Surrogate key is term mostly used in data warehouse environments. We might not come by this term in application production databases simply because there is no need to generate these keys. We can do just fine with primary keys. It is much needed to create surrogate keys in data warehouses for many reasons, read further.… Read More »
SQL Like operator can find string of text based on a certain pattern. It is most usually used in clause WHERE. But it can be applied in any part of SQL query, for example in SELECT, UPDATE or DELETE. T-SQL LIKE has the following syntax: Syntax: SELECT <Column 1> FROM dbo.Table WHERE <Column 1> LIKE… Read More »
T-SQL is not a language designed primarily to do something big with text strings or manipulate with them. That is the reason why we will not find many text-related built-in functions. But we will definitely find use for those that are there. Let’s take a look at SQL String Functions. Text Concatenation (Combining) – CONCAT… Read More »
Best way to understanding of the differences between individual Power BI tools is to realize that every tool has some role in the whole processing of the final report. In standard MS Business intelligence we have tools by which we ensure data transformations (SSIS), processing of data model with data storage in relation structure (SQL… Read More »
I described plus and cons of SQL Server Express edition in the article SQL Server Express for Beginners. If you decided to try Express and you wonder how to install it, go ahead and take a look at this article. If you would like to inspect particular SQL server editions more thoroughly, take a look… Read More »
System stored procedures are useful administrative tools. Below, you may find 10 of them which I consider as the most useful: sp_help – info on objects in database, data types sp_spaceused – displays space on the disk allocated to database and storage for each database objects including number of rows in the table sp_who – returns… Read More »
1 Zero Investment Power BI uses so-called freemium model strategy. This means you can use Free version with some limitations but this will not be any problem for the majority of use cases. 2 Visually Perfect Reports Reports look good and can be made fast and easily. Take a look at some of the reports… Read More »
I finally got to MS SQL Server 2016 – Release candidate 3 installation during weekend. First thing I did was focusing on news regarding Reporting services 2016. Microsoft presents its new reporting services as a big thing full of innovations. It looks attractive, sorted and when you look closely you can see resemblance to Power… Read More »
Powerpivot in excel is an add-in automatically pre-installed in MS Office 2013 + (all you need to do is add it to the ribbon). It is not present in previous Office release therefore it is needed to download it, install and then allow. Enabling Power Pivot in Excel Download add-in from following URL (Windows 7… Read More »
Powerpivot is an excel add-in enabling data modeling and analysis in familiar Excel environment which is certainly an advantage. Import big amounts of data through Power Query and connect them to each other using PowerPivot One of the upsides of power pivot is possibility to connect multiple data sources into one excel. It even do… Read More »