How to remove extra page with tablix SSRS 2012

Recently I had to create a transaction summary report for my accounts receivable project. To display the transactions I choose a tablix as shown below

The grouping for the tablix was on a sequenceid (assign a rank to all the transactions with one clientid), I applied page break at the end of the group

I thought the report was done, however in the print preview the report was printing a blank page in between the group the fix for that is

Body Width <= Page Width - (Left Margin + Right Margin)

report width= 8.5, left margin = 0.164, right margin = 0.164

(report width – (left margin + right margin)) = 8.172

Click on any white space on the report and hit F4 to see body properties

The Width in the body was 8.2in this threw me off and I was getting blank pages, so reduced it to 8.15 that fixed the issue.

Extended Properties in SQL Server

Extended properties (EP) are SQL Server objects which can be used for documenting other database objects such as tables, views, functions etc. Extended properties offer a common standard place for information about various database objects

Extended properties have three level categories such as Schema -> Table -> Column.  Adding, altering of extended properties are handled through system stored procedures  

sp_addextendedproperty  -> adds a new extended property to a database object

sp_dropextendedproperty -> removes an extended property from a database object

sp_updateextendedproperty -> updates the value of an existing extended property

The above stored procedures have the following parameters

@name = Name of the extended property  

@value = Comments/Description

@level0type = Schema, @level0name = name of schema (dbo)

@level1type = Table,  @level1name = table name

@level2type = Column, @level2name = column name

The Level0/1/2Type’s are not limited to Schema/Table/Column, refer to http://blogs.lessthandot.com/index.php/datamgmt/datadesign/document-your-sql-server-databases/, for a detailed explanation

Consider a sample schema,

create table dbo.Consumers

(

            SeqID int identity(1,1) not null,

            Name varchar(100) not null,

)

To add a description for the SeqID column we can use ‘sp_addextendedproperty’ system stored procedure

-- creating

exec sp_addextendedproperty

@name = N'MS_Description',

@value = 'Sequence ID to identify consumers, auto incrementing number ',

@level0type = N'Schema', @level0name = dbo,

@level1type = N'Table',  @level1name = Consumers,

@level2type = N'Column', @level2name = SeqID;

-- altering

exec sp_updateextendedproperty

@name = N'MS_Description',

@value = N' Sequence ID to identify consumers, auto incrementing number seed value 1’,

@level0type = N'Schema', @level0name = dbo,

@level1type = N'Table',  @level1name = Consumers,

@level2type = N'Column', @level2name = SeqID;

-- dropping

EXEC sp_dropextendedproperty

@name = N'MS_Description',

@level0type = N'Schema', @level0name = dbo,

@level1type = N'Table',  @level1name = Consumers,

@level2type = N'Column', @level2name = SeqID

The best use of extended properties is getting the column definitions of a table. I always create the following sql query as a stored procedure and filter it by table name

-- viewing

select col.name as [Column], ep.value as  [Description]

from sys.tables tab inner join sys.columns col

on tab.object_id = col.object_id left join sys.extended_properties ep

on tab.object_id = ep.major_id

and col.column_id = ep.minor_id

and ep.name = 'MS_Description'

where tab.name = @TabName

Note on precision & scale in SQL Server

Generally for storing a variable like 123.45 we can use a decimal or numeric data type. The usual notation for these data types are decimal [ (p[ ,s] )] & numeric[ (p[ ,s] )], p stands for precision & s stands for scale.

Precision is number digits in variable

Scale is of digits to the right of the decimal point

For ex: 12.345 p = 5 & s = 3

The sample query explains the behavior of the decimal, float & int

declare @t table(

     c1 int,

     c2 float,

     c3 decimal(18,2)

)

insert into @t (c1,c2,c3) select 12.345, 12.345, 12.345

insert into @t (c1,c2,c3) select 10/3, 10/3, 10/3

insert into @t (c1,c2,c3) select 10/3.0, 10/3.0, 10/3.0

insert into @t (c1,c2,c3) select 10/3.0, 10/3.0, round(10/3.0, 2)

select * from @t

c1        c2                    c3

12        12.345                12.35

Note: The value in C3 is truncated to two decimal places, C1 completely ignored the fraction part.

