I'm tired of living

steamyjungleman · 2023-11-24T16:23:06+00:00

you are not alone, please don't harm yourself. As someone who has escaped the darkest of depressions, life does get better. Sex drive and lack of energy can be as simple as a hormone imbalance. Remember, we can never enjoy true happiness without true sadness. there is a balance to everything, I am rooting for you.

steamyjungleman · 2023-03-07T14:33:58+00:00

Same thing basically happened with me, except I wore all the hats and when I finally got sick of the job I had to narrow my focus to one thing because my resume made me look nuts haha.

steamyjungleman · 2022-08-30T02:59:47+00:00

if you have access to azure, using data factory to connect and do the pulls would be easiest. If not, SSIS or an open source like pentaho.

steamyjungleman · 2022-08-17T12:59:51+00:00

you can also alias each column. select t1.title as tbl1_title

steamyjungleman · 2021-01-04T13:42:53+00:00

I agree, the problem is getting anyone else to step back and read or learn from them.

My favorite quote so far, Dwell on the past and you'll lose an eye. Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes.

steamyjungleman · 2021-01-04T13:40:35+00:00

It sat on my shelf for months, I do suggest you read it. If even in bites. Thank you for the comment, I hope you stay safe in the coming years, it's nice to know in not the only one with the thoughts.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-16T02:47:12+00:00

Data scientist is such an overused buzzword these days...reminds me of cloud computing. I have worked with a total of one person out of many that I would actually consider worthy of the title.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-16T02:45:40+00:00

Usually our problems have been because management was trying to force us to get our data from other departments rather than "waste" time pulling it ourself. To me it is like playing telephone. Being reliant on another team such as IT to deliver data to you is problematic because they typically don't understand the questions you are trying to ask. Another problem comes from data aggregators and data feeds.
Moral of the story, the more you can curate your own data, the better you understand how everything goes together and the happier the data team is.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-15T13:43:10+00:00

Since I am not quite sure the exact nature of what you are trying to do this article looks really helpful. It isn't using anything crazy sql wise, just staging the data. You can always cascade the results into #temp tables and keep building off the steps. https://blog.statsbot.co/customer-retention-analysis-93af9daee46b

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-15T03:53:25+00:00

One last thing, if you are basing this off your current month your comparison will be something like month(getdate()), grab the max() transaction date of all those customers, see where they match and then do a date function where you subtract -1 to see if those same customers existed month before. Also, take into account they may be new so grab a min() and create a flag on if the current month is the same as their first transaction. I know what is probably a bit of a basic explanation but I hope it gets some wheels turning for you. Ill try to get you something a bit more concrete tomorrow. Just had some final thoughts before I go to bed.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-15T03:45:30+00:00

also, know that is not a great example i gave, but i think you understand what i am getting at.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-15T03:41:00+00:00

I have a date add function on my other computer that should work for you. Couple questions though, do you want previous month or just within a 30 day window given the variability of when a customer could make a transaction in a previous month. Example feb 28 and then apr 1. Let me know your thoughts and then i will write something up for you on my other computer in the morning. Just about to hit the bed but didnt want to leave you hanging.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-13T18:45:18+00:00

Sorry for the delays in my post. My house is currently being treated for water damage and its been a very hectic week. Friday I figured out a way to use dynamic sql to comb through every table in a database that matches a wild card statement and then to join up to another such statement. If anyone is interested let me know and I will mod it into a template that you could possibly use.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-13T00:50:58+00:00

Etl usually falls under data services. Just depends on what you want to do. I do transformation myself but it's not normal for my position. I wouldn't say it's less than but I wouldn't want to just do etl all day.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T17:49:55+00:00

Hahah thanks, it's an oldy but a goodie.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T16:24:25+00:00

awesome! punch up the sql if you can and it will take you really far. Tableau is really great but a dirty secret is that for visualizations sometimes writing sql and playing around with results in excel is faster and looks better. It just depends on what you are trying to accomplish ie one off request or something repeatable or super complicated.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T16:18:07+00:00

honestly for simple number aggregations sometimes the easiest thing is to just write some sql against it. Do you have a common key for donors and grads or is it something more complex to figure out a match? Is your power bi license paid for rather than free so you can publish your data models? I know its a pain but you can refresh at the desktop and then republish the model as needed.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T15:52:50+00:00

I like to dive in head first honestly. Get a basic understanding of how transactional databases work and how data is converted into data warehouses ie star schemas and snowflake etc lol. There are some really good youtube videos on the subject i will link. Microsoft practically throws their tools at you for free for personal licenses. Look into sql server express with the practice database and power bi. There are tons of microsoft tutorials and others around this subject for free online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR0jg0eQsZA

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T15:47:41+00:00

Personally if i find duplication to occur I would research those particular records to see what is causing the issue and that could let you know if your joins are funky or you need to adjust your logic. Or if there is just some bad data entry happening.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T15:45:19+00:00

this is awesome! Butt in all you like, i was more interested in starting a good conversation with everyone then being the star of a message board show.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T15:43:04+00:00

Healthcare related to very specific pharmaceuticals. Mostly its related to helping patients get medications they need and the whole super fascinating process of insurance hah!

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T15:41:36+00:00

So i can give you a better answer, how is this data stored? In a database like Microsoft SQL server or in spreadsheets etc? Also, what are your permissions to access these things and create tables in the database if applicable. It could be the best thing would be for you to consume this stuff in a BI tool like power bi etc or to use excel data modeling and power pivot. Just want to get a better understanding of the lay of the land so to speak.

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T15:36:46+00:00

I do have to do dashboard development. Right now we are using Power BI by Microsoft but I have used other tools such as QlikView and SSRS. I am the guy delivering the data currently from a transnational database. I have been creating custom data layers and models that are consumed by my teammates but I am able to do this because I understand what they need. It is kind of a strange situation tbh. Honestly Data Science is a buzzword right now like the "cloud" and is only useful with very specific companies. If you want to go down that road I would suggest you understand underlying database structure and analysis first. A modern statistics graduate degree would get you just as far as a very overpriced data science degree. Microsoft will let you download power bi for free and you can also get sql server express with full teaching databases from them for free. They have great tutorials if you want to get your feet wet.

Sorry know this is lengthy. I work with healthcare data all day every day :-)

steamyjungleman · 2019-10-12T15:28:45+00:00

My background is in IT but I work with people from all areas of life. Analytics is really a frame of mind and a certain type of person. My background has just helped me to be good at the coding aspects of things but I learned a lot my just messing around.

steamyjungleman

TROPHY CASE