When processing data files using SQL Server Integration Services, it is not uncommon to find files with different end-of-line markers for each line in the file. In this post, I will demonstrate how to fix inconsistent line terminators in SSIS to avoid ETL errors. Fix Inconsistent Line Terminators in SSIS In every text file, there are unprintable characters called line…
It’s an odd query, yes, but in preparation to write this post I actually typed the above phrase into my browser. No, I’m certainly not looking to burn down my house. In fact, wait here while I clear my search history, just in case. For the sake of argument, let’s say you’re planning to fry a turkey over the upcoming…
As I’ve been working with Data Quality Services over the past few weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time working with data domains, DQS composite domains, and rules. In that exploration, I’ve found some behavior that might not be expected when performing cleansing operations against a knowledge base containing a composite domain. In this post, I’ll outline the expected data…
In Data Quality Services, composite domains can be created to associate together two or more natural domains within a knowledge base. Like natural domains, composite domains can also contain one or more validation rules to govern which domain values are valid. In my last post, I discussed the use of validation rules against natural domains. In this post, I’ll continue…
There are few things more reassuring for a data professional than having clean, consistent data to back up critical business decisions. The numbers don’t lie, or so they say. But can the right data lead to wrong conclusions? Sadly, yes, and I suspect that it happens more often than we’d like to admit. Recently, as part of a large hospital…
Working with healthcare organizations, I am constantly aware of the restrictions my staff and I must abide by according to HIPAA constraints. It’s not really rocket science; as far as data security goes, HIPAA mandates what logically should already be in place. Any organization that takes data security seriously will already have safeguard on the storage and transmission of data, fully tested…
I wrote a post a few months back about a healthcare data conversion project that I’ve been working on for the better part of 2 years. My task on this project is to convert data from an old UNIX-based Universe database to a SQL Server-based application; the database we are extracting from is quite old, both in terms of technology…
For some reason, today I came across at least a half-dozen blog posts and articles about how to avoid SQL injection attacks. It had been a while since I had read about SQL injections, and an odd thought comes to mind: Why is SQL injection still an issue? This is such an easy problem to get around. The use of…