A Fine Slice Of SQL Server
Sebastiao Pereira implements a formula:
Runge-Kutta method it is an effective numerical interactive technique used to solve ordinary differential equations, used in physics, engineering, aerospace, ballistics, circuit simulation, epidemiology, chemical kinetics, games, and others. Is it possible to create in SQL Server without the use of external tools?
Click through for the solution.
Leave a CommentFabiano Amorim lays out an argument:
By default, SQL Server executes both DML (data manipulation language) and DDL (data definition language) triggers under the security context of the user whose statement causes the trigger to fire. The trigger author supplies the code, but the future caller supplies the privileges under which that code runs.
This is the default behavior of SQL Server triggers, and it creates a dangerous situation. One principal controls the trigger code, another supplies the execution privileges and, combined, the trigger can then potentially hijack the caller’s authority.
Additionally, a user who creates a trigger does not need permission to perform every operation contained in the trigger. They only need permission to create the trigger – and then an opportunity for a more privileged principal to fire it later.
Click through to see how things can go wrong and what alternatives would be possible for a new execution model.
Leave a CommentReitse Eskens troubleshoots an error:
I’ve declared a variable and assigned it a value. Now, I want to check if my variable matches the regular pattern of Dutch postal codes. These codes are four numbers followed by two letters. Using a regular expression helps check validity.
My expectation was that this query would return either 1 or TRUE. In any case, a result telling me that the postal code is valid. Instead, it throws an ‘Incorrect syntax error near the keyword ‘REGEXP_LIKE’.
Click through for the screenshot and the explanation.
Leave a CommentDualcore DBA violates Betteridge’s Law of Headlines:
I recently had cause to reseed an identity column on a table in SQL Server, which got me wondering “If we reseed an identity column to a value lower than the existing identity values in the column, could it cause a clash?” Because why wouldn’t you wonder if you can cause something to break, whilst performing a fairly simple task!?
Let’s find out what happens…
Click through for the demonstration.
Leave a CommentDrew Skwiers-Koballa covers two file formats that often annoy me:
When you need to move an entire database or move the objects in a database, bacpac and dacpac files often come up because of all of the tooling options to interact with them. Bacpac and dacpac files share some core similarities as well as some major differences in how they’re used in SqlPackage and other SQL tools, but their flexibility can create a bit of confusion. In this post, we are going to discuss exactly what makes bacpac specifically important, as well as explore the options that a dacpac is capable of.
My big problem with bacpacs (and dacpacs that include data) is that, once you get to database sizes that are at all interesting, bacpacs fail to work, either because they time out in creation or in restoration. Dacpacs are quite nice for database deployments and maybe including a few reference tables, but creating a bacpac of a 100+ GB database? Best of luck.
Leave a CommentZenguo Zhang teaches a lesson:
In
ggplot2, when displaying grouped data along categorical axes (such as grouped bar charts, boxplots, or error bars), horizontal dodging is used to prevent elements from overlapping at each categorical position.ggplot2provides two primary dodging position functions:position_dodge()andposition_dodge2().
Click through or else Piccolo is going to yell again.
Leave a CommentTeo Lachev has written a plugin:
It dawned on me that while waiting on Microsoft, I could fill these gaps myself by creating an Excel add-in. That is how the Semantic Table add-in was born. It picks up right where default connected tables leave off.
Others have already explored this path, such as Jörg Schmidt with his PBIXL add-in. However, I’ve taken a different implementation approach focused on these core features:
Click through for the approach, as well as an important warning that this is a very early beta. I think the GitHub repo is this one, as Teo didn’t include the link in his post as of the time my post went live.
Leave a CommentSean Gallardy looks at the intersection of two SQL Server capabilities:
I was recently asked about T-SQL Snapshot backups on secondary replicas, which I hadn’t looked at for many years as it’s kind of a niche item. I was definitely surprised to find little caveats here and there, thus you get this wonderful post.
If you’re unfamiliar with T-SQL Snapshot backups, it’s a way to flush and hold changes made by IO to a database (your Freeze and Thaw entries in the errorlog) so that a stable disk image can be created and then backed up at the storage or filesystem layer. This can be an extremely fast way to create snapshots of databases that are quite large (assuming you’ve set everything up correctly) even across storage arrays (assuming it supports other options, such as ODX).
Read on to see what you have to do to get both to play nice together.
Leave a CommentBased on telemetry, a startling number of applications haven’t read the memo and updated. So, let me take a moment to talk about an incredible feature of SqlClient we previewed in 2021: Configurable Retry Logic for
SqlConnectionandSqlCommand. This native implementation of resiliency bypassing the need for third-party libraries like Polly, providing incredible handling of transient availability right out of the box.
Click through to see how it works, particularly in light of Polly’s controversial licensing change.
Leave a CommentChris Webb wants to load some images:
Several years ago I wrote a very popular blog post about how to store images for your reports inside your Power BI semantic model. It solved the problem of how you could use display images (for example of products) inside your reports without making those images available via a public URL or personal OneDrive Embed Codes. I was very proud of how efficient the M code to do this was but the code was complicated and storing images as text inside a semantic model makes refreshes a lot slower and increases the size of your semantic model in memory, so it’s not ideal. The good news is that, if you have enabled Fabric in your tenant, the August 2026 release of Power BI brings a much better way of solving this problem: you can now store your images (and indeed other files) inside OneLake and reference them from there. This means you can store your images in a secure location, alongside all of your other data, and make them available for use in Power BI. What’s more this doesn’t just work for images, it also works for other types of files such as GeoJSON files used by map visuals.
Click through to see how.
Leave a Comment