Coping with a working life as an imposter
It is not existing knowledge but the skill of acquiring new knowledge rapidly that will help you overcome imposter syndrome.
2026-05-27 (first published: 2020-09-19)
541 reads
Phil Factor
- Interests: Motorbikes, Beer, gardening, conservation, Local history.
The Wild Developers of SQL Server like Wildcards
Phil Factor explains the enduring attachment of database developers to wildcards, despite their current deficiencies.
2025-03-17 (first published: 2018-12-17)
645 reads
On Looking and Acting the Part
Phil Factor's offers tips for longevity in the world of IT consultancy: listen well, humiliate no-one and convince others that it was their expertise that solved the problem.
2024-12-27 (first published: 2020-01-18)
499 reads
Idempotent DDL Scripts That Always Achieve The Same Result - Making Changes Only Once: Stairway to Exploring Database Metadata Level 6
Idempotence is the property of certain operations in mathematics and computer science, that can be applied multiple times without changing the result beyond the first time they are run. When you are making changes to a database to deploy a new version, you need to be sure that certain changes aren’t made twice, or in the wrong order.
2023-10-04 (first published: 2016-12-21)
20,133 reads
Potholes in the Road of Progress
Phil Factor looks at some technologists more famous for thwarting progress than for their own creations.
2022-09-02 (first published: 2017-07-17)
389 reads
Reading and Writing your Database's Documentation using JSON
One of the problems to which I keep returning is finding the best way to read and apply documentation for databases. As part of a series of articles I'm doing for Redgate's Product Learning, I've been demonstrating how to maintain a single source of database documentation, in JSON, and then add and update the object […]
2021-06-28 (first published: 2021-05-28)
3,751 reads
Malleable Source Control
Git has proved to be a better fit to the needs and workflow of a database development team than anything that came before. Git is valuable because it encourages branching and merging, giving more choice in the way that your team can work. Due to the ease with which you can adapt Git, there is […]
2021-04-03
238 reads
Exploring Facts About SQL Server Tables: Stairway to Exploring Database Metadata Level 5
Now that we've explored, in preceding levels, some of the information that is available about indexes, triggers, keys and distribution statistics, we can concentrate on the tables themselves and their columns.
2021-01-13 (first published: 2016-12-07)
6,372 reads
Spoofing Data Convincingly: Text Data
Learn how to generate some convincing data for your development databases.
2021-01-05
3,020 reads
2020-12-12
384 reads
Blogs
Prep data for AI vs. Fabric Data Agent Instructions: What Goes Where?
By James Serra
Making Data AI-Ready, Part 3 (This is the final article in a three-part series...
Keeping Track of my ConEmu CLIs
By Steve Jones
I use ConEmu for my terminal interface. I’m still on Windows 10 at home,...
10 Decisions to Make Before You Create A Fabric Workspace
Creating a Fabric workspace takes about 30 seconds. Restructuring workspaces after people have built...
Forums
Adding new column with DEFAULT II
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Advanced Deployment Scenarios: Stairway to Reliable Database Deployments Level 7
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Advanced Deployment Scenarios: Stairway to...
You Need a DBA Pipeline
Comments posted to this topic are about the item You Need a DBA Pipeline
Question of the Day
Adding new column with DEFAULT II
Which number did the two COUNT(*) return:
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS #tmp CREATE TABLE #tmp (id INT NOT NULL) INSERT INTO #tmp (id) SELECT gs.value FROM GENERATE_SERIES(1, 5) AS gs ALTER TABLE #tmp ADD my_value INT NOT NULL CONSTRAINT df_tmp_my_value DEFAULT 1 SELECT COUNT(*) FROM #tmp AS t WHERE my_value = 1 ALTER TABLE #tmp DROP CONSTRAINT df_tmp_my_value ALTER TABLE #tmp ADD CONSTRAINT df_tmp_my_value DEFAULT 2 FOR my_value SELECT COUNT(*) FROM #tmp AS t WHERE my_value = 1See possible answers
