Azure Table storage is cheap way to store data, however it has some drawbacks that you should be aware of. Azure Table storage is a simple way to store NoSQL data with key/attribute pairs. I am very familiar with storing data in SQL databases and would still choose SQL over Table storage, however Table storage is...
Writing SQL queries is typically done with SQL Management Studio (SSMS). However this tool is a bit of a beast so let’s look at how you could use Visual Studio Code instead. Visual Studio Code is a free text editor but it is so much more than just a text editor. VS Code can be downloaded from...
I hate MS Access and especially developing with it as you can’t do any thing clever with it. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong! There are a few clever things I have been able to script to make developing with it passable. I still would rather use Visual Studio but this improves the experience a fair bit. Source Control Access files...
Like many DBAs I spend a lot of time maintaining my SQL Server backups. From SQL Server I maintain both full backups and transaction log backups. I have often restored my full backups but until recently I have never restored a transaction log backup. All backup strategy’s are only as good as the last time you tested...
I use SQL Server Management Studio all the time for writing queries, getting data and general SQL development. I have enjoyed seeing the improvements that each new version of SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) introduced. One great improvement was intellisense. This feature saves typing and reduces errors by...
For historical reasons I use Microsoft Access as the front-end for all my line of business databases. Access allows you to create an ADP file that can connect to your SQL Server database. However Office has dropped support for this, so the last version of office that I can use is Office 2010. Before I start hating on...
Why is it so hard to find out exactly what is needed when designing changes to a system? When adding functionality to databases I always like to dive in and start adding extra columns and new tables. But at some point you need to find out what is needed. The process of gathering requirements that I have followed goes...
Today I encountered a new error. Run-time error ‘6’: Overflow doesn’t really tell me much. The error was occurring in the Access ADP front-end of our main database. It was only occurring for one particular Id number which was really confusing me. First thing I tried was to remove the most recent changes I had made,...
One of my jobs is adding extra features to our internal databases. There is a fair amount of risk in doing this. I could make a change to one of the queries in the database that stops the rest of the company using it as they need to. This could be a costly mistake, almost as bad as the database server being...
Let’s continue looking at a database schema for storing details of every Star Trek Episode. If you are new to databases, a schema is just the design of the structure of the database. We have three tables, Episode, EpisodeWriter and Writer. See my last post for more details of these. It has been suggested that a slight...