Job hunting is like dating

July 11, 2016 Andy 0

Most of us spend at least eight hours per day working. In America, we spend an average of 25 minutes commuting, each way. That’s nine hours dedicated to work every day. You probably see your coworkers as much as you see your friends and significant other. … [Read More]

Moving SSRS Reports between servers

June 29, 2016 Andy 2

Today, my friend Derik Hammer (blog|twitter) asked about moving SSRS reports between (versions and) instances of SSRS: What is the best way to move 2008 R2 SSRS reports into an existing 2012 SSRS instance? Catalog move is insufficient here. #sqlhelp — Derik Hammer (@SQLHammer) June … [Read More]

T-SQL Tuesday #79 – COMPRESS()ing LOB data

June 14, 2016 Andy 2

It’s T-SQL Tuesday,  the blog party that SQL Server expert Adam Machanic (blog|twitter) started. This month’s episode is hosted by Michael J Swart (blog| twitter). The topic: SQL Server 2016 is out! SQL Server 2016 is hot off the presses, and Michael challenges us to blog about it. I’ve been using … [Read More]

Add-Equals operator

May 24, 2016 Andy 9

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA This series of short posts will demonstrate some lesser-known features, keyboard shortcuts, and other tips that make my day as a DBA more productive. None of these are groundbreaking super-secret features–they are the little things that I do … [Read More]

SSMS Template Replacement

May 19, 2016 Andy 1

Shortcuts & tips from an Impatient DBA This series of short posts will demonstrate some lesser-known features, keyboard shortcuts, and other tips that make my day as a DBA more productive. None of these are groundbreaking super-secret features–they are the little things that I do … [Read More]

T-SQL Tuesday logo

T-SQL Tuesday #78– sys.dm_db_file_space_usage

May 10, 2016 Andy 4

It’s T-SQL Tuesday,  the blog party that SQL Server expert Adam Machanic (blog|twitter) started. This month’s episode is hosted by Wendy Pastrick (blog| twitter). The topic: Learn something new and blog about it SQL Server 2016 is coming out next month, and it’s chock full of new features that I … [Read More]

My 5th DBAnniversary

May 10, 2016 Andy 3

Five years ago today, I officially became a DBA: Good afternoon.  It is my pleasure to extend to you our offer of employment for the position of Database Administrator How I got there I got my first job at a software company in 2003. I had no degree, … [Read More]

How to shrink a database in 4 easy steps

April 28, 2016 Andy 9

It’s a really common question: “How do I shrink my database?” Luckily, there’s also a really common answer: “Don’t.” …but what if you really have to? Perhaps you just implemented data compression, and have 60% free space in your database. Perhaps you just deleted a … [Read More]

CONVERT() to float using scientific notation

April 20, 2016 Andy 2

Someone posted to #sqlhelp on Twitter, asking the following: “Wondered if anyone could enlighten me as to why ISNUMERIC(‘7d8’) returns 1?” Sure enough, SELECT ISNUMERIC(‘7d8′) returns a 1. WTF? d isn’t numeric! OK, sure, if you say “seven-dee-eight” out loud it sounds like a number, but “d” is a … [Read More]