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Phil Molea

Sr. Information Developer, Vertica

Phil developed technical documentation in the areas of security and diagnostics for the Vertica Analytics Platform that enabled companies to extract value from their data at the speed and scale they need to thrive in today’s economy.

(Sadly, Phil passed away recently. He will be missed.)

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Elastic Throughput Scaling: Overview

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
February 5, 2019

Manvendra Panwar authored this post. Elastic Throughput Scaling (ETS) enables Vertica to increase concurrency through which we can achieve higher throughput. ETS can take advantage of redundant shard subscriptions to automatically identify the nodes in the cluster that can execute a query. More Nodes (N) than Shards (S): Achieving higher throughput • S nodes can...

Plotting data with vsql and gnuplot

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
December 6, 2018

Maurizio Felici authored this post. We all know how plotting data is a very useful – and widely adopted – technique. Linux (and MacOS) offer a wonderful command line tool to plot data called gnuplot. You can install and run gnuplot on one of your Vertica nodes so you don’t have to move data out...

Display Tables Referenced by a View: Quick Tip

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
November 29, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip. Vertica 9.2 introduces the new VIEW_TABLES system table that shows details about view-related dependencies, including the table that reference a view, its schema, and owner. Helpful Link: https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/Content/Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/SystemTables/CATALOG/VIEW_TABLES.htm Have fun!
Programmer

Calculate Future Thanksgiving Dates: Quick Tip

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
November 21, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip. In the United States, Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. In Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated the second Monday in October. So that you don’t miss another holiday at home with mom, make sure to plan ahead and calculate (using SQL) future Thanksgiving dates! Helpful Links: https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/index.htm#Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/Functions/Date-Time/NEXT_DAY.htm...
Modern Database Analytics

Re-Compute a Table Column’s Default Value: Quick Tip

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
October 31, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip. You can specify a table column's default value using a DEFAULT expression. Vertica evaluates the DEFAULT expression and sets the column on load operations, if the operation omits a value for the column. That DEFAULT expression can be derived from another column in the same table! To see how, check...
Programmer

Before Upgrading: Identify and Remove Unsupported Projections

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
October 30, 2018

With Vertica 9.1 and 9.2, Vertica has removed support for the following projections: Vertica 9.1: Projection buddies with different SELECT and ORDER BY clauses. All projection buddies must specify columns in the same order. The Vertica database regards projections with non-compliant buddies as unsafe. Vertica 9.2: Pre-join and range segmentation projections. If a table's only...

Derive a Table Column’s Default Value from another Column: Quick Tip

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
October 30, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip. You can specify a table column's default value using a DEFAULT expression. To see how, check out this quick tip. When you set a default value, Vertica evaluates the DEFAULT expression and sets the column on load operations, if the operation omits a value for the column. In addition, that...

Default a Column’s Value: Quick Tip

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
October 29, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip You can specify a table column's default value using a DEFAULT expression. If the operation omits a value for the column, Vertica evaluates the DEFAULT expression and sets the column on load operations. Helpful Links: https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/index.htm#Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/Statements/column-constraint.htm Have fun!

Display View Column Data Types: Quick Tip

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
October 25, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip. Like table columns, view columns also have a data type. You can display the data types of view columns by querying the VIEW_COLUMNS system table. Helpful Links: https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/index.htm#Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/SystemTables/CATALOG/VIEW_COLUMNS.htm https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/index.htm#Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/Statements/CREATEVIEW.htm Have fun!
Database Server Room

Insert Text Into Text: Quick Tip

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
October 24, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip. The built-in Vertica INSERT function injects a character string into a specified location in another character string. Helpful Link: https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/index.htm#Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/Functions/String/INSERT.htm Have fun!

Reset Your Session: Quick Tip

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
October 23, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip. The SHOW command “shows” run-time parameters for the current session. You can modify one or more of these parameters with the SET command. To quickly reset all of the run-time parameters back to their default values, execute the RESET_SESSION function! Helpful Links: https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/index.htm#Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/Statements/SHOW.htm https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/index.htm#Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/Statements/SET/SETSESSIONRUNTIMECAP.htm https://www.vertica.com/docs/latest/HTML/index.htm#Authoring/SQLReferenceManual/Functions/VerticaFunctions/RESET_SESSION.htm Have fun!
teammates looking at analytical data

Vertica Intern Shares His Experience

Phil Molea, Sr. Information Developer, Vertica
October 23, 2018

Devosh Mathivanan authored this post. Hi, my name is Devosh Mathivanan currently working towards my Masters in Computer Science at Boston University. Though I don’t concentrate on any specialized area at school, I am very interested in Database and Infrastructure Engineering. Looking to take advantage of this interest, I recently completed my summer internship at...