Excel
IF and IFS Versus CASE WHEN in SQL Compared Side by Side
Translate IF, nested IF, IFS and SWITCH into SQL CASE WHEN, with AND and OR, NULL handling, branch types and what each returns when nothing matches.
7 min read
Tag
comparison
58 posts
Excel
COUNTIF Versus COUNT With a Filter in SQL Compared
Translate COUNTIF, COUNTIFS, COUNTA and COUNTBLANK into SQL with count star, count of a column and FILTER, and handle distinct counts and blanks correctly.
6 min read
Excel
SUMIF and SUMIFS Versus GROUP BY in SQL Compared in Depth
Translate SUMIF and SUMIFS into SQL with WHERE, GROUP BY and FILTER, including criteria, wildcards, dates, OR conditions and the blank and case traps.
7 min read
Excel
VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP Versus SQL JOIN With Worked Examples
Translate VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP into SQL joins: exact and approximate match, first-match behavior, not-found values, duplicates and which side to keep.
7 min read
JSON
JSON Versus JSONB in PostgreSQL and Which to Store
PostgreSQL has two JSON types. What each keeps, drops and costs, measured on 200,000 rows, and the narrow cases where plain json is the right choice.
7 min read
XML
Should You Store XML in a Database Column or Shred It
Store XML whole, shred it into tables, or both? What each engine keeps and loses, what validation you get, and what it costs on 200,000 documents.
7 min read
CSV
Psql copy Versus Server Side COPY and Which One You Need
The two commands differ in which machine reads the file. See the permission errors, the path errors and the timings, and choose the one that fits.
7 min read
CSV
Why Your CSV Has Question Marks Where Names Should Be
Question marks in a CSV are lost data, not a display bug. See where the substitution happens, count the damage and decide whether the export is broken.
7 min read
CSV
TSV Versus CSV and When Tabs Are the Saner Choice for Data
TSV avoids most quoting because tabs rarely appear in text, but there are three TSV dialects and they disagree. See where each breaks and which to pick.
7 min read
CSV
Comma Semicolon Tab or Pipe and How to Pick a Delimiter
Comma, semicolon, tab or pipe? Measure how often each appears in real text, see what a decimal comma does to a file, and choose a delimiter with a reason.
9 min read