Want to play around with the StackOverflow database export? Here’s how to import the XML files into SQL Server, and some notes about the tables and data schema.
Script to Import StackOverflow XML to SQL Server
This T-SQL script will create six stored procedures:
usp_ETL_Load_Badges
usp_ETL_Load_Comments
usp_ETL_Load_Posts
usp_ETL_Load_Users
usp_ETL_Load_Votes
usp_ETL_Load_PostsTags (which isn’t one of the StackOverflow tables – more on that in a [...]
The first stage of mining is a dirty, ugly business.
Miners don’t emerge from tunnels bearing armfuls of shiny diamonds. They come out with filthy, misshapen rocks that might be something valuable – but might be worthless junk. There’s no way to tell what you’ve really got until you’ve spent some time analyzing and polishing.
Take one [...]
StackOverflow released a public dump of their database this morning. Jeff Atwood and the guys believe that if you, the community, are putting the work into this huge body of knowledge, then you should be able to have rights to use it.
This is a great dataset to show off one of my favorite toys [...]
Last week, I blogged about the basics of SQL Server index fragmentation: why it happens, how to fix it, and how often people are fixing it. I left you with a cliffhanger: it seemed that the frequency of defrag jobs didn’t appear to affect fragmentation levels:
Databases with no index defragmentation were an average of 5% [...]
The Microsoft SQL Server Data Mining team is looking for ways to help DBAs with data mining, and they came up with an interesting idea: data mine the DMVs to find interesting information. I’m going to start by data mining index fragmentation statistics, and I need your help.
I’ve got a DMV query to gather information [...]
George Box said, “Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful.” Donald illustrated this point with a brief history lesson. Early models of the universe said the sun revolved around the earth, and with that model, marvelous things were possible in architecture, celestial navigation and science. Even though the model was wrong, it was [...]
Fun stuff from the SQL Server Data Mining team – they’re showing off SQL Server data mining in the cloud. You can connect to a Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services machine from your local desktop with an Excel 2007 add-in, analyze your data on their servers, all at no charge (for now).
I just published a [...]
Pop quiz: should you be worried if your SQL Server’s page life expectancy is averaging 214? There’s only one correct answer: it depends.
Performance tuning is all about finding the RIGHT bottleneck, focusing on it, and fixing it to the application owner’s satisfaction. Learn what happens if you don’t do it right.
Read More »Erika’s friends call her “Fancy Feast” because she only likes the best things in life. She’s got champagne tastes, but we can’t afford to buy the best of everything. I recently picked up a coffee table from Ikea, and it got me thinking about SQL Azure.
In a perfect world, I’d have on-premise SQL Server for every database. I’d use cutting-edge storage and cluster everything. But this isn’t a perfect world…
Read More »I get a lot of questions from people who want to get a better job. They want to know if certification, training, or branching out will help them get the job of their dreams. These things just aren’t the real answer.
The answer is simple: the Buddy System. Learn why.
Read More »In high school, I threw a huge party in Grandma’s house. It had long-lasting implications – among other things, I got disinherited.
Learn why SQL Server data compression has a lot in common with me after that Jungle Juice bash.
Read More »When my Grandpa Ozar wanted to find out if his 10 megabyte 5.25″ hard drive was responding fast enough to handle his database loads, he monitored the Perfmon counter Physical Disk: Disk Queue Length.
Things have changed since Grandpa’s time, though, and now it’s time to learn a new performance tuning trick – SQL Server waits.
Read More »