Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Chopping Off Data

    Do you know the difference between XLS and XLSX? They’re both Excel formats, and many of us might just use one or the other. After all, the latest versions of Excel work with both, and if you’ve been using a spreadsheet for years, perhaps you stick with the older format when exchanging data with others.

    As many of you might have seen, Public Health England recently learned there is a difference with large amounts of data. They found data was being chopped off in a spreadsheet because they were using the old XLS format, which only supports 65k rows. The newer XLSX format will support a million rows, but both numbers are far below what SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and other platforms support. Those platforms support billions, and most are limited only by the storage available.

    I know that pandemic has had many groups scrambling to assemble and analyze data. We have people building dashboards and gathering data together in numerous ways, from paper and pencil to Excel to (hopefully) enterprise databases. An import into a relational store would make more sense than Excel, but I also understand that setting a schema, dealing with ETL and different formats from different sources, and other issues are a pain. There is a reason data professionals get paid a lot of money for these tasks.

    To me, this highlights one of the issues of working with SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc., in that they are cumbersome and difficult to get started with. Even if scientists chose Cassandra or MongoDB, there would be issues, because there aren’t easy, simple client tools that facilitate work with data sets coming in disparate text files and formats.

    I don’t mean to excuse this, because IT professionals should know better. If you’re using XLS, stop. Data volumes increase and you don’t want to realize you’ve hit the limit after data is lost.

    I get the ease and convenience of using Excel, but stop using it for major projects once we realize these are important. Once you realize this is data that needs to be intact, secured, and protected, put it in a real platform. Excel, PowerBI, and most tools can query SQL Server.

    Use those tools where you need them and where you can, just don’t use them as your database.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 19 Oct 2020

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

    Today’s tip is to share your most important goals with the people you trust.

    There are not a lot of people that I really trust and want to share some goals with. It’s a few, and really, this is a time when I’m re-evaluating my life and goals. I have a son out of college, another in his last year, and a daughter in college. I can see the end of financial responsibility outside of my wife and I.

    Therefore, I am starting to look at life, goals, and plans in a new way. I get on a plane tomorrow with my wife, taking a vacation to visit some family. While we’re traveling, I’m looking forward to some time with just my wife where we can talk about life, some plans, and start to think about what’s important to us in the next decade.

  • Career Goals and Inspiration

    Many of us start working in technology because we enjoy programming or software or data or some other aspect of computing. We usually have some excitement that gets us motivated to start learning or apply for a job. Over time, we may move our area of focus, pick up new platforms, change jobs, and more. I’d like to think that most people actively make choices, rather than fall into the next situation, but I see the latter more often than the former. People take jobs quickly, when offered, even if the opportunity isn’t one for they were aiming.

    This certainly isn’t all bad, as there are times when we get opportunities we weren’t expecting. We may not realize what possibilities are available. However, I do regularly see people not thinking about the next step in their career until they need a job or they hate the one they are in. With that in mind, asking you to think about where you might want to go or what to achieve, I have a question for you.

    What things have  you seen others do and accomplish in their careers that you want to do as well?

    If you look at people you read about in the media, or see speak at an event, or hear about from friends, are there things that impress you? Are there jobs, roles, projects, or something else you’d like to accomplish?

    I think there are some neat goals that Brent has written about in his Epic Life Quest. These are bucket list items, and it’s a mix of business, career, and personal goals. I’ve had a similar bucket list, but I let it go and only started to rebuild it this year, along with my partner as we think about our future together.

    I will say that one of my big goals was speaking at the Ignite (formerly TechEd) conference. That was one of the biggest events in my industry, and I wanted to get there. I did get accepted, but a surgery required me to cancel, which was disappointing. Still, it’s a high point of my career.

    I still have a few private goals that I am aiming for in my career, but we’ll see if I get them. If you don’t have any, perhaps this weekend is a good time to stop and think of a few. You don’t need to set them all, or even commit to them, but just start actively managing your career and make a few goals.

    Steve Jones

    Listen to the podcast at Libsyn, Stitcher or iTunes.

  • Daily Coping 16 Oct 2020

    I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

    Today’s tip is to thank yourself for achieving things you often take for granted.

    I think that I end up accomplishing a lot of things each week. I have a busy life, engage in lots, and often things go well. However, it’s easy to take, or expect, things to go well. It’s also easy to criticize yourself for the things that aren’t as perfect or as well done as you’d like.

    One of those things that I often do is try to take care of my body with regular exercise. I take it for granted that I’ll go to a few yoga classes, practice on my own, life weights, and more. I don’t miss a lot of days, as you can see from my August

    2020-10-12 10_39_34-MapMyRun

    and September logs

    2020-10-12 10_39_26-MapMyRun

    I’m taking a moment to thank myself for actually getting some thing done here.