Voice of the DBA

Author: way0utwest

  • Daily Coping 8 Jul 2020

    I’ve 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 take a photo of something special.

    I’m going to use a photo from this past weekend. I was able to get away in the mountains with my wife for a couple days, and it was a nice break from just being at home.

    20200703_170723_HDR

    My wife and two dogs, enjoying the river that runs through the ski resort. It was neat to see them really enjoying the afternoon.

  • Daily Coping 7 Jul 2020

    I’ve 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 take a few minutes and do something fun for yourself.

    Last week I drove to the mountains to be sure I could host the SQL in the City Streamed – APAC. We were having construction at the house and I couldn’t find a quiet place there. I expected to go up, work, spend the night, and then have my wife and kids join me.

    Instead, my wife decided to stay home and work, sleeping in our camper. My daughter joined her, which uses up all the comfortable beds in there. My son went to hand out with friends, and that left me alone at our condo for a few nights.

    At first I thought about going back early, but decided not to crowd anyone out of a bed and instead take some time and reflect on life and enjoy myself. I had to work, but I also spent time walking around, enjoying the beautiful Colorado mountains, and getting away from my normal life. All in all, a bit of an indulgence for me, but a good one.

  • Getting the Proc Code–#SQLNewBlogger

    Another post for me that is simple and hopefully serves as an example for people trying to get blogging as #SQLNewBloggers.

    I saw a question recently about getting the code in a stored procedure. I’ve become dependent on SQL Prompt, which gives me a nice preview of code when I see a proc:

    2020-06-30 16_42_34-ObjectDefinitionBox

    The main way I’ve gotten code is right clicking a proc in Object Explorer and clicking Modify. That opens up an ALTER statement for the proc.

    2020-06-30 16_42_44-

    However, there’s one more way to do this: sp_helptext.

    2020-06-30 17_26_18-SQLQuery2.sql - ARISTOTLE_SQL2017.Sandbox (ARISTOTLE_Steve (82))_ - Microsoft SQ

    Not the best solution, but it gives me a quick look from SQL without futzing through a big list in the OE.

    SQLNewBlogger

    This is a quick example of some knowledge that I can use in my regular work. When someone asked the question, I knew the code for procs was stored somewhere, but I wasn’t sure what the proc to get this was. I tried sp_help, but that wasn’t right, so I had to go look up sp_helptext.

    This took about ten minutes to write.

  • Daily Coping 6 Jul 2020

    I’ve 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 think of something you’ve always wanted to do and never tried.

    Lots of things for me, but one of the items I haven’t made time for is to travel to South America or Africa. During some time on vacation a few weeks ago, I struggled to keep up on a hard hike with my kids. They’re in their 20s, and they should be able to go faster and harder than I can, but it reminded me of my age.

    My wife and I talked about some of the things we would like to do while we are still relatively young. Machu Piccu was on our list for this year, but that’s been delayed until who knows when, but hopefully 2021. We also talked about China after seeing a commercial of the Tianmen Cave.

    I’m hoping that I can get the chance to travel more in the next 5 years and see some of the amazing things on our planet.