Detail in the Aggregate
SQL Server 2012 – the "Denali" release – brings improved support for window functions as defined in the SQL standard. One of the things you can now do is to mix summary and detail results in the......
View ArticleH. G. Wells and SQL: Traveling in the Second Dimension
SQL is traditionally one-dimensional in that you can access values in a row, in the horizontal dimension. SQL Server 2012's support of LAG and LEAD and other so-called window functions open up the......
View ArticleInterlude
Having the right mental model of how window functions operate goes a long way toward recognizing when and how to apply these functions that can seem almost magical in the expressive power. Read the...
View ArticlePulling Rank for the Boss
Look to ROW_NUMBER, RANK, and DENSE_RANK anytime you are faced with a business question involving words or phrases such as "topmost" or "bottommost", "top N" or "bottom N", or that is otherwise... Read...
View ArticleYou've Got Framing
The framing clause brings the "window" to window functions. It's an ideal solution when you can arrange a business question such that an answer comes from applying an aggregate function to a range......
View ArticleAVG: What Does it Mean?
AVG is an aggregate function in SQL to compute the "average" of a set of values. More precisely, it computes the mean of those values. And even more precisely, AVG computes what is known as... Read the...
View ArticleSTDDEV: Standing Sentinel on Your Data
Oracle Database implements a family of STDDEV functions for computing the standard deviation from the mean. If you think of the mean as beginning to paint a picture of the underlying data, then... Read...
View ArticleMEDIAN: For When You Don't Really Mean It
Median is a measure of central tendency useful in describing the typical experience, or the typical case. It's a type of average along with the mean, but less susceptible to skew from outlying... Read...
View ArticleThe Harmonic Mean
The arithmetic mean is what you learned in school. However, it is the harmonic mean that is often - but not always! - the correct choice when computing an average over a collection of rates. Read the...
View ArticleFacebook Preview and Squarespace
Consider social media from the very beginning when creating blog posts and other web content. Here are some tips for Squarespace customers on controlling the appearance of their content when it's......
View ArticleDates in A Range
I revisit the problem of returning a row for each day in a month, and generalize the solution to return rows for any desired range of dates. Then I go further and explore how to return multiple... Read...
View ArticleCSS and Squarespace: Getting Started
CSS style rules let you bust into full-on, creative mode when designing websites on the Squarespace platform. The Squarespace promise is one of gorgeous template designs that you build out with... Read...
View ArticleFacebooking the Squarespace Flatiron
Have you built a site on a Squarespace template such as Flatiron or Marquee supporting the concept of index pages or index collections? Do you post a page or a gallery link to Facebook only to be......
View ArticleCentering Squarespace Buttons
Centering just one call to action button is easily done in Squarespace. But what if you have multiple buttons, and you want them in a row and centered as a group. That's a harder task, and I... Read...
View ArticleBedford Thumbnails in Squarespace
Just one line of CSS is all it takes to add thumbnail images to your blog listings in Squarespace's Bedford template. Just a few more lines add even more impact by stretching those images to fill......
View ArticleGmail and the Mystery of Auntie Spam
Are you member of an email group only to find Gmail sending some of the messages to spam? Tired of alwys checking for those and missing out on the discussions? Fret no longer. There is a solution....
View ArticleStyling the Squarespace Flatiron
My earlier post on Facebooking the Squarespace Flatiron shows how you never really leave your site's index page when viewing the gallery pages in your index collection. How then do you write CSS......
View ArticleColoring Page Sections in Squarespace
A useful technique in web design is the use of distinctive background colors to provide visual separation between sections in a page. Squarespace customers can implement the technique using... Read the...
View ArticleEmbiggening the Marquee Menu Dots
Building your Squarespace website in the Marquee template? Having trouble seeing or clicking on those little dots that make up the parallax navigation on the right side of your browser window?... Read...
View ArticlePage-Specific Footers in the Squarespace Bedford
Do you want page-specific footers in your template-driven Squarespace site? One footer design normally applies across all pages, but you can combine creative thinking with CSS rules to enable... Read...
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