Tim Smith

Tim Smith works as a DBA and developer and also teaches Automating ETL on Udemy.

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.

2019 Awards MSSQLTips award

2018 Awards MSSQLTips award

2017 Awards MSSQLTips award

2016 Awards MSSQLTips award

2015 Awards MSSQLTips award

2014 Awards MSSQLTips award

Category	Tip Title
Application Development	Best Practices for Validating Applications With Database Architecture
Application Development	Key Value Pair Basics for SQL Server Data
Application Development	SQL Server Native Options For Reporting Live Data
Auditing and Compliance	Prevent Confidential Data at the Application Layer from getting into SQL Server
Azure	Automate Azure File Uploads and File Deletes With PowerShell
Azure	Automating A Heartbeat Check Against an Azure-SQL Database Using PowerShell
Azure	Setting Up Geo-Replication in SQL Azure
Azure	Solutions for AzureSQL LOG_RATE_GOVERNOR Waits
Azure	Three Useful Features In Azure-SQL For Growing Environments
Azure	Troubleshoot SQL Azure Bacpac Import Failures
Azure	Using Azure For Testing POCs and Designs With Lessons Learned
Azure Backup and Restore	Automate Retrieving SQL Azure Bacpacs With PowerShell
Azure Backup and Restore	Caution - Azure SQL Version 12 Restore Times Take Longer
Azure SQL Database	Add and Monitor Transparent Data Encryption to Azure SQL Databases
Azure SQL Database	Solutions for Azure SQL Database Throttle Log Wait of HADR THROTTLE LOG RATE GOVERNOR
Backup	Automate Tracking SQL Server Backup Times with PowerShell
Backup	Verify SQL Server Backups Existence in the File System with PowerShell
Backup	Zip and Copy SQL Server Backup Files with PowerShell
Compression	SQL Server Table and Index Compression Information With PowerShell
Data Types	Handling error converting data type varchar to numeric in SQL Server
Database Administration	4 Factors When Choosing to Automate SQL Server Tasks
Database Administration	Building Smarter Scripts for SQL Server Data Updates
Database Administration	Detecting Write-Protection Changes On Disks that Cause File Access Errors
Database Administration	Execute and Track T-SQL Script Executions with PowerShell
Database Administration	Finding SQL Server Objects that don't conform to Standards using PowerShell
Database Administration	Monitor SQL Server Database Size, Growth and Expected Growth with PowerShell
Database Administration	SQL Server Archive and Data Retention Considerations
Database Administration	SQL Server Video on Database Growth
Database Administration	Troubleshoot TFS SQL Server Slowdowns
Database Console Commands DBCCs	SQL Server Database Integrity Check Best Practices
Database Design	The Pros and Cons of Using T-SQL Soft Transactions
Dates	Handling Special Dates For SQL Server Metrics
DBA Best Practices	Automate Removal of Saved SQL Server Objects During Deployments
DBA Best Practices	T-SQL and PowerShell Documentation With Gists
Disaster Recovery	Simulating SQL Server Disaster Recovery Drills
Functions User Defined UDF	How To Calculate Behavioral Streaks in SQL Server Data
Hardware	Automate file cleanup on SQL Server drives using PowerShell
Import and Export	3 Solutions For Auditing Long SQL Server Extracts or Loads
Import and Export	Automating Flat File SQL Server Imports With PowerShell
Import and Export	Best Practices For Building Alerts for Using APIs with SQL Server
Import and Export	Considering Derived Values In ETL Flows
Import and Export	Non-Standard Delimiters for Columns and Rows Using SQL Server Bulk Insert
Import and Export	Pre-Validating Data with PowerShell Before Importing to SQL Server
