See the Future with Running Totals

Hi it's me, checking in again with an update! I'm preparing a talk on Running Totals.  Did you know that T-SQL and SSRS both have functions to help calculate running totals?  I use these in my day job as a data warehouse developer for a manufacturing operation.  We compare all the planned Demand and Supply for the upcoming few months, and need to predict whether we will have all the parts in time to build what it needed.
Stay tuned to this space to learn more about this topic, including links to a presentation I am preparing for an upcoming SQL Saturday.

Code Camp 16

I'll be presenting a talk titled "New TSQL Features in SQL Server 2008 and 2012" at Code Camp #16 at Microsoft's Waltham office, Oct 29th 2011.

Here is a link to my Powerpoint Slides. and Example Code.

It's been quite a year for me as a database software engineer, phew!

In October 2010, the previous database engineer quit, and I inherited a ton of design and development work, as well as supporting a continuous integration build, deploy, and release environment. Several different projects were started within the company that required new SQL Server databases, schemas, and procedures. A reporting solution was desired, which gave me the opportunity to design my first data warehouse from scratch. Referring to the Ralph Kimball school of warehouse design, I created a star schema of dimension and fact tables, and associated SSIS packages to load and refresh everything. An existing legacy custom .NET application was in place to create and view reports. I proposed we switch to SQL Server Reporting Services to get out of the "report builder" business. I built a set of SSRS reports to surface key business metrics from the warehouse.

During the year made a point to attend the New England SQL Server User Group meetings in Waltham, and attended the local SQL Saturday events as well.

Along the way, I spent my free time pursuing a SQL Server certification. After much studying, I took and passed the 70-433 (TSQL) exam in June.

This October I attended the SQL PASS Summit in Seattle where I "drank from the firehose" of SQL Server knowledge. There were many great presentations and the chance to learn from luminaries in the field such as Itzik Ben-Gan, Adam Machanic, Dr. David DeWitt, Kalen Delaney, Paul Randal, Kimberly Tripp, Brent Ozar, and many others.

Back at work, I've been shifted from the Data Warehouse project into a new project to design and build a high-volume OLTP application database.

Oh, and along the way my division, Iron Mountain's Digital divison, was sold to Autonomy. Autonomy itself was then soon acquired by HP.

So it's been a whirlwind 12 months. I can't wait to find out what 2012 has in store!

SQL Server Query Statistics

Before issuing a query in SQL Server Management Studio, you can apply settings to show statistics about how the query is executed.

SET SHOWPLAN_ALL ON

Show a text-based estimated execution plan instead of running the query.

SET STATISTICS IO ON

Set this to see:

• Scan count
• Logical reads
• Physical reads
• Read-ahead reads
• LOB read stats

SET STATISTICS TIME ON

Set this to see:

Execution Times:

CPU time, elapsed time

Parse and compile time:

CPU time, elapsed time