The Basics - Level 1 of the Stairway to Query Store (2020-10-07)

 SQLServerCentral Newsletter for October 7, 2020 Problems displaying this newsletter? [View online](. [SQL Server Central]( Featured Contents - [The Basics - Level 1 of the Stairway to Query Store]( - [Improve Power BI Performance with Horizontal Filtering]( - [Free eBook: Fundamentals of SQL Server 2012 Replication]( - [From the SQL Server Central Blogs - The SQL Server and Containers Guide]( - [From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Undercover Academy – SQL Server Backup and Recovery – Module 1: Taking and Restoring a Backup]( Question of the Day - [Unpacking a List in Python]( [Redgate SQL Prompt]( The Voice of the DBA  Daily Coping Tip You matter. Remember that you are enough, just as you are. I also have [a thread at SQLServerCentral]( dealing with coping mechanisms and resources. Feel free to participate. For many of you out there working in a new way, I'm including a thought of the day on how to cope in this challenging time from [The Action for Happiness Coping Calendar](. My items will be on [my blog](, feel free to share yours. AI Data At the Microsoft Ignite conference recently, I saw a talk that mentioned the Microsoft Garage Project, [Trove](, which is designed to help people provide data for AI projects in a new way. You can [read more about it]( and get the app for Android mobile devices. Trove is built to help AI researchers find images and use them in projects. However, the data they get is provided by users, who make the choice to include their data. This is different than many AI projects, where anyone doing AI work often just gets data from various sources, often without the individuals understanding where their data is being used or for what purposes. I like the idea here of people specifically giving permission for their data to be used. It's a good way for volunteers to provide data, and have some control over how the information you provide might be used and where it is used. That doesn't mean this is necessarily a good model for the future. First, I'm not sure we can easily verify that the images someone submits are their own. I could see that if there are payments made, I'm sure people will try to game this and earn more money by using images they don't own. We already have problems with [people publishing content they didn't create](. I'm sure we've have plenty more with something like Trove. The other issue, and likely the biggest one I think is a problem, is that trying to understand what data is collected and how it's used by many companies is a challenge. Even when there is some disclosure, it can be difficult to understand what is being released. Even while reading [this document]( on SQL Server data collection, I'm not sure what might be collected on my system that could be an issue. I don't think this is malicious or deceitful on Microsoft's part, I'm just not sure I can understand the implications. That is where I feel we as a society, and certainly with regards to regulations, are woefully immature. We don't have good controls, but I'm not sure we really know what we'd want. This is a thorny problem, and one I know we need to find better solutions to over time. Especially as we use more and more data for large scale research and applications in areas such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Steve Jones - SSC Editor [Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums](   Featured Contents [The Basics - Level 1 of the Stairway to Query Store]( carlos10robles from SQLServerCentral Introduction Instead of going straight into the topic of the Query Store, I would like to start this Stairway Series by mentioning a few performance tuning scenarios that are very common to production DBAs. I think most of us have been in one of these situations at some time: An application experiencing slowness after a […] [Improve Power BI Performance with Horizontal Filtering]( Additional Articles from MSSQLTips.com In this third part of this Power BI optimization series we look at how horizontal filtering and other changes can improve overall performance [Free eBook: Fundamentals of SQL Server 2012 Replication]( Press Release from Redgate Fundamentals of SQL Server 2012 Replication provides a hands-on introduction to SQL Server replication. The book introduces you to the technologies that make up replication, and then walks you through setting up different replication scenarios. When you've finished reading, you should be able to implement your own multi-server replication setup while following the principle of least privilege. From the SQL Server Central Blogs - [The SQL Server and Containers Guide]( dbafromthecold@gmail.com from The DBA Who Came In From The Cold I’ve been blogging about running SQL Server in Docker containers for a while now and, to be honest, my blogs are scattered over a few years and some need... From the SQL Server Central Blogs - [Undercover Academy – SQL Server Backup and Recovery – Module 1: Taking and Restoring a Backup]( david.fowler 42596 from SQL Undercover Welcome along to the first module in our Undercover Academy’s SQL Server Backup and Recovery course. In this module we’re going to look at how to take and restore...   Question of the Day Today's question (by BTylerWhite):  Unpacking a List in Python I have created the following list in Python 3: languages = ['C#', 'Python', 'R'] I decide I want to assign variables to each element in the list by unpacking it. a, b, c, *d = languages What is the expected output when I execute the following? print(b) Think you know the answer? [Click here]( and find out if you are right.    Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor) Backing up to the same Azure File I want to send a second copy of my SQL Server 2019 database backup to Azure Blog storage as an emergency. To make things easy, I specify the command as follows: BACKUP DATABASE AdventureWorks2016 TO URL = '; This works fine on day one, but I get an error on day two. What do I need to add to this command? Answer: WITH FORMAT Explanation: The WITH INIT command is used on premises, but this doesn't work with blobs. WITH FORMAT is used. Ref: SQL Server Backup to URL - [Discuss this question and answer on the forums](    Database Pros Who Need Your Help Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, [visit the forums](. --------------------------------------------------------------- SQL Server 2017 - Development [Making 1 row from 2]( - I'm struggling a bit here. It seems easy, but I 'm not getting it. I'm trying to make 1 row from 2 rows where if 1 row has no data and the second one does, then get the distinct row with all the data. Kind of a merge. My example table with 2 rows of […] [Stacked instances of SQL 2017 Express, unable to complete a distributed txn]( - I have two instances of SQL 2017 Express installed on a given computer. Computer name is WINDEV2004EVAL and the instances are named SQLExpress1 and SQLExpress2. When I try to perform a distributed transaction between the two instances, I am encountering the following error after a three-minute stall Msg 8501, Level 16, State 2, Line 6 […] SQL Server 2016 - Administration [DB Space Script - Arithmetic Overflow]( - Hi All I have the below script that I use to check DB space on my SQL instances. I've now run into an issue where I keep getting Arithmetic Overflow errors because of the size of some of the DB's. Can anyone guide me into fixing this up?  Thanks Script:  ------------------------------Data file size---------------------------- […] [SQL database compression before shrink ?]( - Hello, I have a question about some maintenance. I need to do some shrink for 2TB from 7TB allocated DB, because we did some deleting and set some auto-deleting so should not be now drastically increased and we want to have more free space on disks. I had an idea below compress the whole DB, […] [IntelliSense no longer working]( - I recently got a new laptop at work and now IntelliSense is no longer working in SSMS 2016. It always worked fine before, so I'm assuming it's some kind of local configuration issue or something, not a server-related setting or access issue. I've tried all the usual stuff: making sure IntelliSense is enabled, refreshing the […] SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL [Self referencing formula has me stumped]( - I have spent so long looking at this I have become blinded. I don't even know how to properly describe this problem. I am trying to determine a selling price that includes a fee that is dependent on the selling price. I need to calculate the selling price including the fee by leaving a margin […] [Splitting a crazy column into two new columns]( - Hi all, I have some data which is provided, unfortunately I have no control over the format. One crazy column contains some data i need to split into two columns, i can't even think how to do this... So this is the crazy data in that column: Booked on: 20/03/2020 10:52 by: A1234567 Is there […] Development - SQL Server 2014 [Find run of repeating value]( - Hi In the below input test data, ID is unique and in ascending order (not incremental values). I want to find runs of at least three 1s, and return the result below. The 0s would be any values that are not 1. I'm thinking there must be some 'standard' way to do this, such as […] SQL Server 2019 - Administration [Database distribution in AlwaysOn]( - Good morning all , I have an on Always On SQL server configuration where transactional replication is configured If I open SSMS I find that the distribution database is set to AlwaysOn on then I cannot find the synchronized word thanks  SQL Server 2019 - Development [PowerShell command to Run SQL file Fails asking for a variable]( - Good morning team, I can run a .sql file that contains a SQLCMD command, with no errors via SSMS. This is a job script. When i call it to run from PowerShell it fails asking to define a variable when it should be a literal inside a job step. Is there any code i can […] [DLOOKUP in SQL]( - I tried looking up a comparable function in SQL to the DLOOKUP in ACCESS. I had this working in ACCESS, but since I now am learning SQL i'm looking for some help to how to write this is SQL. Overview: Query will be used on a Table called "A" to lookup field name 'Price' get […] Azure Data Factory [Move file to Archive after copy and delete the files]( - Hi All, I have a data pipeline to get the files from an SFTP Server and COPY into ADLS Gen2. Now i want to add an additional functionality. After the COPY Activity i want to move those files to an Archive folder and delete the files from the Current folder. I have done this using […] Anything that is NOT about SQL! [DBA progress/career development/ path]( - Hi I am an post-grad and mssql server dba with around 5/6 years of experience and currently confused about my carrier progression and with all this cloud automation i am worried that dba (purely administrator role) might get diminished or disappear whole together so i am here for help I would like to know what […] [sql server laptops using AMD processor]( - Hi I have current dell laptop with intel processor .I has become old and wish to purchased new one .i wish to try one with amd processor .Which one would be good amd processor from there current generation ryzen 3/5/or 7 .I am not into gaming much .it mostly going to used for learning and […] SQLServerCentral.com Website Issues [Why is the topic I'm trying to start not posting?]( - I have a very challenging issue with integrating a CLR on a new MSSQL17 server i'm migrating to. I've written a very detailed topic regarding the issue seeking expert advise from the members here, but for some reason my topic never shows up. I was trying to post it in the SQL Server 2017 - […]   [RSS Feed]([Twitter]( This email has been sent to {EMAIL}. 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