Book Review: Chris Webb’s “Power Query for Power BI and Excel”
I’ve been experimenting with Power Query and the rest of the Power BI suite in Excel (desktop edition) since it was originally released. But, like
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I’ve been experimenting with Power Query and the rest of the Power BI suite in Excel (desktop edition) since it was originally released. But, like
Today, two new service offerings for the Azure platform were introduced, DocumentDB and Azure Search. These are exciting in themselves and worth a look-see but,
A number of months ago, I wrote an article using the SQL Server filestream feature programmatically. I've gotten a number of inquiries since from folks
This post is an example of the "bring your own problem" approach in the classroom, inspired by upcoming SQLskills Immersion Events in August. See previous
A variation of this question came up a few weeks ago on a mail list that I subscribe to and it seems to come up a
Just had the occasion to look at SSIS Sources and Destinations in SQL Server 2012 RC0. After reading about the stated direction to use ODBC
Speaking at a user group is a bit different from speaking at a conference or other event. Because you know the folks there personally (hi
This post is about the changes in the client stack for SQL Server 2012. It's a very short post. The last two major releases of
The writing has been on the wall for some time, but a few days ago Microsoft made it official. OLE DB will no longer be
I'm not usually one for repeating stuff you can find in BOL. Usually, a waste of your time and mine. But this feature, for SQL
A few months ago, I published a blog entry entitled "The interesting case of TVPs and plan compilation" about the fact that a plan compile
A couple of people reported problems with SQL Server 2008's table-valued parameters and it eventually got back to me. Had to try it out. The
I received an interesting question today that I started to answer in email, then realized it would make a good blog post. It went something
I've been busy for the last few weeks putting together a "manifesto" whitepaper about the .NET-based data access stacks and also the possibilities for .NET
I'm always thought that what makes or breaks any ORM layer for use in any but the simplest of applications is the underlying SQL code
For those of you who's blog readers don't always get updated (rather than brand new) blog entries, there's a happy ending to my last "fixed-almost"
One of the first things that I did after installing VS2010 beta this week was to check on a parameterization problem with string parameters, and
Sorry to appear after a blog drought with theory meta-type blog entries. Too much time at conferences pondering technologies, I guess. The "relational database bigots"
I've been following the ADO.NET Entity Framework since its inception. Never did buy the idea about it being "more than an ORM", thought it was
In a blog posting about a few weeks ago, I'd written about noticing a DataSet being created in an Entity Framework program by using the
This item was mentioned in other blogs too, but just to mention it again (so my SQLCE and Sync Services friends won't think I overlooked
Last fall I'd asked the folks on the data access team about the possibility of including the new SQL Server 2008 data types in the
It appears that there are some changes in .NET 3.5 System.Transactions (or System.Transactions.dll and System.Data.dll version 2.0.50727.1433 if you're looking at assembly versions). Florin Lazar
This is the last post in the series, at least for now. I'll update it (or post more on the topics discussed here) as the
This post is part of a series about worries when implementing LINQ to SQL or ADO.NET Entity Framework from a SQL database-centric programmer's perspective. The
This post covers LINQ to SQL and EF worry #4. That is: LINQ to SQL and EF will write code that gets too much or
This post is part of a series, see parts 1 and 2. Sorry to be so long getting back to this series. This post covers
Quite a bit of activity last week in the Visual Studio and ORM spaces. Visual Studio released a CTP of Visual Studio 2008 support for
Sometime before SQL Server 2008 RTM, the libraries for LINQ and LINQ to XML (that is System.Core.dll and System.Xml.Linq.dll) but NOT LINQ to SQL will
I often hear those who identify themselves as "database programmers" (sometimes I think these may be folks who program only inside-database code), say: "I'd give learning LINQ
This post covers LINQ to SQL and EF worry #2. That is: LINQ to SQL and EF will encourage "SELECT * FROM…" style coding because
I'd been meaning to write this entry for a while, about my opinion on LINQ to SQL and the ADO.NET Entity Framework and performance. I've
In a previous blog entry a while ago, I wrote about writing a single SQL statement that did a SQL MERGE operation, used the OUTPUT
After getting insert/update/delete stored procedures going with a simple standalone table (no relationships), I started thinking about how I'd do this in a many-many relationship.
I've been working with the new ADO.NET Entity Framework designer for a few weeks now, and I've got to like it. If you're used to
Since its appearance in SQL Serve 2008 CTP5, folks have been wondering about the reason for SQL Server's new Change Tracking feature, and how it
As a continuation of the previous discussion, here's a DELETE of a title row without fetching it from the database: pubsEntities model = new pubsEntities();
The ADO.NET Entity Framework Beta 3 was released this week. For details, see the ADO.NET team blog. One of the things that bothered me originally
Actually yesterday, but today was the first time I'd had a chance to write about it. Having done quite a bit with what's now being
I'll be at TechEd and ITForum in Barcelona in November, doing sessions on SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. One of the TechEd sessions
Let's talk about clients and SQL Server 2008. First, a little history… Every new version of SQL Server seems to include a new feature that
I've been trying out LINQ for SQL and the Entity Data Model (EDM) latest betas with some "different" data sources. This post covers using SQLCE
I've been trying out LINQ for SQL and the Entity Data Model (EDM) latest betas with some "non-traditional" data sources. Namely SQL Server 2008 (CTP4)
I've been looking at the mapping of the new Katmai date/time data types to .NET types, both from the point of view of SQL Server
I've been trying out table-valued parameters along with ADO.NET support in Orcas and came across an interesting dilemma. It centers around INSERTs using TVP against
The day after Orcas Beta1 appeared for public download reports appeared on the ADO.NET Technology Preview forum that the EDM Wizard (that is, "Add New
One thing that I thought was particularly interesting in the Orcas Mar CTP was support for stored procedures. This support exists in LINQ to SQL
My SSIS whitepaper, which was available in draft form on the SSIS wiki, is live on the Microsoft web site today. For anyone who is
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