review, but it’s been eye-opening on several fronts. None, however, has been more compelling than the impact of our digital, phone-based society on the youngest among us. There are numerous findings in the book and accompanying data that have caused me to start asking similar questions to Grant’s challenge last week. Don’t get me wrong, we’re a tight-knit family, that loves to adventure together, immerse ourselves in rich stories, and create together. But still, I’ve been very challenged with how focused and available I am for my children when we share the same space. How attuned I am to the nuances of their individual experiences? How well do I model the truth that a digital screen is never more important than undistracted eye contact and open, focused ears? The time goes fast, and I want to choose them, and other people close to me, over and above the plethora of screens around me all day long. There’s no guilt trip intended in this brief thought for the parents and non-parents alike. I’ve just been compelled to think long and hard about how I manage my time and prioritize the people and things that matter. My time with them isn’t unlimited. It’s a finite resource, but it’s easy to lose track of that. I love technology and data, and I even love teaching my kids about both, but I think it might be time to close this laptop, turn off the phone for the afternoon, and go play outside for a bit… even on a rainy day like today. Will you join me? Ryan Booz [Join the debate, and respond to the editorial on the forums](  The Weekly News All the headlines and interesting SQL Server information that we've collected over the past week, and sometimes even a few repeats if we think they fit. Vendors/3rd Party Products [Data Container Revisions, Resets and Graduations]( Redgate Test Data Manager allows developers to save each new version of a database as a data container revision. After making local development changes to the container, or running tests, they can instantly reset it to its starting revision. They can also load any previous revision and can even 'graduate' a revision to an image, providing a new baseline for ongoing team development. These techniques are especially effective when used in conjunction with Flyway, which automatically tracks the version of every copy of the database. [Current Activity for PostgreSQL in Redgate Monitor]( Current Activity for PostgreSQL in Redgate Monitor provides a real-time view of queries currently running on your PostgreSQL instances. It will allow you to identify quickly any queries that are currently causing blocking and resource contention issues on an instance. AI/Machine Learning/Cognitive Services [A Primer on Vector Databases]( From Curated SQL Brendan Tierney gives us an overview of vector databases: A Vector Database is a specialized database designed to efficiently store, search, and retrieve high-dimensional vectors,… Administration of SQL Server [Computed Columns and Wide Index Updates]( From Curated SQL Paul White takes us through a performance scenario: Update execution plans are not something the T-SQL statement writer has much control over. You can affect… [Migrating SQL Server Database Files between Storage Subsystems]( From Curated SQL Andy Yun does a bit of shuffling: In my role at Pure Storage, I often engage with customers who wish to migrate their SQL Server… Big Data [Bad Data and Dirty Databases]( From Simple Talk Many years ago, my wife and I wrote an article for... Conferences, Classes, Events, and Webinars [Full PASS Summit 2024 program revealed]( The full program for PASS Summit 2024 is now available! Explore the exciting lineup of sessions and meet the inspiring speakers who will be sharing their expertise this year. Discover the topics and experts and save your spot before Standard pricing ends on September 18. Database Design, Theory and Development [LIKE Constraints]( In this article, I will cover a bit about the LIKE operator, including how it works, and a bit of history about why it is like it is. After establishing this, I will discuss a bit about how you can (and should) use the LIKE operator in your CHECK constraints to strengthen your data integrity. MDX/DAX [Filter columns, not tables, in DAX]( From Sqlbi Why you should always filter columns and never fil... Machine Learning [Video: Bringing a Streamlit App to Production]( From 36 Chambers – The Legendary Journeys THE VIDEO THE SYNOPSIS In this video, I discuss so... Microsoft Fabric ( Azure Synapse Analytics, OneLake, ADLS, Data Science) [Loading Scanner API JSON Data from Fabric into Power BI Desktop]( From Curated SQL Gilbert Quevauvilliers hunts for some output files: How to get data from a Fabric Lakehouse File into Power BI Desktop – Using Scanner API JSON… [Connect Azure Data Studio to Microsoft Fabric]( From Purple Frog Systems Azure Data Studio and Microsoft Fabric As organisations increasingly adopt Microsoft Fabric for their data warehousing and analytics needs, finding the right tools to speed up development is crucial.... PostgreSQL [pg_dump and the Backup Tool Debate]( From Curated SQL Gulcin Yildirim Jelinek explains the debate around... [AWS RDS PostgreSQL Restore to a Point in Time]( From Scary DBA (Grant Fritchey) One of the single biggest reasons to go with a Pla... [Greg Sabino Mullane: Understanding the Postgres Hackers Mailing List Language]( From Planet Postgres The Postgres hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) is an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to contribute to the PostgreSQL code. The Postgres project does not use PRs (pull requests) or... PowerPivot/PowerQuery/PowerBI [Tuning Power BI Copilot With Row Labels And Key Columns]( From Chris Webb's BI Blog A few weeks ago I wrote a post on how to improve t... T-SQL and Query Languages [Discovering Nested References in SQL Server]( From Curated SQL Tom Zika is helping: Read on for a script to set up the example and then a query to build out these references. [Searching for Wildcard Characters in LIKE]( From Curated SQL Andy Brownsword is looking for a discount: Performing a wildcard search by throwing a % into a LIKE expression is bread and butter. How do we handle this when… [Effective Strategies for Storing and Parsing JSON in SQL Server]( This article delves into how JSON is stored in SQL Server and the different ways in which it can be written, read, and maintained. [Odd things found when working with data]( From Sherpa of Data Sometimes, you’ll find all sorts of craziness wh... [“SARGable” Sorting and Grouping In SQL Server]( From Erik Darling Data “SARGable” Sorting and Grouping In SQL Server ... [SQL EXISTS Use Cases and Examples]( From MSSQL Tips This tip will explain what the SQL Server keyword ... Testing Software [Creating Test Classes and Unit Tests with tSQLt]( From Curated SQL Olivier Van Steenlandt continues a series on database testing: We have set up our tSQLt Database Project in the previous data recipe, Create a SSDT Project… [Improve Your Next Experiment by Learning Better Proxy Metrics From Past Experiments]( From Netflix TechBlog - Medium By Aurélien Bibaut, Winston Chou, Simon Ejdemyr, ...  [RSS Feed]( This email has been sent to {EMAIL}. To be removed from this list, please click [here](. If you have any problems leaving the list, please contact the webmaster@sqlservercentral.com. This newsletter was sent to you because you signed up at SQLServerCentral.com. Note: This is not the SQLServerCentral.com daily newsletter list, and unsubscribing to this newsletter will not stop you receiving the SQL Server Central daily newsletters. 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