Vertica Blog

Vertica Blog

SQL

Database Server Room

Query Tuning with Vertica: Dos and Don’ts

Soniya Shah, Information Developer
June 18, 2018

This blog post was authored by Eugenia Moreno. Query tuning in Vertica is not an exact science. Recommendations differ based on your database. This document assumes that all nodes in the cluster are UP, your Vertica configuration is ok, and that v*perf tools have been executed. The following diagram shows the query flow in Vertica:...
Programmer

SQL Reserved Words: Quick Tip

Sarah Lemaire, Manager, Vertica Documentation
June 11, 2018

Jim Knicely authored this tip. Keywords are words that have a specific meaning in the SQL language. Every SQL statement contains one or more keywords. Many keywords are also reserved words. Vertica recommends that you not use reserved words as names for objects, or as identifiers. Including reserved words can make your SQL statements confusing....
Programmer

Vertica Quick Tip: Empty String Vs. NULL

James Knicely, Vertica Field Chief Technologist
May 30, 2018

An empty string ('') is treated as a NULL value in Oracle, while in Vertica an empty string is not treated as a NULL value. So when using Vertica, if you want to indicate that a column value is unknown, be sure to use NULL and not an empty string! In Oracle: Are they the...
Modern Database Analytics

Vertica Quick Tip: Capitalize Only the First Letter of Each Word

Soniya Shah, Information Developer
May 1, 2018

This blog post was authored by Jim Knicely. A few years ago when I was an Oracle DBA a client thought they’d stump me by asking how they could capitalize only the first letter of each word for a given input. I immediately said try the initcap function. She was amazed. Guess what, Vertica has...
Modern Database Analytics

Vertica Quick Tip: Extract Just Numbers from a String of Characters

Soniya Shah, Information Developer
April 10, 2018

This blog post was authored by Jim Knicely. The easiest way to extract just the numbers from a string of characters is to simply remove any character that isn’t a number! Have Fun!

Use MERGE to Update 1 Million Rows in 2 Seconds

Moshe Goldberg, Vertica System Engineer
May 22, 2017

This blog post was co-authored by Yassine Faihe, Michael Flower, and Moshe Goldberg. Updating One Million Records in Two Seconds To illustrate the true power of MERGE, this article describes how we used MERGE to demonstrate Vertica's performance at scale. SQL MERGE statements combine INSERT and UPDATE operations. They are a great way to update...

Investigating Public Data: Road Safety in the U.K.

BD_Partner_Eng
October 11, 2016

When learning new database applications, a good place to start is with some compelling, real-world data. It's not necessarily so easy to find.

Installing Vertica SQL on Hadoop

Gary Gray, Principal Information Developer
January 27, 2016

Interested in adding Vertica's analytic capabilities to your Hadoop cluster? Watch this tutorial video to learn how you can install Vertica on Hadoop, giving it faster access to your data!

Kerberos Authentication for Hadoop Integration: Keeping your data safe

Sarah Lemaire, Manager, Vertica Documentation
August 27, 2015

Like all Vertica releases, 7.1.2 includes a bunch of new features. One specific feature can help make your HDFS data safer: Kerberos integration for Hadoop. This blog will give you an overview of using Kerberos authentication with Vertica for SQL on Hadoop.

The Benefits of Vertica for SQL on Hadoop

Wei Wang
July 13, 2015

If you store large data sets in Hadoop, you undoubtedly face many challenges in managing and analyzing that data. Did you know that Vertica for SQL on Hadoop can help ? Check out the scenario that follows to learn how.
Machine Learning programmer in glasses looks at graphs

I Love DIY Projects

Joy King, VP Product & GTM Strategy, Vertica
April 17, 2015

I love DIY projects. I love watching the YouTube videos, scouring the web for advice from others, and learning new skills. The innovation and creativity that’s out there is amazing! Plus, DIY projects save money, sometimes a lot of money! This past month, we decided to build our own stone patio in the backyard …...

How to make ROLLUP fly in Vertica?

Po Hong
May 22, 2014

ROLLUP is a very common Online Analytic Processing (OLAP) function and is part of ANSI SQL. Many customers use ROLLUP to write reports that automatically perform sub-total aggregations across multiple dimensions at different levels in one SQL query.