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  • Synapse Script Activity Error “Argument {0} is null or empty.\r\nParameter name: paraKey”

    November 1st, 2023 in Activity Error, ADFv2, Azure, Blog, Data Factory, SQL, Synapse, Uncategorised

    Came across this issue when trying to get a range of values that are calculated dynamically at runtime. Using the script activity in ADF, I wanted a result set that I could reference as parameters for a notebook later in the pipeline but was experiencing an error I had not seen before referencing null arguments. The Problem The script is simple – get a few key dates from the last few months and set these as variables. Finally, return these…

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  • Introduction to Power BI Project Files

    October 24th, 2023 in Blog, Power BI, PowerBI, Uncategorised

    Power Bi project files were showcased as an exciting upcoming feature by Microsoft for Power Bi. Developers can finally smile as it allows significantly easier collaboration with other developers and source control within Power Bi. We’ll go through a brief introduction to Power Bi Project files.     How to get a Power Bi Project File At the writing of this blogpost they are currently in preview and can be accessed via the ‘Preview…

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  • Power BI Table Totals Not Adding Up? Here’s Why!

    Power BI Table Totals Not Adding Up? Here's Why!October 4th, 2023 in Blog, DAX, PowerBI, Uncategorised

    Ever built a table containing measures in Power BI, done a quick sanity check on your table totals and noticed they’re incorrect? Let’s explore why this may be. Here we have a simple table, built from data in the AdventureWorks database. It shows the three product categories, the Total Sales and Average Order Total of each category: As you can see, the Total Sales column adds up perfectly, but the average is just plain wrong. 19.42 +…

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  • How to add text to images using Python

    March 13th, 2023 in Blog, Just For Fun, Python, Uncategorised

    In this blog post, I will be showing how to add text to an image in Python. I used this code to generate hundreds of images with different text for one of our clients. The full script is downloadable at the bottom with the required extras. Firstly, install the Python library Pillow. Pillow is a PIL fork, install Pillow using pip and import PIL into the Python script.           In Python, select the image that you would…

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  • What are SQL Server Index Fragmentation and Index Fill Factor?

    November 9th, 2022 in Azure, Blog, SQL Server, Uncategorised

    What is index fragmentation and how does it occur? It is important to know that SQL Server data is stored in data pages, with each page holding 8KB of data. There are two types of fragmentation, both are a result of these pages not being used as efficiently as possible. When you UPDATE or INSERT data on a page that is already full, SQL Server creates a new page. The information from the original page will be split 50/50 with half being added to…

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