Tim Smith

Tim consults for FinTek Development and teaches the course Automating ETL on Udemy. He's worked with technology since high school, helping his school win its first TCEA award and continues to work in automation, data architecture, back-end development, and smart contract architecture. Tim enjoys testing new technologies early in the diffusion of innovation curve and was an early adopter of NoSQL and smart contract development. He has a blog at http://www.fintekdev.com/ and helps contribute to local technical and financial events in Texas.

2017 Awards
MSSQLTips award

2016 Awards
MSSQLTips award

2015 Awards
MSSQLTips award

2014 Awards
MSSQLTips award

Application Development

Best Practices for Validating Applications With Database Architecture (last update: 11/7/2017)
Key Value Pair Basics for SQL Server Data (last update: 5/9/2017)
SQL Server Native Options For Reporting Live Data (last update: 5/15/2017)

Auditing and Compliance

Prevent Confidential Data at the Application Layer from getting into SQL Server (last update: 9/12/2014)

Azure

Add and Monitor Transparent Data Encryption to AzureSQL Databases (last update: 12/23/2016)
Automate Azure File Uploads and File Deletes With PowerShell (last update: 6/22/2015)
Automate Retrieving SQL Azure Bacpacs With PowerShell (last update: 5/20/2015)
Automating A Heartbeat Check Against an Azure-SQL Database Using PowerShell (last update: 6/4/2015)
Caution - Azure SQL Version 12 Restore Times Take Longer (last update: 6/16/2015)
Setting Up Geo-Replication in SQL Azure (last update: 12/12/2016)
Solutions for Azure SQL Database Throttle Log Wait of HADR_THROTTLE_LOG_RATE_GOVERNOR (last update: 7/26/2016)
Solutions for AzureSQL LOG_RATE_GOVERNOR Waits (last update: 10/21/2016)
Three Useful Features In Azure-SQL For Growing Environments (last update: 8/1/2016)
Troubleshoot SQL Azure Bacpac Import Failures (last update: 7/31/2015)
Using Azure For Testing POCs and Designs With Lessons Learned (last update: 3/16/2017)

Backup

Automate Tracking SQL Server Backup Times with PowerShell (last update: 12/18/2014)
Verify SQL Server Backups Existence in the File System with PowerShell (last update: 3/17/2015)
Zip and Copy SQL Server Backup Files with PowerShell (last update: 5/21/2018)

Compression

SQL Server Table and Index Compression Information With PowerShell (last update: 1/5/2015)

Data Types

Handling error converting data type varchar to numeric in SQL Server (last update: 9/3/2015)

Database Administration

4 Factors When Choosing to Automate SQL Server Tasks (last update: 5/9/2018)
Building Smarter Scripts for SQL Server Data Updates (last update: 2/1/2018)
Execute and Track T-SQL Script Executions with PowerShell (last update: 12/29/2017)
Finding SQL Server Objects that don't conform to Standards using PowerShell (last update: 10/7/2014)
Monitor SQL Server Database Size, Growth and Expected Growth with PowerShell (last update: 11/12/2014)
SQL Server Archive and Data Retention Considerations (last update: 7/14/2015)
SQL Server Video on Database Growth (last update: 11/17/2014)
Troubleshoot TFS SQL Server Slowdowns (last update: 7/11/2016)

Database Consistency Checks DBCCs

SQL Server Database Integrity Check Best Practices (last update: 5/11/2016)

Dates

Handling Special Dates For SQL Server Metrics (last update: 12/1/2016)

DBA Best Practices

Automate Removal of Saved SQL Server Objects During Deployments (last update: 5/30/2016)
T-SQL and PowerShell Documentation With Gists (last update: 4/26/2016)

Disaster Recovery

Simulating SQL Server Disaster Recovery Drills (last update: 7/1/2016)

Functions - User Defined UDF

How To Calculate Behavioral Streaks in SQL Server Data (last update: 5/4/2015)

Hardware

Automate file cleanup on SQL Server drives using PowerShell (last update: 2/16/2016)

