Category: SQL Server

R Server is dead! Long live Machine Learning Server! The introduction of Microsoft R Server with SQL Server 2016 was tremendously exciting for data scientists and analysts working with “Big Data”. When SQL Server 2017 was released, many were shocked to see that R Server was gone. They were, however, relieved to discover that R […]

Like supporting actors and actresses who never enjoy the spotlight, data types in SQL Server play critical roles and yet rarely receive attention. In fact, selecting the best data types for columns is one of the most important decisions during SQL Server table design. For that reason, let’s take a few moments to review some […]

If you’re worried about interviewing for a SQL Server job, here’s some advice from the former head of an IT department on what matters (along with examples from the three critical areas where you need to have answers ready). As an instructor for Learning Tree’s Querying SQL Server 2014 and 2016 courses, I’ve worked with […]

More Analytic Excitement in SQL Server 2017 Last week (the third week in April 2017) Microsoft released its Community Technology Preview 2.0 for SQL Server vNext, more often referred to as simply “SQL Server 2017”. Among the many new features of interest to business intelligence analysts, data scientists, and machine learning aficionados is support for […]

Part III – A Look at a “Physical” Subquery Perhaps I am being a little loose in my terminology, since there really isn’t a query operator called “subquery”. When I say “physical subquery” I am referring to those correlated subqueries where the subquery portion must be executed again and again, once for every row returned […]