Month: March 2009

I often get asked how to convert a datetime into Julian Date format in T-SQL. People have differing opinions about what Julian means, but the one I got asked about most recently meant YYDDD, as often used by mainframe systems (I think this is Julian Date, as opposed to Julian Day which is the number of days since 4713BC). SQL Server doesn’t have a TO_JULIAN function, but we can make one easily enough. So we’re wanting to express a date as YYDDD, where YY is the two-digit form of the year, and DDD is the number of days since Dec … Continue reading Converting to (and from) Julian Date (YYDDD) format in T-SQL

Another book review, and another giveaway for the Adelaide SQL Server User Group. This time, it’s Microsoft Windows PowerShell Step By Step. Last month I had picked up the Windows PowerShell Scripting Guide, wondering if it was going to be a good recommendation for people who were interesting in getting into PowerShell. Even though I thought the book was very good (particularly if you want to use PowerShell to access the innards of a Windows installation), it didn’t seem like the right book for recommending for PowerShell beginners. This book is though, and I’ll definitely recommend it for people wanting … Continue reading A review – Microsoft Windows PowerShell Step By Step (Ed Wilson)

This blog meme is doing the rounds… I’ve been tagged at least twice now (Jason Strate and Greg Linwood), so I suppose subconsciously I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a few weeks already. Since I do a lot of training, I tend to explain these things to my students anyway. I have a lot of opportunity to stand up in front of people and tell them important stuff – so this kind of thing definitely comes up now and then. Things I wish I had known years ago (career-wise that I would teach new people in the SQL field) … Continue reading Things You Know Now