Articles filed in category 'SQL Server 2012'

Kevin learns the hard way how to estimate a process’ duration and he uses a clever bit of code to figure it out.

If you want to be a great SQL Server developer, you’ll want to pay attention to these 13 key points. Kevin Goff covers both best practices and common pitfalls of Business Intelligence.

If you’ve got large datasets, you don’t want to slow the system down every time you save them to your SQL Server database. Rod shows you an uncomplicated way to keep your records zipping along.

SQL Server’s Reporting Services is still the best workhorse for getting data to your users. Kevin tells you how to take advantage of some of its more subtle points.

In virtually every CODE article I’ve written since 2004, the proverbial 99% of the content has been based on things I’ve done in production. Well, every technical person has to “go back to school” at some point,-and my return to school has been in the last month as I finally took a look at SQL Azure. This article represents my findings as I recently finished “kindergarten” and am now ready for the trials of first grade!

When I was a kid, I loved baseball. I lived it 24/7. In the summertime, happiness meant a pickup game during the day and a Phillies doubleheader at night. I’m still a kid at heart and I still love baseball - and I also love SQL Server. And right now, happiness means seeing all the cool new features in SQL Server 2012. There are so many of them that I can’t list them in a single article. So, I’m penning a two-part Baker’s Dozen. The first part of this “twin-bill” (yes, ex...pect a few baseball analogies!) will be 13 new T-SQL and database engine features in SQL Server 2012. The “night-cap” in the next issue will be 13 new features in SQL Server Integration Services and the new Business Intelligence Semantic Model.See More

The new release of SQL Server's Integration Services has many exciting new features

In part two of this series on optimizing SQL Server queries I’m going to continue with some T-SQL scenarios that pit one approach versus another. I’ll also look at what SQL developers can do to optimize certain data access scenarios. I’ll also compare approaches with temporary tables versus table variables, and stored procedures versus views.

Kevin takes a look at SQL Server “then and now,” and shows us just how important it is to understand the various tools involved in BI.

For over a decade, many Microsoft database developers have used SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) OLAP to create database cubes for advanced business analytics. SSAS OLAP offers many powerful features, although some developers view the learning curve of OLAP (and its supporting language, MDX) as very steep.

Database developers who learn Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) know that they face a number of learning curves. In prior Baker’s Dozen articles, I’ve covered many of the steps for creating both SSAS OLAP and SSAS Tabular databases. In this article, I’m going to cover another topic: How to add or change data in analytic databases.

Kevin uses his experience on both sides of the interview table to help you wow at your next interview. Not only that, but you’ll probably pick up a few pointers, too!

For several years, database developers have created analytic (OLAP) databases using tools such as Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. SSAS includes the MDX programming language for retrieving data and writing custom expressions. These tools remain very powerful for creating analytic applications. However, some view the tools in SSAS/MDX as difficult to learn. In SQL Server Analysis Services 2012, Microsoft has created a second model (known as the tabular model) for c...reating analytic databases. The new model brings the promise of simplified features and (in some cases) even better performance than traditional OLAP. In this article, I’ll provide an overview for this new model and will walk through a basic example of creating an SSAS 2012 tabular model database.See More

Imagine you’re working for a company that has accumulated a tremendous amount of transaction data. The business users want to perform all sorts of analysis, monitoring and analytics on the data. Some OLTP developers might reply with, “Just create views or stored procedures to query all the data the way the users want.” Many companies initially take that approach - however, just like certain technologies and system hardware configurations don’t scale well, certain methodo...logies don’t scale well either. Fortunately, this is where data warehousing and dimensional modeling can help. In this article, I’ll provide some basic information for developers on the basics of data warehousing and dimensional modeling - information that might help you if you want to provide even more value for your company.See More

In this first installment of his ETL articles, Kevin shows you what to do—and even what not to do—when designing your Data Warehouse.

If you’ve ever wondered how your SQL Server knowledge stacked up, you’ll want to take Kevin’s unofficial test. He explains both the right and wrong answers, so no matter what your skills are, you’re bound to learn something new.