3           3            3.00

Note: The fraction part is completely ignored because the denominator is an integer

3           3.333333           3.33

Note: The fraction part is retained correctly

3           3.333333           3.33

Note: The fraction part can also be achieved by rounding the value using round function

TSQL Rambling

Wanted to share my thoughts on three interesting things stumbled across in TSQL

1. SQL Unary Operator

Lets create a simple table as follows

declare @TestPlus table

(

Type varchar(2),

TypeName varchar(10),

code int

)

insert into @TestPlus values ('P', 'Procedure', 1)

insert into @TestPlus values ('T', 'Table', 2)

insert into @TestPlus values ('V', 'View', 3)

insert into @TestPlus values ('F', 'Function', 4)

What is the output for the following select query?

select Type from @TestPlus where Code in ( +1, +++3, +4)

select +++Type from @TestPlus where Type in (+'P', +++'T')

When I saw this select query for a second I thought its trick question on how to use ++ operator, however it turns out that the result has nothing to do with the “+++” operator. Quickly browsed through MSDN and found that it has no effect on the evaluated expression

“Although a unary plus can appear before any numeric expression, it performs no operation on the value returned from the expression.”

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174362.aspx

SQL Row Constructor

I was surprised to see a query like this

;with cte as

(

select dddid, payorid

from (values  ('100100', 1), ('100101', 2), ('100102',3 ) ) f(ClientID, SeqNo)

)

select * from cte where SeqNo = 3

turns out that this type of query is called row constructor a new feature introduced in SQL 2008.

3.  SQL Strict Names

Check out the following queries, spot the odd man out

select top 10  * from [dbo].[TestUpSurdTable]

select top 10  * from [dbo].[TestUpSurdTable]_Final

I was expecting two different result sets however the same result set was repeating twice, turns out that the “[ ]” ignored what ever is after the underscore

Best Data Visualization Libraries

Best Data Visualization Libraries

I just observed a  trend for inforgraphic style of reporting in business. Infographic reports very tangible, click, drag, drop, add elements which makes the report more like a stand alone app.

I complied a short list visualization libraries based on javascript which I personally used. I will be updating this list as I find something interesting.

1. Google Charts

https://developers.google.com/chart/

2. Data Driven Documents

http://d3js.org/

3. Protovis

http://mbostock.github.io/protovis/

Visual Studio 2012 Designer Issues

I recently uninstalled visual studio 2012 from my PC which already had VS2010 installed. The uninstall messed up the UI designer dll’s and I got the following errors in SSIS & SSMS

Couldn’t open SSIS packages

The database diagram designer had trouble opening..

The cause the dll’s at the following location are corrupted

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\MSDesigners8

The fix:

1.       Use the installation CD  of vs2010 and repair or

2.       Just copy the MSDesigners8 files from a PC which doesn’t have this issue.

The second choice is easier, I copied the files from my colleagues PC and replaced the contents in the MSDesigners8  folder. 

You if you have the same issue, you can download  the dll’s  here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz1hNSwS5Wi4WU95OG5ERTQ4cG8/edit?usp=sharing

Big Data Camp 27/10/2013

Big Data Camp was my first un-conference in big data. It’s really different compared to a regular conferences, the sessions are created on the fly, walk in and walk out are welcome. From what I have seen, it was non-technical, focused on the noob to intermediate skill market cap. The host Dave, managed the event very eloquently. Overall, it was good event. I complied small notes on what I liked.   

Talk1: Hadoop in consumer security products

• This organization implements hadoop technology to analyze the sales of their flagship consumer security products
• Existing data warehouse products and tools were OK, although they saw lot of customer’s showing up on their site, the sales reduced.
• The product was not at fault, but the customer analytics was.  The primary touch points or data points viz, server log, click stream etc were fed to hadoop, analytics was performed using sql, hive, mahout, used linear regression for modeling their data.

Talk 2: How to choose data analytics product

This presenter works at Datapad. “There is no one right way, there is a right way for your data, for your team” kinda made sense. Advocated the use of Python and Pandas library.

Talk 3: Block box vs transparent data modeling

I was trying to figure out what his point was, this is my understanding, the functionality of any google product is basically a black box and he was not cool with that or whatever.

Talk 4: Mainframe + Hadoop

This talk was pretty interesting, the presenter works at Syncsort company in CA.  

• 75% of data stored in mainframes (fact)
• Insurance, Retails and Banks store data in mainframes
• Offload mainframe data and batch process it in hadoop
• Mainframe store in ebcdic data type, (new info)
• ADP is hiring people for mainframes seriously?? (Maybe I should learn COBAL.. heck no!!)

Talk 5: Time series database – things happening in time

This was cool too, open source database called InfluxDB - Database based on events,

• HTTP native, show and do the analytics in a browser
• Read/write, manage and security with Http
• I asked the presenter, how is this product different form Storm, Spark & StreamInsight, could not answer my question 100%

Some other random tidbits, big data GUI tools, IBM Big sheets, Datameer &Talend