T-SQL Power! The OVER Clause: Your Key to No-Sweat Problem Solving

Have you ever stared at a convoluted requirement, unsure of where to begin and how to get there with T-SQL? Have you ever spent three days working on a long and complex query, wondering if there might be a better way? Good news: The OVER clause, first introduced in SQL Server 2005 and greatly enhanced in SQL Server 2012, can be used to quickly and easily solve a number of problems that were previously very difficult or seemingly impossible. In this session you will learn to leverage aggregations and windowing operations to gain insight without losing information, enabling you to answer a number of interesting business problems with ease. Several demos will be shown to highlight the utility of the OVER clause for solving a large number of difficult–yet common–query problems, including custom paging schemes, data de-duplication, “top-N” problems, and complex statistical calculations. You will also learn how to creatively apply the feature to help with performance optimization of certain classes of tough queries. If you’re tired of writing queries that just don’t seem good enough, attend this session to get to the next level.

About Adam

Adam Machanic is a Boston-based database consultant, writer, and speaker, as well as the founder of Data Education. He has been involved in dozens of SQL Server implementations for both high-availability OLTP and large-scale data warehouse applications, and has optimized data access layer performance for several data-intensive applications.

Adam has written for numerous web sites and magazines, including SQLblog, Simple Talk, Search SQL Server, SQL Server Professional, CoDe, and VSJ. He has also contributed to several books on SQL Server, including SQL Server 2008 Internals(Microsoft Press, 2009) and Expert SQL Server 2005 Development (Apress, 2007).

Adam regularly speaks at user groups, community events, and conferences on a variety of SQL Server and .NET-related topics. He is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for SQL Server, Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP), and a member of the INETA North American Speakers Bureau.

Andy should start speaking at about 6:30 and the doors will be open around 6:00 for networking and pizza. Great Bay College just like usual. Thursday 5/17/2012.

Using BIML as an SSIS Design Patterns Engine

Topic – What’s New In SQL Server 2012

SQL Server “Denali” delivers many highly anticipated features that some   
feel are long overdue. In this session you will get a first-hand look at many
of these new features relating to the engine (contained databases,
AlwaysOn, and T-SQL enhancements), client tools (Management Studio,
Books Online, and SQL Server Data Tools), and changes to setup and
system requirements. You’ll also learn about some features that did not
make it into SQL Server 2012 and deprecated functionality that will stop
working.

(Note from Mike – this is marketing free… I’ve seen Aaron deliver this talk before, he goes into details around what is coming – well now here – in SQL Server 2012 that we care about as DBAs and Developers)

About Aaron Bertrand

Aaron is a senior consultant for SQL Sentry, makers of performance

Aaron Bertrand

monitoring and event management software for SQL Server, Analysis
Services, and Windows. He has been blogging at sqlblog.com since 2006,
focusing on manageability, performance, and new features; has been an
MVP since 1997-98; and speaks frequently at user group meetings and
SQL Saturday events. He has written chapters for two SQL Server MVP
Deep Dives projects, where all author royalties go to a chosen charity.

Big Data, Hadoop and Hive.. You keep hearing those words, right? What do they mean? In this interactive talk Don O’Neill from TripAdvisor.com and Mike Walsh will take you through how TripAdvisor uses Hadoop to manage their “Big Data”. We’ll show you how SQL Server fits into this architecture and get you a live and interactive view of managing and working within Hadoop & Hive.

Session Details

Big Data is a term applied to data with a size such that commonly used tools are unable to capture, manage, and process it within a tolerable elapsed time. Big Data sizes are a constantly moving target, currently ranging from a few dozen terabytes to many petabytes of data in a single set.

In this talk we will discuss how web sites such as TripAdvisor use Hadoop and associated projects — like Hive, Oozie, and Sqoop — combined with SQL Server. These tools provide data warehouse teams with the ability to process vast amounts of log information, the prominent source of “Big Data.” The talk will also cover how we integrate with SQL Server for end-user reporting, as well as some of the challenges with working with these new and bleeding-edge projects. And, believe it or not, TripAdvisor does this all with a team of just three engineers.

Bio

Don O’Neill is the Senior Director of Engineering, Operations and Infrastructure at TripAdvisor, overseeing the company’s software, hardware and networking infrastructure and operations, and planning and executing its scalability strategy. Don has eighteen years’ experience in Software Development mostly on the Microsoft platform. Don has a Masters degree in Software Engineering from Brandeis University.

Mike Walsh is a SQL Server consultant and MVP. He is helping TripAdvisor out offering some SQL Server expertise and has been able to get his hands dirty in the Hadoop and Hive side. He’s helped TripAdvisor with their data strategy and is having a lot of fun rolling around in the Big Data.

Next Month

• Our May meeting (you can see it on the calendar on the home page here) will be a presentation from Don O’Neil of Trip Advisor and myself talking about some of the interesting things we are doing over there with Hadoop, Big Data, SQL Server and SSAS.
• May 19th – There will be a SQL Saturday at the Microsoft Complex in May. The organizers are still working on the event schedule, I’ll expect they’ll have it out in the coming weeks at the event site.