Import and Export

3 Solutions For Auditing Long SQL Server Extracts or Loads (last update: 6/27/2017)
Automating Flat File SQL Server Imports With PowerShell (last update: 4/30/2014)
Best Practices For Building Alerts for Using APIs with SQL Server (last update: 8/19/2016)
Non-Standard Delimiters for Columns and Rows Using SQL Server Bulk Insert (last update: 2/19/2018)
Pre-Validating Data with PowerShell Before Importing to SQL Server (last update: 6/2/2014)
Preventing Invalid Data Early In An ETL Flow (last update: 4/10/2018)
Retaining ETL Data from Files, APIs and Data Feeds (last update: 12/26/2017)
SQL Server Data Import System to Alert For Missed Imports (last update: 12/9/2014)
SQL Server Stored Procedure to remove outliers from data sets (last update: 5/19/2014)
SQL Server Video to Pre-Validate Data with PowerShell Before Importing (last update: 7/29/2014)
SQL Server Video to Remove Outliers from Data Sets (last update: 7/23/2014)
Techniques to Cleanse Bad Data in SQL Server (last update: 6/23/2017)
Techniques to handle timing issues and inconsistent data for SQL Server data loads (last update: 2/14/2017)
Troubleshooting Common SQL Server Bulk Insert Errors (last update: 5/13/2015)
Validate File Properties with PowerShell Prior to Import into SQL Server (last update: 5/6/2014)
What technologies are available in SQL Server to support ETL? (last update: 9/12/2017)

In-Memory OLTP

Using SQL Server In-Memory Tables Within ETL Architecture (last update: 9/15/2017)

Indexing

SQL Server Clustered Columnstore Index Examples for ETL (last update: 12/20/2017)

Integration Services Development

Loop through Flat Files in SQL Server Integration Services (last update: 3/4/2013)

Integration Services Performance

Tracking Execution Times for SSIS Packages (last update: 1/4/2018)

Maintenance

Automate Out of Date SQL Server Statistics with PowerShell (last update: 3/9/2016)

Monitoring

Improve SQL Server Logging to Reduce Space and Troubleshooting Time (last update: 3/7/2018)
Monitor a Windows Service Interacting with SQL Server (last update: 5/23/2017)

PowerShell

4 Convenient Ways To Run PowerShell Scripts (last update: 3/3/2016)
6 Useful PowerShell Scripts to Help SQL Server DBAs and Developers (last update: 12/1/2014)
Consider New Ideas for SQL Server Data Analysis (last update: 4/2/2015)
Debugging PowerShell Scripts (last update: 10/11/2017)
Executing scripts on multiple servers by SQL Server version and edition using PowerShell (last update: 3/4/2015)
Extract and convert all Excel worksheets into CSV files using PowerShell (last update: 5/12/2014)
Extracting API Data Using PowerShell and Loading into SQL Server (last update: 2/3/2015)
Limit Time Ranges In PowerShell for Calculations (last update: 3/15/2016)
PowerShell and ADO.NET Connection String Settings for SQL Server (last update: 8/28/2015)
PowerShell and Hash Table Examples (last update: 11/23/2017)
PowerShell and Object-Level Math Functions (last update: 3/28/2017)
PowerShell and T-SQL Regular Expression Examples for SQL Server (last update: 9/24/2014)
PowerShell Parameters Part II - ValidateSet and ValidatePattern (last update: 4/19/2016)
PowerShell Regular Expression (RegEx) Video Examples for SQL Server (last update: 9/29/2014)
PowerShell Scripts for Obtaining File Metadata (last update: 8/30/2017)
Reading Text Files With PowerShell For Configurations Part I (last update: 6/10/2015)
Rename and Move a File with PowerShell in a SQL Server Agent Job (last update: 4/21/2014)
SQL Server Video Automating Flat File Imports using PowerShell (last update: 6/18/2014)
SQL Server Video to Extract All Excel Worksheets into individual CSV files (last update: 8/6/2014)
SQL Server Video to Rename and Move a File using PowerShell (last update: 6/12/2014)
SQL Server Video Validate File Properties Prior to Importing Data (last update: 7/7/2014)
Update SQL Server Agent Job owner and Database owner with PowerShell (last update: 6/20/2016)
Use PowerShell to Determine the number DML operations in SQL Server Scripts (last update: 9/15/2016)
Using Nested Switch Statements In PowerShell (last update: 4/24/2018)
Using PowerShell to Check or Compare Values (last update: 9/5/2017)
Using PowerShell To Record SQL Server Virtual Log File (VLF) Growth (last update: 1/27/2016)
Using PowerShell With Configuration Tables in SQL Server (last update: 3/10/2015)
Validating PowerShell Parameters - Part I (last update: 4/1/2016)
Video of 6 Useful PowerShell Scripts to Help SQL Server DBAs and Developers (last update: 12/12/2014)
Video on Text Mining SQL Server Data Using PowerShell (last update: 10/20/2014)

