Posted by
Andy Brown
on 11 December 2024
Microsoft have announced the next version of their editing environment for SQL Server Management Studio, including the integration of Copilot and (finally) a dark theme.
Posted by
Andrew Gould
on 05 June 2024
We've recently published a new set of exercises for our SQL training courses based on a database of concert tours. This blog provides a brief tour of the database and how to tackle the exercises on our website, even if you haven't attended a Wise Owl training course.
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 30 August 2023
Should you write your SQL queries in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Azure Data Studio (ADS)? Read this blog to find out!
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 07 June 2023
One of the immediate and obvious ways to use AI tools is to boost your productivity as a programmer. This blog shows how you can use ChatGPT 4 and Google's Bard to write programs in SQL, Python, VBA, JQuery and Office Script (probably the 5 languages Wise Owl use most).
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 01 February 2023
Although we currently just train in T-SQL for SQL Server, there are many other dialects of this database language: such as MySql and PL/SQL, for example. Which ones would you like Wise Owl to run courses in?
Posted by
Andy Brown
on 06 October 2022
SQL Server 2022 is now in preview (you can download an evaluation copy). It includes new functions to split strings, trim text and truncate dates, among other things.
Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 30 June 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!
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!
Posted by
Sam Lowrie
on 15 November 2023
Sam has a terrible sense of humour which is all too often inflicted on his delegates. Sadly, with this blog, on website viewers too ...
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!
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.
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.
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.