Stairway to U-SQL Level 1: Introduction to U-SQL and Azure Data Lakes (SQLServerCentral 1/19/2018)

[SQLServerCentral - www.sqlservercentral.com]( A community of more than 1,600,000 database professionals and growing Featured Contents - [Stairway to U-SQL Level 1: Introduction to U-SQL and Azure Data Lakes]( - [How to identify blocking in SQL Server]( - [Keeping track of history: SQL Compare and Temporal Tables]( - [Advent of Code 2017 Day 2–#SQLNewBlogger]( (From the SQLServerCentral Blogs) - [Summiting that Technical Challenge]( (From the SQLServerCentral Blogs) The Voice of the DBA How to Grow In Your Career This is [a great thread on Twitter]( from Jim Burger, a long time software developer. The thread is a distillation of how he keeps a passion for learning across decades. I think it's a good list of items, seven of them in total. I'll give a quick summary, but he has a bit more depth in each tweet. The seven are: - Invest in your brain - Embrace exploration - Find the fun in fundamentals - Mentors from from all kinds of places - Use the community as an opportunity - You don't have to finish learning - Ask people to ask you questions This is a great set of rules to help you learn. I certainly believe in the first one and that's one reason I preach for you to keep learning. You can always get a little better and grow your skills. Apart from the fun, it helps train your brain to keep growing and stay flexible. I also think that finding the fun in fundamentals is great. I appreciate the simple things I accomplish, and I like writing about those. Part of the reason I keep doing [#sqlnewblogger posts](. I also think the community is a huge help. Someone asks a question, and even if it gets answered before you can, use this as an opportunity to solve the problem. Answer a question in [our forums](. Lots of people learn by helping others solve problems. In fact, plenty of my learning has come from solving problems for others. I get blog fodder, test myself, and solidify my own understanding of how things work. If you've found a way to continue to have fun learning, let us know today. I know that I tend to do a little but of everything, but certainly I take pride in what works, and even what doesn't. The latter is always an opportunity for me to learn a bit more. Steve Jones from [SQLServerCentral.com]( Join the debate, and [respond to today's editorial on the forums]( --------------------------------------------------------------- The Voice of the DBA Podcast Listen to the [MP3 Audio]( ( 2.9MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at [iTunes]( and [Libsyn](. [feed]( The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. ADVERTISEMENT [Redgate Hub]( Watch SQL in the City Streamed 2017 The livestream recording for Redgate's December 2017 virtual event is now available. Technical sessions went into the latest Microsoft SQL Server releases, and covered topical issues such as DevOps, data compliance, protection & privacy. [Watch the recording]( [SQL Clone]( SQL Clone: Now supporting databases up to 64TB Create copies of production databases and SQL backups in seconds and save up to 99% of disk space using SQL Clone. Redgate’s new tool removes much of the time and resource needed to create and manage database copies, allowing teams to work on local environments to develop, test and diagnose issues faster. [Try it free]( Featured Contents  [] [Stairway to U-SQL Level 1: Introduction to U-SQL and Azure Data Lakes]( Mike McQuillan from [SQLServerCentral.com]() An introductory guide to querying files in Azure Data Lakes using Microsoft's U-SQL language.[More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] [How to identify blocking in SQL Server]( Blocking happens when one connection from an application holds a lock and a second connection requires a conflicting lock. This forces the second connection to be blocked until the first connection completes. [More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] [Keeping track of history: SQL Compare and Temporal Tables]( SQL Compare 13 introduces support for deploying changes to temporal tables, which were introduced in SQL Server 2016. This means that any changes made to the definition of a temporal table in a source database, including to the retention policy for that table, will be included automatically in any deployment script that SQL Compare generates for that database.[More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - [Advent of Code 2017 Day 2–#SQLNewBlogger]( Steve Jones from [SQLServerCentral Blogs]( Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as...[More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - [Summiting that Technical Challenge]( Jason Brimhall from [SQLServerCentral Blogs]( Conquering Challenges I really like the topic of the TSQLTuesday party today. Today we have been instructed in no uncertain terms...[More »]( Question of the Day Today's Question (by Steve Jones): I've got this table and data: CREATE TABLE TheCounts ( intcol INT , charcol CHAR(10) , varcharcol VARCHAR(100) , datecol datetime2 ) GO INSERT TheCounts VALUES (1, 'West', 'Denver Broncos', '2018-01-01') , (2, 'West', 'Oakland Raiders', '2018-01-01') , (3, 'West', 'Los Angeles Chargers', '2018-01-01') , (4, 'West', 'Kansas City Chiefs', '2018-01-01') , (5, 'South', 'Jacksonville Jaguars', NULL) , (5, 'South', NULL, '2018-01-02') , (6, NULL, 'Indianapolis Colts', NULL) , (7, NULL, 'Houston Texans', NULL) , (NULL, 'North', 'Pittsburgh Steelers', NULL) , (NULL, 'North', 'Baltimore Ravens', '2018-01-03') , (NULL, 'North', 'Cincinnati Bengals', NULL) , (NULL, 'North', 'Cleveland Browns', NULL) , (13, 'East', 'Cleveland Browns', '2018-01-04') , (13, 'East', 'Cleveland Browns', '2018-01-04') , (14, 'East', 'Cleveland Browns', '2018-01-04') , (14, NULL, 'Cleveland Browns', NULL) What do I get when running this code? SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT charcol) FROM dbo.TheCounts AS tc Think you know the answer? [Click here](, and find out if you are right. --------------------------------------------------------------- We keep track of your score to give you bragging rights against your peers. This question is worth 1 point in this category: count(). We'd love to give you credit for your own question and answer. To submit a QOTD, simply log in to the [Contribution Center](. ADVERTISEMENT [Pro Power BI Desktop]( This book shows how to deliver eye-catching Business Intelligence with Microsoft Power BI Desktop. You can now take data from virtually any source and use it to produce stunning dashboards and compelling reports that will seize your audience’s attention. Slice and dice the data with remarkable ease then add metrics and KPIs to project the insights that create your competitive advantage. Yesterday's Question of the Day Yesterday's Question (by George Copeland): In SQL Server 2015, with an English default (code page 1252), look at this code: --Declare a table variable with a varchar column and insert the following values-- INSERT @TableAsc VALUES (CHAR(65) + '-Uppercase A') ,(CHAR(1) + '-Start of header') ,(CHAR(126) + '-Tilde ~') ,(CHAR(32) + '-Space') ,(CHAR(45) + '-Dash') SELECT * FROM @TableAsc ORDER BY Value COLLATE Latin1_General_CI_AS Which row orders at the top? Answer: Space Explanation: The Char(32) space maps to the lowest code page value for Code Page 1252 Windows Latin 1 (ANSI). Use collation Latin1_General_BIN for binary order. Ref: Code Page 1252 --------------------------------------------------------------- [» Discuss this question and answer on the forums]( Database Pros Who Need Your Help Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. 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