Blogs from Wise Owl on General in SQL

Practise SQL in your browser with SQL Fiddle

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 01 July 2021

Some of our poor delegates don't have the luxury of a home computer to install SQL on (even worse some have made bad life choices and picked a Mac). The good news is that you can still practise your SQL skills in your web browser, using the impressive SQL Fiddle site. Have no fear, SQL Fiddle is here, a browser based sandbox to bring you cheer!

What to do when you get red squiggly lines in SSMS and no Intellisense

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 28 April 2021

Normally when SQL Server Management Studio underlines words with what Microsoft call "red squigglies" it's because you haven't refreshed your local cache, but it could also be because of a recent bug - here's how to get round this!

5 horrible SQL jokes and one puzzle

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 22 July 2020

Sam has a terrible sense of humour which is all too often inflicted on his delegates. Sadly, with this blog, on website viewers too ...

Azure Data Studio versus SQL Server Management Studio

Posted by Andy Brown on 16 January 2020

Microsoft have brought out a new SQL editor called Azure Data Studio, to act as a substitute for SQL Server Management Studio, but this owl cannot see any justification for its existence!

Congratulations to Shaun Rowark for his suggestion for a new acronym for SFWGHO!

Posted by Andy Brown on 14 August 2019

We're always on the look-out for a new acronym for the order of SQL commands, and are pleased to award a gift voucher to another worthy winner of our competition.

Wise Owl have found one SQL structure which slows down code more than any other

Posted by Andy Brown on 13 May 2019

If your stored procedures or SQL queries are running slowly, don't bother looking at correlated subqueries, cursors, functions or any of the other usual culprits. There's one SQL syntax which Wise Owl have found to be an order of magnitude worse than any other, as this blog shows.

Create your own snippets of SQL code, and insert them into your queries

Posted by Andy Brown on 23 November 2017

With SQL Server 2012 came the power not just to use pre-defined code snippets, but also to create your own - this blog explains how.

Wise Owl coding standards for T-SQL (the SQL dialect used in SQL Server)

Posted by Andy Brown on 01 February 2017

A blog setting out an approach to coding in SQL to ensure consistently high standards across your organisation.

How to use the FOR XML keywords in SQL to concatenate ids

Posted by Andy Brown on 27 September 2016

If you want to group items in a SQL query, showing a comma-delimited list of ids for each, generating an XML file is not the obvious place to start - but it should be.

Wise Owl suggestions for new features for SQL Server Management Studio

Posted by Andy Brown on 09 September 2013

Writing SQL in Management Studio could, Wise Owl feel, be made a little easier: here are 10 practical suggestions for how!

Exporting data from SQL Server Management Studio

Posted by Andrew Gould on 04 February 2013

While SQL Server Management Studio is a powerful tool for writing queries, it has absolutely no concessions towards making the results of those queries remotely presentable! This blog describes several techniques for getting the results of a query into another application so that you can format them to your heart’s content.

New in SQL 2012 - code snippets and surrounding code

Posted by Andy Brown on 15 May 2012

In a previous blog on new features of SQL 2012, I missed out the ability to insert code snippets, and also to embed or surround code in an IF, BEGIN or WHILE block. This blog rectifies this!

New features for SQL within SQL Server 2012

Posted by Andy Brown on 08 May 2012

SQL 2012 has 14 new functions, a new FileTable construct and new ways to sequence and fetch records - as this blog explains.

Access project ADP file extended properties error

Posted by Andy Brown on 04 January 2011

When you try to view data for a table in an Access project with an ADP extension, Access can throw a wobbly. Here's why!