dbatools has a lot of functions. A lot. Over 550. There is a great command index on the website, and the documentation gets updated every time a new version is published. But sometimes, it feels like you can’t find what you need unless you already know the name of the thing you’re looking for. Other times, you might start writing your own wrapper around dbatools functions, or maybe start a new function from scratch, because it seems like the functionality you need isn’t there.

This is another in a group of several posts on modernizing T-SQL code with new features and functionality available in SQL Server.

SQL Server 2016 gave us the STRING_SPLIT() function, but what about the reverse - compiling a set of values into one delimited string? We only had to wait 15 months for the release of SQL Server 2017, and the STRING_AGG() function.

Setup

For this post, I’m using the set of North American telephone area codes sourced from the North American Numbering Plan Administrator. It’s a really simple table, but that makes it perfect for this example. The whole table is 389 records and two columns each.

This month, Jess Pomfret (blog | twitter) is trying to beat the winter motivation slump by exploring, and asking us to share, our lifehacks that make daily life a little easier.

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So here we are, the first Tuesday of February. I personally always find February to be the month where my motivation is a little low. I live in the northern hemisphere so it can be a pretty dreary winter month where it still feels like there is a long way to spring (I will say this January I moved from Ohio back to England and the distinct lack of piles of snow is helping this cause somewhat). This makes my topic even more relevant as we need a little extra help to be productive and get through the month.

This is the first of several posts on modernizing T-SQL code with new features and functionality available in SQL Server.

Last year, you finally retired the last of your SQL Server 2008R2 instances. Congratulations! But are you taking advantage of everything that your new instances have to offer? Unless you did a review of all of the T-SQL in your applications, I’m guessing not.

At one time or another, we all find ourselves having to do some string parsing, especially splitting strings on a delimiter. Nearly all of us have one (or two or a dozen) functions for doing this somewhere on every instance of SQL Server. But since SQL Server 2016, we’ve had an official way to do it - the STRING_SPLIT() function.

Thank you to everyone who came out to see my presentation Keys to a Healthy Relationship with SQL Server at SQL Saturday Cleveland. I had a great time and I hope each of you learned at least one new thing.

Here are the links I mentioned in the session, as well as a couple that contributed to some of the things I mentioned.

• Slide deck uploaded to the SQL Saturday website
• Emoji as server object names
• Michael J. Swart’s (blog | twitter) Ten Percent Rule
• Telling Entity Framework to select specific columns
• RunAs Radio #673, Writing Good T-SQL in 2020 with Pam Lahoud and Pedro Lopes

Thank you to everyone who made SQL Saturday Cleveland possible - the organizers, sponsors, my fellow speakers, and all our attendees. Special shout-out to Eric Blinn (blog | twitter) and Paul Popovich (twitter) for finding a way, against all odds, to pull my name three times in the closing raffle.

A few years ago, I wrote about my first experience speaking at SQL Saturday. Recently I had a conversation with one of our first-timers speaking at SQL Saturday Rochester 2020 and realized I should do a follow-up with some additional tips.

Use the FAQ

Did you know that PASS has an FAQ section for speakers on the SQL Saturday site? But don’t limit yourself to that - look through the whole FAQ, you might get some new insights into SQL Saturday.

Kicking off T-SQL Tuesday for 2020, Jon Shaulis (blog | twitter) challenges us to talk about imposter syndrome:

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I want to read your stories about when you’ve experienced, seen, or overcome imposter syndrome! Was there a job that you felt you were ill-prepared for? Did you make a mistake or did someone say something that made you question if you were a true data professional? Maybe there was a particular task you ran into that made you question your experience? Did you resolve your tasks and succeed in your job? How did you overcome that feeling of being an imposter and solve your challenges? Maybe you haven’t experienced it yourself but you saw someone who was feeling imposter syndrome, were you able to help them?

I presented a few times in 2019, and I’m starting off 2020 with several as well. Here’s what’s on the schedule for Q1.

• 2020-01-06 Yep, ISO8601 format. That’s how I roll. - I’ll be giving a lightning talk at work titled “What Does a Database Administrator Do, Anyway?” This one isn’t open to the general public (though I might tweak it for use at community events), but The Bobs and “It Depends” both make an appearance in the deck.
• 2020-02-01 - I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be presenting Keys to a Healthy Relationship with SQL Server at SQL Saturday Cleveland. This is incredibly exciting while at the same time, nerve-wracking. Cleveland is home to quite a few people who I look up to in the SQL Server community, and being selected to speak there is an honor. At the same time, getting up in front of those same folks…I have to keep reminding myself that they’re my friends, they want me to succeed, and they’re in my corner.
• 2020-03-27 - I will be presenting Keys to a Healthy Relationship with SQL Server via webinar for SQL Professionals of Chattanooga. I met Heather Durham (twitter), one of the group organizers, at PASS Summit 2019, asked if the group would be open to me presenting remotely for them, and a few weeks later we were setting things up! Travel isn’t always easy for me, so if this works well hopefully I can add more presentations to my schedule.

That’s what’s booked so far for 2020. I’m hoping to submit sessions to a few more SQL Saturdays later in the year. Once I get another session worked out I’ll be presenting that (those? we shall see…) at our local user group and hopefully adding them to my SQL Saturday submissions. I’m shooting for couple more lightning talks and lunch & learns at work as well!

As we open 2020 (and the house is still quiet on this New Year’s Morning), I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on the past year.

Blogging

2019 was another good year here. I published 32 posts totaling over 21,000 words! What really amazes me is that a post from 2018 is consistently one of the most popular ones. I must have done a really good job on the SEO with that one.

Closing out 2019’s T-SQL Tuesday, Mala (blog | twitter) is asking us to reflect on the past twelve months:

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This is a time for material gift giving, for many of us. It might also be a time to consider the many gifts we have received through the year, and perhaps use this opportunity to appreciate people or situations that we were blessed with. So my question would be – what are a few things would you consider as gifts, and why?