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Little SQL Server Tricks: Aggregate Functions on Columns

Aggregate functions (like Min(), Max(), Sum(), etc.) are often used to calculate values in a SELECT statement. Instead of loading all the data and calculate the values for yourself, you let the database give you the answer. That is a lot faster and requires less typing. Aggregate functions are mostly used on rows. But did you know that SQL Server lets you use them on columns as well? This post shows how it is done what could be a simple solution for some tricky questions.

Consolidate the NuGet Packages in your Solution

As a .Net developer you use NuGet packages daily: You add them to projects and can use the functionality they offer without much effort. Adding those packages is one thing, updating them another. Especially with solutions containing many projects it’s common to forget one or another package. There is a simple solution to that problem: Solution wide management of NuGet packages.

Conference Videos: A Widely Underused Learning Opportunity

A great way to learn new things is to attend a conference. You can meet new people, listen to interesting talks and discuss the obstacles one needs to overcome to successfully adopt those new approaches and techniques. However, not everyone has the time to attend a conference or can afford the ticket. A much less costly way to profit from all those learning opportunities is to watch the videos of the talks. Let's look at a few conferences and how easy it is to get those videos.

Running DbUp Inside a Transaction

DbUp is a great tool to manage database migration scripts as I explained in the past. For more than two years we used it in multiple projects and never needed more than the setup example from the documentation. However, in the case of an error this snipped isn’t the best configuration and needs manual work to clean-up your database. Let’s look on the underlying problem and how one can fix it.

My Tool List of 2018

This is my list of little tools and helpers that I install on all my devices. It was inspired by Scott Hanselman's Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List and some tools may overlap. Nevertheless, there are plenty of differences and I'm sure that you will find one or more gems that simplify your developer life. If you know a tool that is missing and is a must-have, please leave a comment with a link to that tool.

Integrate SonarQube with Visual Studio Team Services

Running SonarQube manually is a sure way to not running it at all. Sometimes you forget it, other times you know that it's not going to give an "adequate" report and so you better wait a bit with the next run – the only problem is that this next run never happens. If you want to take SonarQube seriously, you must integrate it into your build. This post shows you how you can use SonarQube with your Visual Studio Team Services (short VSTS) builds.