Database development

Writing U-SQL scripts using Visual Studio for Azure Data Lake Analytics

February 11, 2021 by Rajendra Gupta

In the 2^nd article of the series for Azure Data Lake Analytics, we will use Visual Studio for writing U-SQL scripts.

Learn MySQL: The Basics of MySQL Views

February 3, 2021 by Nisarg Upadhyay

In this article, we are going to learn about the fundamentals of MySQL Views. In this article, I am going to cover the following topics:

Working with Database Projects

January 22, 2021 by Aveek Das

In this article, I am going to talk about developing and deploying a database project, also known as a data-tier application using Visual Studio. In my previous article Getting started with Data-Tier Applications using Visual Studio, I have provided an overview of the data tier applications and how can we create one using Visual Studio. This article is a follow-up to the previous article. I’d advise you to have a look at it before proceeding forward with this as this is a continuation of the previous. For the article, I would be using Visual Studio 2019, however, you are free to use any other versions of Visual Studio.

Getting started with Data-Tier applications in Visual Studio

January 15, 2021 by Aveek Das

In this article, I am going to talk about creating a data-tier application using Visual Studio. In my previous article An introduction to Data-Tier applications in SQL Server, I have explained in detail what a data-tier application is all about. I have explained what the different types of data-tier applications are available and how can we create such applications from existing SQL Server databases. In this article, the primary focus would be to create data-tier applications from scratch using Visual Studio. For this article, I am going to use Visual Studio 2019, however, the technique will remain similar for other editions of SQL Server as well.

Using Source Control in Azure Data Factory

January 12, 2021 by Ahmad Yaseen

In this article, we will show how to use the GIT repository during the pipeline development phase in Azure Data Factory, to save the changes incrementally before publishing it completely to the Data Factory production environment.

Learn MySQL: The Basics of MySQL Stored Procedures

January 8, 2021 by Nisarg Upadhyay

In this article, we are going to learn about the stored procedures in MySQL. In this article, I am covering the basics of the stored procedure that includes the following

Advanced Usages of SQL Server Agent

January 8, 2021 by Aveek Das

In this article, I am going to introduce some advanced usages of the SQL Server Agent service in Microsoft SQL Server. In my previous article, Introduction to SQL Server Agent, I have discussed in detail how to use the service and the various components related to the service. To recap briefly, the SQL Server Agent is a job scheduler service within SQL Server and allows us to schedule T-SQL scripts, SSIS jobs, automate database backups and other tasks etc. In the last article, I have shown how to schedule a simple T-SQL script using the SQL Server Agent. This article will focus more on advanced concepts like scheduling a package in SSIS and processing an OLAP cube.

Three ways you can add tSQLt to your SQL database projects

November 10, 2020 by Haroon Ashraf

This article talks about multiple ways to install tSQLt for SQL unit testing database projects managed through SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT).

Scalar UDF Inlining in SQL Server 2019

September 28, 2020 by Esat Erkec

In this article, we will explore a new SQL Server 2019 feature which is Scalar UDF (scalar user-defined) inlining. Scalar UDF inlining is a member of the intelligent query processing family and helps to improve the performance of the scalar-valued user-defined functions without any code changing.

Explore branches in Git Source Control

September 28, 2020 by Rajendra Gupta

In this 5^th article of the Source Control series, we will explore the concept of branches in a Git source control and GitHub repositories.

How to parse JSON in SQL Server

September 15, 2020 by Esat Erkec

In this article, we will learn how to parse and query JSON in SQL Server with the help of the OPENJSON function. Firstly, we will briefly look at the data structure of the JSON and then we will learn details of the parsing and querying JSON data using the OPENJSON function.

Manticore search: a continuation of the Sphinx search engine

September 14, 2020 by Hadi Fadlallah

In this article, we will be talking about Manticore Search, which is an open-source search engine first released in 2017 as a fork of the Sphinx search engine. We will try to describe this search engine briefly, mention some of its differences from the Sphinx search engine, and we will provide a step-by-step guide on how to build full-text indexes from SQL Server databases. Finally, we will show how to connect to the Manticore engine from the SQL Server management studio using a linked server object. In our previously published articles in this series, we talked briefly about the Sphinx search engine and how to create full-text indexes from SQL Server databases.