Import and Export	Preventing Invalid Data Early In An ETL Flow
Import and Export	Retaining ETL Data from Files, APIs and Data Feeds
Import and Export	Solutions to Track Delayed SQL Server Transaction Latency
Import and Export	SQL Server Bulk Insert For Full Files, Misformatted Data and Unusual Characters
Import and Export	SQL Server Data Import System to Alert For Missed Imports
Import and Export	SQL Server Stored Procedure to remove outliers from data sets
Import and Export	SQL Server Video to Pre-Validate Data with PowerShell Before Importing
Import and Export	SQL Server Video to Remove Outliers from Data Sets
Import and Export	Techniques to Cleanse Bad Data in SQL Server
Import and Export	Techniques to handle timing issues and inconsistent data for SQL Server data loads
Import and Export	Troubleshooting Common SQL Server Bulk Insert Errors
Import and Export	Validate File Properties with PowerShell Prior to Import into SQL Server
Import and Export	What technologies are available in SQL Server to support ETL?
In Memory OLTP	Using SQL Server In-Memory Tables Within ETL Architecture
Indexing	SQL Server Clustered Columnstore Index Examples for ETL
Integration Services Development	Loop through Flat Files in SQL Server Integration Services
Integration Services Performance	Tracking Execution Times for SSIS Packages
Maintenance	Automate Out of Date SQL Server Statistics with PowerShell
Monitoring	Improve SQL Server Logging to Reduce Space and Troubleshooting Time
Monitoring	Monitor a Windows Service Interacting with SQL Server
Monitoring	SQL Server T-SQL Alerts for Standard and Custom Errors
PowerShell	4 Convenient Ways To Run PowerShell Scripts
PowerShell	6 Useful PowerShell Scripts to Help SQL Server DBAs and Developers
PowerShell	Call SQL Server Stored Procedures with PowerShell using Parameter Objects
PowerShell	Consider New Ideas for SQL Server Data Analysis
PowerShell	Create File with Content Using PowerShell
PowerShell	Debugging PowerShell Scripts
PowerShell	Develop and Debug PowerShell Scripts with MyInvocation
PowerShell	Execute SQL Server Stored Procedures from PowerShell
PowerShell	Executing scripts on multiple servers by SQL Server version and edition using PowerShell
PowerShell	Extract and convert all Excel worksheets into CSV files using PowerShell
PowerShell	Extracting API Data Using PowerShell and Loading into SQL Server
PowerShell	Getting Started with PowerShell File Properties and Methods
PowerShell	Getting the Count of Non-Null Values in a SQL Server Table with PowerShell
PowerShell	How to Query Arrays, Hash Tables and Strings with PowerShell
PowerShell	Limit Time Ranges In PowerShell for Calculations
PowerShell	Options For Reporting Errors In Catch Statements Using PowerShell
PowerShell	Parsing Strings From Delimiters In PowerShell
PowerShell	PowerShell and ADO.NET Connection String Settings for SQL Server
PowerShell	PowerShell and Hash Table Examples
PowerShell	PowerShell and Object-Level Math Functions
PowerShell	PowerShell and T-SQL Regular Expression Examples for SQL Server
PowerShell	PowerShell Parameters Part II - ValidateSet and ValidatePattern
PowerShell	PowerShell Regular Expression (RegEx) Video Examples for SQL Server
PowerShell	PowerShell Scripts for Obtaining File Metadata
PowerShell	Pre-validating Data in Delimited Files with PowerShell Prior to Importing to SQL Server
PowerShell	Reading Text Files With PowerShell For Configurations Part I
PowerShell	Rename and Move a File with PowerShell in a SQL Server Agent Job
PowerShell	SQL Server Video Automating Flat File Imports using PowerShell
PowerShell	SQL Server Video to Extract All Excel Worksheets into individual CSV files