Professional Development Career Planning

SQL Server Database Development Career Questions (last update: 10/24/2014)

Professional Development Interview Questions Developer

Interview Questions for Hiring PowerShell Database Developers (last update: 4/9/2015)

Profiler and Trace

Automate Trace Imports With PowerShell (last update: 1/12/2015)

Replication

Addressing SQL Server Replication Violation of Primary Key Errors (last update: 10/28/2016)
Aggregate Functions to Validate Data for SQL Server Replication and ETL Processes (last update: 4/13/2016)
Queries For Debugging Bi-Directional SQL Server Merge Replication (last update: 5/2/2016)
Queries To Debug SQL Server Replication Issues (last update: 2/2/2016)
Queries to Monitor SQL Server Replication Backlog (last update: 2/24/2016)
Solving Table Drop Error Related to SQL Server Replication's sp_MStran_ddlrepl (last update: 3/7/2017)
Tracking SQL Server Replication Metadata Changes (last update: 5/1/2017)
Tracking SQL Server Replication Subscriber Schema Changes Disrupting Data Flow (last update: 6/8/2016)
Using PowerShell for SQL Server Replication Tracking (last update: 1/19/2016)

Restore

Time Testing SQL Azure Point In Time Database Restores (last update: 4/20/2015)

Security

Protect Confidential SQL Server Data Q and A (last update: 9/17/2014)
Reflect on SQL Server Security Considerations After Recent Breaches (last update: 4/3/2017)
Retaining File Information for ETL Security Analysis (last update: 1/10/2018)

SQL Server Agent

Find SQL Server Agent Jobs That Exist on One Instance and Not on Another Instance (last update: 11/24/2014)
Using SMO With PowerShell To Obtain SQL Server Job Information (last update: 7/21/2015)

Stored Procedures

Finding SQL Server objects that reference invalid objects (last update: 6/23/2014)
Finding Unused SQL Server Stored Procedures With PowerShell (last update: 6/30/2014)
SQL Server T-SQL Stored Procedure Design to Handle Varying Default Values (last update: 10/12/2016)
SQL Server video to find objects that reference invalid objects (last update: 9/9/2014)

T-SQL

Auto Rename SQL Server Tables and Their References with PowerShell (last update: 7/18/2014)
Calculating Median Absolute Deviation with T-SQL Code in SQL Server (last update: 9/1/2016)
Executing Code Every Nth Percent of the Time with T-SQL (last update: 1/22/2018)
Finding Spreads in Data Ranges Using T-SQL (last update: 2/27/2018)
PowerShell and Text Mining Part I: Word Counts, Positions and Libraries (last update: 10/16/2014)
Reporting Techniques With SQL Server Text Mining (Part II) (last update: 11/5/2014)
Simple T-SQL Code Comparison With PowerShell (last update: 7/15/2016)
Summarize Metrics with SQL Server T-SQL Code (last update: 5/24/2016)
T-SQL Techniques For Mapping Ceteris Paribus Variables (last update: 3/26/2018)
T-SQL: Capture Related Data and Return By Aggregates (last update: 12/7/2017)
Two T-SQL Alternatives For Tracking Changes (last update: 2/23/2017)
Using T-SQL for Finding Narrowing Ranges of Data (last update: 10/18/2017)

Triggers

Disable SQL Server Triggers with PowerShell (last update: 9/5/2016)

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Tim Smith

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