Test-driven database hotfix development (TDHD) with SQL unit test based framework (tSQLt)

August 24, 2020 by Haroon Ashraf

This article talks about test-driven database hotfix development using a very productive database testing framework called tSQLt applying the same SQL unit test based approach.

Visual Studio Code for MySQL and MariaDB development

August 13, 2020 by Bojan Petrovic

In this article, I’ll walk you through setting up Visual Studio Code for MySQL and MariaDB development using a third-party VS Code extension and give an overview of the basic features.

SQL database hotfix testing with tSQLt

August 10, 2020 by Haroon Ashraf

This article talks about getting your database hotfixes tested with tSQLt provided they do not have any inherited complexities or dependencies on things other than SQL database.

Building full-text indexes using the Sphinx search engine

August 4, 2020 by Hadi Fadlallah

In the previously published article, Getting started with Sphinx search engine, we talked about the Sphinx search engine and how to install it on the Windows operating system. In this article, we will talk about building full-text indexes using Sphinx. We will be covering seven topics:

Link an Azure Cosmos DB into a SQL Server Stored Procedure

August 3, 2020 by Frank Solomon

Introduction

Microsoft Azure offers hundreds of cloud products, with more on the way. In the database space, Microsoft offers Azure Cosmos DB, a NoSQL database product. We can build Java, .Net, etc. applications around Cosmos DB resources. To extend this capability, this article will show how to query Cosmos DB directly from SQL Server.

Working with Power BI Data Models in Visual Studio Code

July 30, 2020 by Aveek Das

In this article, I am going to introduce the Tabular Object Model (TOM) in the Power BI Data Model and provide an understanding of how this model can be accessed outside of the Power BI environment. For more info about the Tabular Object Model in the Power BI Data Model, please read this article. In this tutorial, we are going to use the Visual Studio Code to simply write a dotnet console application and try to access the Tabular Object Model from the Power BI file. With the help of this knowledge, programmers and BI developers can not only view the underlying model in the Power BI Data Model but also can enhance the data model programmatically by writing a few lines of code. It can also be further improved by automating the creation of the Power BI models with the help of the Tabular Object Model library in dotnet.

Diving deep with complex Data Structures

July 29, 2020 by Aveek Das

In my previous article, Understanding common Data Structures, I have mentioned the most commonly used data structures in software programming. In this article, let us get into some more details about the other data structures that are a bit complex than the ones already discussed but also used quite often while designing software applications. Here, we will look into the following data structures.

Understanding the SQL MERGE statement

July 27, 2020 by Aveek Das

In this article, I am going to give a detailed explanation of how to use the SQL MERGE statement in SQL Server. The MERGE statement in SQL is a very popular clause that can handle inserts, updates, and deletes all in a single transaction without having to write separate logic for each of these. You can specify conditions on which you expect the MERGE statement to insert, update, or delete, etc.

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) integration with Git Source Control

July 22, 2020 by Rajendra Gupta

This article explores Visual Studio Code integration with Git Source Control.

An introduction to SQL tables

July 17, 2020 by Esat Erkec

In this article, we will learn the concept of SQL tables and then work on how we can create tables with different techniques in SQL Server.

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) for SQL Server development

July 16, 2020 by Rajendra Gupta

In the previous article, Getting started with Visual Studio Code (VS Code), we took a detailed overview of the popular code editor. It supports various programming languages t-SQL, Python, PHP, AWS CLI, PowerShell, etc. We need to use extensions in the VS code to work with these languages. For example, if we open the T-SQL script, it recommends you for the below extension.

Understanding common Data Structures

July 15, 2020 by Aveek Das

In this article, I am going to walk you through the concepts of the common Data Structures that every student, colleague working with computers should be aware of. Data Structure forms an integral part of any system or database design. It is a very interesting and intuitive concept that you can apply anywhere. Through this article, I aim to introduce the beginners to the concepts of Data Structures and brush up the same for colleagues who have already been associated with the industry for years. This will also help you understand some database concepts more easily once you have a grasp over these concepts.

Deploy Python apps to Azure Functions using Visual Studio Code

July 10, 2020 by Aveek Das

In this article, we are going to build a small python application and deploy it to Azure Functions. The development and the deployment will be done using the Visual Studio (VS) Code. As you might be aware, VS Code is one of the most widely used and preferred code editors for programmers. It is a cross-platform tool, which means you can install this tool on any operating system of your choice, starting from Windows, Linux, or Mac OS.