PowerShell	SQL Server Video to Rename and Move a File using PowerShell
PowerShell	SQL Server Video Validate File Properties Prior to Importing Data
PowerShell	Update SQL Server Agent Job owner and Database owner with PowerShell
PowerShell	Use PowerShell to Determine the number DML operations in SQL Server Scripts
PowerShell	Using Nested Switch Statements In PowerShell
PowerShell	Using PowerShell to Check or Compare Values
PowerShell	Using PowerShell to Encode Files
PowerShell	Using PowerShell To Record SQL Server Virtual Log File (VLF) Growth
PowerShell	Using PowerShell With Configuration Tables in SQL Server
PowerShell	Validating PowerShell Parameters - Part I
PowerShell	Verify File Exists Using PowerShell
PowerShell	Video of 6 Useful PowerShell Scripts to Help SQL Server DBAs and Developers
PowerShell	Video on Text Mining SQL Server Data Using PowerShell
Professional Development Career Planning	SQL Server Database Development Career Questions
Professional Development Interview Questions Developer	Interview Questions for Hiring PowerShell Database Developers
Profiler and Trace	Automate Trace Imports With PowerShell
Replication	Addressing SQL Server Replication Violation of Primary Key Errors
Replication	Aggregate Functions to Validate Data for SQL Server Replication and ETL Processes
Replication	Queries For Debugging Bi-Directional SQL Server Merge Replication
Replication	Queries To Debug SQL Server Replication Issues
Replication	Queries to Monitor SQL Server Replication Backlog
Replication	Solving Table Drop Error Related to SQL Server Replication's sp_MStran_ddlrepl
Replication	Tracking SQL Server Replication Metadata Changes
Replication	Tracking SQL Server Replication Subscriber Schema Changes Disrupting Data Flow
Replication	Using PowerShell for SQL Server Replication Tracking
Restore	Time Testing SQL Azure Point In Time Database Restores
Security	Protect Confidential SQL Server Data Q and A
Security	Reflect on SQL Server Security Considerations After Recent Breaches
Security	Retaining File Information for ETL Security Analysis
Security	Review Minimum SQL Server Security Practices
SQL Injection	Validate Dynamic SQL to Prevent SQL Injection in SQL Server
SQL Server Agent	Find SQL Server Agent Jobs That Exist on One Instance and Not on Another Instance
SQL Server Agent	Using SMO With PowerShell To Obtain SQL Server Job Information
Stored Procedures	Finding SQL Server objects that reference invalid objects
Stored Procedures	Finding Unused SQL Server Stored Procedures With PowerShell
Stored Procedures	Sequential Execution of SQL Server Stored Procedures
Stored Procedures	SQL Server T-SQL Stored Procedure Design to Handle Varying Default Values
Stored Procedures	SQL Server video to find objects that reference invalid objects
Triggers	Disable SQL Server Triggers with PowerShell
Triggers	Find All SQL Server Triggers to Quickly Enable or Disable
TSQL	Auto Rename SQL Server Tables and Their References with PowerShell
TSQL	Calculating Median Absolute Deviation with T-SQL Code in SQL Server
TSQL	Executing Code Every Nth Percent of the Time with T-SQL
TSQL	Finding Spreads in Data Ranges Using T-SQL
TSQL	PowerShell and Text Mining Part I: Word Counts, Positions and Libraries
TSQL	Reporting Techniques With SQL Server Text Mining (Part II)
TSQL	Simple T-SQL Code Comparison With PowerShell
TSQL	Summarize Metrics with SQL Server T-SQL Code
TSQL	T-SQL Techniques For Mapping Ceteris Paribus Variables
TSQL	T-SQL: Capture Related Data and Return By Aggregates
TSQL	Two T-SQL Alternatives For Tracking Changes
TSQL	Using T-SQL for Finding Narrowing Ranges of Data

