T-SQL Record Separatorhttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/t-sql/t-sql-record-separator.html

11 October 2011 #2 overwrites data in the last row of the day (the one marked with a separator) which happens to be data my customer wants. What if that last row of that day was actually blank and didn't have any of the data we want in the end? The aim here then is to...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

MySQL last year week month day trend periodshttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/mysql/mysql-last-year-week-month-day-trend.html

31 October 2011 up to the same hour. How? I used to use a lot more PHP but since becoming an analyst, I do more at the database level now. What follows should be usable mySQL statements to get all the numbers: Yesterdays -- CURRENT: count todays SELECT COUNT(id) FROM...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: MySQL
• Language: en-GB

SSRS Retrieving Oracle Stored Procedure Success or ErrorLevelhttps://joellipman.com/articles/microsoft/ssrs/ssrs-retrieving-oracle-stored-procedure-success-or-errorlevel.html

04 November 2011 What? We have a report in SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 R2 (SSRS) reading from an Oracle 10g database which works great and lists all the details on a specific student. An additional request is that there appears a link that will run a stored...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: SQL Server Reporting Services
• Language: en-GB

Joes DNS Correction (JDC)https://joellipman.com/component/content/article/joes-dns-correction2.html?catid=40

25 November 2011 normally and it's just YOU! Script Function If you are on a network that frequently loses connection or simply forgets what intranet site you were trying to access and your usual solution is a reboot, then this tool may be for you. In my environment, I...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Product Documentation
• Language: *

SSRS Dropdown parameter cannot be blank!https://joellipman.com/articles/microsoft/ssrs/ssrs-dropdown-to-allow-blank-values.html

14 December 2011 What? I have created an SSRS report which can compare 4 reports side by side and brings up their latest execution times to the nearest millisecond. The report has 4 parameters. Each parameter is a dropdown populated by a list of all available reports....

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: SQL Server Reporting Services
• Language: en-GB

Basic Oracle Function Structurehttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/pl-sql/basic-oracle-function-structure.html

15 January 2012 What? I need to refer to how to create a function in Oracle PL/SQL and sites on the net just attempt to overcomplicate everything and have forgotten how it is to be new to Oracle. I need a function in it's simplest form and if I want to torture my...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

Basic Oracle Stored Procedure Structurehttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/pl-sql/basic-oracle-stored-procedure-structure.html

16 January 2012 For a more advanced version which uses cursors to work with SSRS, see my article Oracle Stored Procedures in SSRS. What? I asked someone for a simple, easy and basic Oracle stored procedure as my MySQL and T-SQL stored procedures work slightly...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

No rows returned in Oracle causes SP to failhttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/pl-sql/no-rows-returned-in-oracle-causes-sp-to-fail.html

24 January 2012 the student ID number found in the first query. The stored procedure compiles successfully and without any warnings. So What? The problem is that if the student does not have a username but has an ID number, then the first query returns NO ROWS and then...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

Print Directory Contents to a Filehttps://joellipman.com/articles/microsoft/windows-os/print-directory-contents-to-a-file.html

19 July 2012 on a folder in Windows Explorer and it would generate a text file with the contents of the directory he right-clicked. What? We can do this by adding an entry to the context menu (when you right-click on an object). The following is a method of adding...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Windows OS
• Language: *

DataJumble - Shuffling characters in a data valuehttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/t-sql/data-shuffling-function.html

01 August 2012 was called a Data-Scrambling Function but it depends on what you mean by "scrambling". This is a function which merely uses the same characters but switches their order randomly, so I've renamed it DataJumble as opposed to my article on Data-Scrambling....

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: *

Basic Joomla 2.5 Mootools Formhttps://joellipman.com/articles/cms/joomla/basic-joomla-25-mootools-form.html

20 August 2012 What? This is an article to demo the crudest form which uses Joomla's version 2.5 core mootools (uncompressed?). This is intended for absolute novices (like me) who just want to see an example of an AJAX form within Joomla 1.6.x - 2.5.x in it's most...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Joomla
• Language: en-GB

Data Randomization Function in Oracle PL/SQLhttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/pl-sql/data-randomization-function-in-oracle-plsql.html

22 August 2012 What? This article describes a function that will return random data based on a given value. The function intends to determine the data type and return data that is absolutely irrelevant to the original data but the same length and the same type of...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

Vertically align an asterisk on a linehttps://joellipman.com/articles/web-development/css/vertically-align-an-asterisk-on-a-line.html

02 September 2012 What? So I have an unordered list of values (*, 1, 2, 3...) and for styling reasons I want the asterisk to be the same size as the numbers but not overlap any list item beneath it. By increasing the size of the asterisk, this often increases the...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Cascading Stylesheets
• Language: *

Slideshow div layer through a windowhttps://joellipman.com/articles/web-development/mootools/slideshow-div-layer-through-a-window.html

11 September 2012 Somewhat incomplete! Will post a final solution but here are the basics What? This article is a quick note to myself on the idea of a slideshow with the MooTools javascript framework. Basically, I want to create a div layer that I can see through (like...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: MooTools Framework
• Language: *

Search a database for a string (MySQL, T-SQL)https://joellipman.com/articles/database/search-a-database-for-a-string-mysql-t-sql.html

08 October 2012 What? I have a PHP script which behaves like PhpMyAdmin, in that it automatically lists a database structure and the fields to modify similar to an excel spreadsheet. Now without using PHP, I need standalone SQL scripts that can simply be used to search...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Databases
• Language: en-GB

Search a database with SOUNDEXhttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/search-a-database-with-soundex.html

11 October 2012 get listed twice because their system was case-sensitive despite the collation of the SQL Server being case-insensitive. What? End-users said that they could see the options "Data Not Yet Available" as well as "Data not yet available". These are...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Databases
• Language: en-GB

Stored Procedure to List Distinct Values and Countshttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/t-sql/stored-procedure-to-list-distinct-values-and-counts.html

26 October 2012 What? Yes you could just run a SELECT DISTINCT query along with collation to make it case-sensitive and/or accent-sensitive but using this stored procedure means I only specify the table and then the columns. How? IF...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: *

Search a database for a value and count matching rowshttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/search-a-database-for-a-value-and-count-matching-rows.html

05 November 2012 What? We have a datawarehouse and we want to be able to count all the records in any table of the database that match on a particular warehouse load. This is a column value where the column is called "WarehouseLoadKey" and the value we want to search on...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Databases
• Language: en-GB

Adding a selectable background to a Yootheme templatehttps://joellipman.com/articles/cms/joomla/adding-a-selectable-background-to-a-yootheme-template.html

19 November 2012 to: Joomla 2.5.8 Yootheme Template 2012 What? For any web-developer who can program in PHP/HTML, this would be easy to hard-code and override. However, the article below demonstrates how to make this an option that your client can switch off/on using...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Joomla
• Language: *

Generate Academic Calendar using MySQLhttps://joellipman.com/articles/database/mysql/generate-academic-calendar-using-mysql.html

27 November 2012 What? We have a specific timetabling system for academic institutions and all our staff/students follow academic week numbers as opposed to calendar week numbers. Why? The aim of this article is to quickly generate a calendar for a full academic year...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: MySQL
• Language: en-GB