Data suggests you should get the COVID-19 vaccine Data for this New Zealand focused blog was collected from various worldwide sources between the 18th and 31st August 2021. A list of sources can be found at the end. NZ is currently vaccinating solely with the...

To start the year, some of the team here at OptimalBI decided to get together and have our own little hackathon.  The aim was to brainstorm an idea that would enable us to all learn something a bit different from our usual day to day work.  Our idea was to build a...

In my very first blog for OptimalBI I said that breaking from my comfort zone was something I would always strive to do. That blog was about me joining OptimalBI and the excitement that lay ahead. Now, one year and eight months down the track it is time for me to...

By default Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) 11g uses the “old-style” join syntax when joining tables.  While many Oracle developers still prefer that style of join, I for one find ANSI joins to be far cleaner and easier to read. Oracle started supporting ANSI joins in...

SQL*Loader is an Oracle tool used for loading data into tables from external files.  This blog assumes you have some, but not comprehensive knowledge of SQL*Loader.  You can do some quick reading of Oracle’s documentation if you are completely unfamiliar. Data Source...

When designing your Data Vault, you first start with defining the Hub tables.  The Data Vault is made up of many subject areas, and each Hub is the central piece to each core subject.  If you’re confused already, I recommend you have a read of my introductory Data...

What happens when you take the best of 3rd Normal Form and the best of the Dimensional Star Schema, and mix them together?  You get Data Vault. Data Vault is a data warehousing modelling technique that makes designing a robust, agile, historical and future-proof data...

Here's a quick and easy script I find myself using often to count all rows across multiple tables, so I thought I would share. It uses SQL to write, then execute SQL, performing a count(*) across all tables for a defined schema(s), and returns an output with the table...

Here at Optimal BI we have spent the month of May competing against each other in a step challenge.  There were varying aspects of this challenge, most amount of 10,000+ steps in a day, biggest single day and most steps overall.  You can read Vic's and Geoff's blog on...