Tutorial	Topic
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Using Regular Expressions With T-SQL: From Beginner To Advanced
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Introduction to Alphabetic Regular Expressions for T-SQL
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Precise Alphabetic Filtering With Regular Expressions for T-SQL
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Case Sensitivity and Regular Expressions for T-SQL
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Introduction to Numeric Regular Expressions for T-SQL
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Precise Numerical Filtering With Regular Expressions for T-SQL
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Using Regular Expressions to Find Special Characters with T-SQL
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Excluding Characters With Regular Expressions with T-SQL
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Regular Expressions Business Case Examples with T-SQL
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Regular Expressions with T-SQL Summary
SQL Server Regex Tutorial	Get Free SQL Tips - SQL Server Regex Tutorial

Category	Topic
TSQL	Development Tips for SQL Server

CategoryGroup	Category (articles)
Analysis Services	Analysis Services Administration (31)
Analysis Services	Analysis Services Development (94)
Analysis Services	Analysis Services Dimensions (16)
Analysis Services	Analysis Services Measure Groups (7)
Analysis Services	Analysis Services Performance (14)
Analysis Services	Analysis Services Security (7)
Analysis Services	Analysis Services Tools (1)
Analysis Services	Analysis Services Tutorials (6)
Analysis Services	Cortana (5)
Analysis Services	Performance Point (4)
Business Intelligence	Big Data (24)
Business Intelligence	Data Warehousing (6)
Cloud	Amazon AWS (34)
Cloud	Amazon AWS RDS (21)
Cloud	Apache Spark (9)
Cloud	Azure (146)
Cloud	Azure Backup and Restore (25)
Cloud	Azure Cosmos DB (15)
Cloud	Azure Data Factory (68)
Cloud	Azure Databricks (29)
Cloud	Azure Integration Services (14)
Cloud	Azure SQL Database (49)
Cloud	Azure SQL Managed Instance (3)
Cloud	Azure Synapse Analytics (41)
Cloud	Cloud Strategy (22)
Cloud	Google Cloud (9)
Cloud	Microsoft Fabric (4)
Data Quality	Data Quality Services (9)
Data Quality	Master Data Services (41)
Database Administration	Availability Groups (79)
Database Administration	Backup (80)
Database Administration	Central Management Servers (10)
Database Administration	Clustering (74)
Database Administration	Comparison Data and Objects (14)
Database Administration	Compression (22)
Database Administration	Contained Databases (4)
Database Administration	Containers (12)
Database Administration	Database Administration (200)
Database Administration	Database Configurations (19)
Database Administration	Database Console Commands DBCCs (25)
Database Administration	Database Mail (18)
Database Administration	Database Mirroring (33)
Database Administration	DBA Best Practices (39)
Database Administration	Dedicated Administrator Connection (4)
Database Administration	Deprecated Features (5)
Database Administration	DevOps (36)
Database Administration	Disaster Recovery (23)
Database Administration	Error Logs (11)
Database Administration	Express Edition (16)
Database Administration	Extended Events (22)
Database Administration	FILESTREAM (9)
Database Administration	Fragmentation and Index Maintenance (27)
Database Administration	Hardware (14)
Database Administration	High Availability (3)
Database Administration	Indexing (92)
Database Administration	Install and Uninstall (32)
Database Administration	Licensing (4)
Database Administration	Linked Servers (18)
Database Administration	Locking and Blocking (42)
Database Administration	Log Shipping (18)
Database Administration	Maintenance (34)
Database Administration	Monitoring (117)
Database Administration	Other Database Platforms (81)
Database Administration	Partitioning (17)
Database Administration	Performance Data Warehouse (4)
Database Administration	Performance Tuning (128)
Database Administration	Policy Based Management (29)
Database Administration	PowerShell (131)
Database Administration	Profiler and Trace (20)
Database Administration	Query Store (7)
Database Administration	Recovery Models (4)
Database Administration	Referential Integrity (5)
Database Administration	Replication (75)
Database Administration	Resource Governor (5)
Database Administration	Restore (42)
Database Administration	Snowflake (23)
Database Administration	SQL Server 2016 (96)
Database Administration	SQL Server 2017 (44)
Database Administration	SQL Server 2019 (20)
Database Administration	SQL Server 2022 (23)
Database Administration	SQL Server Configurations (75)
Database Administration	SQL Server on Linux (76)
Database Administration	StreamInsight (2)
Database Administration	System Databases (31)
Database Administration	Upgrades and Migrations (55)
Database Administration	Virtualization (25)
Database Administration	Windows Internal Database (1)
Database Development	Application Development (43)
Database Development	Artificial Intelligence (9)
Database Development	Azure Functions (7)
Database Development	Change Data Capture (15)
Database Development	Common Runtime Language (13)
Database Development	Common Table Expressions (3)
Database Development	Constraints (19)
Database Development	Data Cleansing for Validation (4)
Database Development	Data Science (3)
Database Development	Data Types (18)
Database Development	Database Design (79)
Database Development	Dates (54)
Database Development	Debugging (4)
Database Development	Dynamic Management Views and Functions (33)
Database Development	Dynamic SQL (7)
Database Development	Entity Framework (13)
Database Development	Error Handling (10)
Database Development	Full Text Search (21)
Database Development	Functions System (74)
Database Development	Functions User Defined UDF (41)
Database Development	Identities (17)
Database Development	Import and Export (76)
Database Development	In Memory OLTP (32)
Database Development	JOIN Tables (21)
Database Development	Language Integrated Query LINQ (7)
