Excel
Connecting Excel to SQL Server With Power Query and ODBC
Connect Excel to SQL Server with the built in connector or ODBC: choose Windows or SQL authentication, encryption, a native query and read only access.
6 min read
Library
Everything you need to level up your coding skills.
Excel
Connecting Excel to MySQL With the Official Connector
Connect Excel to MySQL with Connector/NET or Connector/ODBC, create a read only user, run a query with Power Query and fix authentication and SSL errors.
6 min read
Excel
Connecting Excel to PostgreSQL With ODBC Step by Step
Install the psqlODBC driver, create a data source, connect Excel to PostgreSQL with a read only role, run a query and fix the usual bitness and SSL problems.
7 min read
YAML
YAML Null Values and the Empty String Question Answered
Six ways to write null in YAML, how they differ from the empty string, and what a key with no value, an empty list and an absent key mean to your code.
6 min read
YAML
Comments in YAML and What Parsers Do With Them in Practice
YAML allows comments with a hash, but most parsers throw them away when they load and save. What survives a round trip in PyYAML, ruamel.yaml and yq.
6 min read
XML
Incremental XML Feed Imports by Last Modified and ETag
Fetch a feed only when it changed: ETag and Last-Modified headers, a 304 response, a state table, and what to do when the server ignores them.
6 min read
XML
Handling Compressed XML Downloads Without Surprises
A gzip file, gzip transfer encoding and unlabeled gzip behave differently in requests and urllib. Sniff the bytes, stream 36.6 MB at 21 MB, and guard bombs.
6 min read
XML
Importing Product Feeds for Shopping Platforms With Checks
Check a Merchant-style product feed before loading it: required fields, price format, availability values, GTIN check digits, duplicate ids and links.
6 min read
XML
Calling a SOAP Service From Python With zeep and a WSDL
Call a SOAP service from Python with zeep: load the WSDL, call an operation, get typed results, handle a Fault, see the request envelope,.
7 min read
JSON
Mock Data Generators for JSON Tests Demos and Load
Generate JSON test data with Faker, Hypothesis, SQL and jq: seeds for repeatable runs, collisions, and a property test that found real bugs.
6 min read
JSON
Comparing JSON Ignoring Volatile Fields in Python Tests
Compare JSON documents in tests while ignoring ids and timestamps: strip keys, DeepDiff exclusions, placeholders that keep relations, jq del, float tolerance.
6 min read
JSON
Snapshot Testing JSON Output Without Flaky Failures
Snapshot tests for JSON in pytest with syrupy and Node's test runner: what a snapshot stores, why random ids break it, and matchers and scrubbing that fix it.
6 min read
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