Category: Blog

  • Daily Coping 18 Nov 2021

    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. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to try a new way to practice self-care and be kind to yourself.

    I have tended to push myself to do more and more. It’s driven me, and it’s helped me be successful.

    It also throws me a bit our of balance in life, and I don’t relax well. I’ve been working on that for the last decade plus.

    Lately my body gets worn out or more tired. Parts hurt as I age. As a result, I’m learning to slow and take care of myself more. The other day, I was at yoga, and my ankle was acting up. Rather than push, I slowed down, I skipped some things, and I sat and sipped water, relaxing a bit.

    I find myself doing that more often, caring for the things I can do that day and not being upset that I can’t do more. It’s helped me find a better mental balance.

  • STRING_SPLIT Has Ordinals

    I noticed the docs for STRING_SPLIT now show that there is a third parameter. This brings us an ordinal for the positioning of the data. The format is now:

    STRING_SPLIT( string, separator [, enable_ordinal])

    This is a bit or int that determines if a positional value is added to the result set. Here’s a quick demo.

    No third parameter shows this:

    2021-11-16 13_32_11-SQLQuery2.sql - dkranchapps.database.windows.net.SimpleTalk (sjones (89))_ - Mic

    If I add a 1 for the third parameter, I see this:

    2021-11-16 13_32_37-SQLQuery2.sql - dkranchapps.database.windows.net.SimpleTalk (sjones (89))_ - Mic

    Right now this is only in Azure. I assume we’ll see this in SQL Server 2022, but we’ll have to wait and see.

  • Daily Coping 17 Nov 2021

    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. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to do something playful outdoors – walk, run explore, or relax.

    Usually today would be a little hectic with work and coaching at night. However, no coaching tonight, so I’m going to take advantage of the time.

    It’s dark early with the time change, so I don’t want to be outside late, but it’s work from home, pandemic style. I’m going to knock off at 2pm and go for a hike outside, getting a little fresh air. It may be cold, but I’ll still enjoy November in Colorado. I’ll pick up a little extra work when I get home, and it’s dark.

  • Daily Coping 16 Nov 2021

    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. All my coping tips are under this tag.

    Today’s tip is to look at life through someone else’s eyes and see their perspective.

    I try hard in my life to have empathy and understanding for other points of view. I realize when I have a belief or a strong opinion, it’s based on my world view and situation, which is inherently limited to my experience.

    I know someone that is struggling in the world under the pandemic. They share some difficulties in their life, complain about some things, and find limited joy in the world. In many of our conversations, I don’t really understand why they see the world this way, but I am trying hard to listen to them, ask questions about how they experience things, and not offer advice or denigrate their views.

    Slowly I’m appreciating that they see the world very differently and why they are having a hard time. I still don’t quite understand their view, but I do have empathy and understanding. More importantly, I can support my friend, even though I don’t understand.