Database Development	Microsoft Access Integration (8)
Database Development	Microsoft Excel Integration (44)
Database Development	Microsoft Flow (1)
Database Development	Paging (5)
Database Development	Python (77)
Database Development	Query Optimization (14)
Database Development	Query Plans (20)
Database Development	R Language (11)
Database Development	Scripts (35)
Database Development	Service Broker (11)
Database Development	Spatial Data Storage (9)
Database Development	SQL Injection (5)
Database Development	SQL Server Management Objects SMO (3)
Database Development	Stored Procedures (29)
Database Development	Synonyms (5)
Database Development	Table Valued Parameters (4)
Database Development	Temp Tables (9)
Database Development	Temporal Tables (13)
Database Development	Testing (32)
Database Development	Transactions (9)
Database Development	Triggers (44)
Database Development	TSQL (381)
Database Development	User Defined Type UDT (3)
Database Development	Views (16)
Database Development	XML (14)
Integration Services	Data Transformation Services (5)
Integration Services	Integration Services Administration (10)
Integration Services	Integration Services Analysis Services Tasks (5)
Integration Services	Integration Services Best Practices (12)
Integration Services	Integration Services Configuration Options (22)
Integration Services	Integration Services Connection Managers (5)
Integration Services	Integration Services Control Flow Transformations (14)
Integration Services	Integration Services Data Flow Transformations (19)
Integration Services	Integration Services Development (110)
Integration Services	Integration Services Email (3)
Integration Services	Integration Services Error Handling (8)
Integration Services	Integration Services Excel (14)
Integration Services	Integration Services Execute Package Options (8)
Integration Services	Integration Services Import and Export Wizard (2)
Integration Services	Integration Services NULL Management (4)
Integration Services	Integration Services Oracle (4)
Integration Services	Integration Services Performance (12)
Integration Services	Integration Services Security (7)
Integration Services	Integration Services Upgrade (4)
Power Platform	Power Apps (20)
Power Platform	Power BI (159)
Power Platform	Power BI Charts (55)
Power Platform	Power BI Formatting (16)
Professional Development	Professional Development Books (3)
Professional Development	Professional Development Branding (15)
Professional Development	Professional Development Career (18)
Professional Development	Professional Development Career Planning (16)
Professional Development	Professional Development Career Transition (4)
Professional Development	Professional Development Certifications (54)
Professional Development	Professional Development Community (16)
Professional Development	Professional Development Conferences (2)
Professional Development	Professional Development Interview Questions BI (18)
Professional Development	Professional Development Interview Questions DBA (23)
Professional Development	Professional Development Interview Questions Developer (9)
Professional Development	Professional Development Interviewing (39)
Professional Development	Professional Development Job Search (18)
Professional Development	Professional Development Management (13)
Professional Development	Professional Development Recruiters (6)
Professional Development	Professional Development Resume (13)
Professional Development	Professional Development Skills Development (18)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Administration (20)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Analysis Services (4)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Best Practices (6)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Charts (25)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Configuration (10)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Custom Report (2)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Dashboard (1)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Data Sources (10)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Development (38)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Drill Through (4)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Dynamic Reports (11)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Filtering (3)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Formatting (26)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Functions (5)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Images (2)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Installation (9)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services KPI (5)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Maps (4)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Migration (5)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Monitoring (5)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Network Load Balancing (4)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Overview (5)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Parameters (15)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Performance (6)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Report Builder (9)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Report Models (1)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Security (8)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services SharePoint (1)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Subreports (4)
Reporting Services	Reporting Services Tutorials (1)
Security	Auditing and Compliance (46)
Security	Encryption (35)
Security	Security (197)
Security	Surface Area Configuration Manager (4)
SharePoint	SharePoint (131)
SharePoint	SharePoint Administration (46)
SharePoint	SharePoint Configuration (27)
SharePoint	Sharepoint Design (46)
SharePoint	SharePoint Document Management (20)
Tools	Azure Data Studio (17)
Tools	SQL Operations Studio (11)
Tools	SQL Server Agent (93)
Tools	SQL Server Management Studio (78)
Tools	SQL Server Management Studio Configuration (22)
Tools	SQL Server Management Studio Shortcuts (9)
Tools	Tools (36)