Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 18 July 2018
Read this blog to understand the risk of Power BI's automatic grouping of data, and to learn how to avoid getting caught out!
Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 18 July 2018
Ever had a data label vanish for no apparent reason? This blog gives two of the most common reasons why this might happen.
Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 19 June 2018
Learn how to MERGE rows from two tables into one combined table, and how to remove unwanted data from both tables.
Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 11 June 2018
Learn about the perils of changing the cross filter direction to "Both", then discover why the CROSS FILTER function is better!
Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 30 May 2018
This blog shows how you can split rows in tables into different pages, making the data easier to read.
Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 18 May 2018
Learn to use the SUMMARIZE and CALCULATE functions to produce numeric and weighted distributions.
Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 12 March 2018
Basic Power BI Desktop visuals can leave something to be desired. Try these 5 visuals to spice up your reports!
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 16 February 2018
There seems to be an occasional bug in Report Builder which fills a table with blank rows. Here's one owl's way to get round it.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 16 February 2018
Report Builder and SQL Server Reporting Services are almost identical - which makes the small but important differences even harder to explain.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 16 February 2018
You can use the IIF function in SQL as an alternative to the CASE WHEN statement. We thought we would share this new (for us) discovery with the world!
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 29 January 2018
If you're trying to project your screen at the front of a class, the Windows Magnifier lets people see what you're doing more easily.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 04 January 2018
If you get data in pivot (two-dimensional) form, you can unpivot it to get the underlying rows, and hence produce charts and visuals. This blog shows how!
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 22 December 2017
Introduced in Visual Studio, string interpolation allows you to linking different C# expressions contained in curly parentheses, with everything preceded by a dollar sign. This blog explains how to use this handy new short-cut.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 08 December 2017
This short blog explains how to convert Julian dates to "normal" ones, and how the formula used actually works!
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 08 December 2017
Did you know that you can automatically generate multiple versions of a pivot table, with each one configured to filter by a different item? We didn't - this blog is an attempt to apologise for our oversight!
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 14 March 2024
Step-by-step instructions for how to show on your LinkedIn profile proof of the Wise Owl courses that you've attended.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 01 June 2017
There are a few ways to find the differences between two Excel worksheets. This blog considers 3 methods (using Excel formulae, using Query Editor and using the Inquire add-in).
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 27 April 2017
If you've added an expression constraint to control flow in a package in Integration Services, this blog will show you how to display what the constraint does automatically.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 21 April 2017
Follow this blog to learn how to use an SSIS package to loop over the worksheets in an Excel XLSX workbook, importing the contents of each.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 02 March 2017
When you are programming in SQL, you often have the choice of using table variables or temporary tables. This blog considers whether one method is substantially quicker than the other (spoiler alert: not really).