Tuesday, December 24, 2013

What is Soundex?

Soundex is how a name of a person is coded as used in the census for locating a person. It is based on how a name sounds rather than how it is spelled.

The name of the person is converted into a 4 character code, the first character in the code is the first letter of the person's name capitalized. The next three characters (they are number) that follow the rule stated here.

Rule 1:
For letters B,F,P,V                           use the number 1
For letters C,G,,K,Q,S,X,Z               use the number 2
For letters D,T                                  use the number 3
For letter L                                        use the number 4
For letters M and N                         use the number 5
For letter R                                        use the number 6

Rule2:
Disregard the letters A, E, I, O, U, H, W, Y (unless they are the first character in the name)

Example:
If the person's name is johnson, the first character in the soundex code is J

As to the rest of the characters in the code, using the above rules we have for johnson the Soundex code J525

The Soundex for Johnson is reduced to JNSN since O and H are not counted and N=5 and S=2 and J is the first character.

By the same rule, the Soundex code for Iowa is I000
Get more info from here:
http://www.archives.gov/research/census/soundex.html

and here:
http://www.ironrangeresearchcenter.org/genealogy/help/soundex/index.htm

USAGE:


Thursday, December 19, 2013

Can you run Windows on MAC?

Yes you can. Virtualization makes it possible

Parallels has come out with Desktop 9 for MAC which makes it easy to run both operating systems on a MAC. It costs around $80 presently.

Here is a video from Parallels you want to see:



Follow up on this link for details:
http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/

Monday, December 16, 2013

Can you get data from SQL Anywhere 16 using MS Excel?

The answer is yes. SQL Anywhere installation adds a ODBC DSN to the computer. MS Query is MS Excel can connect to this data source as shown in this post.

In a number of previous posts we have seen how to access data on SQL Anywhere Server using either ODBC or ADO.NET connectivity. Follow the links here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/10/connecting-to-sql-anywhere-16-using.html

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/09/do-you-need-to-connect-to-sql-anywhere_24.html

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/09/do-you-need-to-connect-to-sql-anywhere_20.html

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/09/do-you-need-to-connect-to-sql-anywhere.html

http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/08/do-you-need-to-connect-to-sql-anywhere.html

1. Start the SQL Anywhere Server from its link as shown.

 
The Server starts up as shown.


2. Launch MS Access (in the present case MS Access 2010 Professional Plus).
3. Click menu item Data. Click From Other sources and from the drop-down menu
   click From Microsoft Query as shown.

4. Choose Data Source window gets displayed as shown.


5. Click demo* and click OK.
Query Wizard - Choose Columns window  is displayed as shown.

6. Click Contacts (for example) and using the > button transfer all columns to the Columns in your query window.

7. Click Next
Query wizard - Filter Data window is displayed is displayed as shown.

8. If you need to filter data go ahead and choose what to filter. Here no filtering is done.

9.Click Next.
Query Wizard - Sort Order window is displayed as shown.

10. Click Next.
Query wizard - Finish is displayed.

11. Accept default and click Finish. (not shown)

The Import Data window is displayed as shown.

12. If you accept the default location and click OK, the program brings data beginning the cell A1 as shown.

That is all there is to it.


Sunday, December 15, 2013

What is the difference between MS Query and Power Query?

As the name suggests Power Query is more powerful than MS Query. MS Query handles only ODBC data sources but Power Query can handle lot more.

Some details here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2013/12/what-is-microsoft-power-query.html

Both MS Query and Power Query can be accessed in Microsoft EXCEL.

MS Query and Power Query in MS EXCEL 2010 Professional Plus and x32 bit


You have to install the EXCEL add-in for POWER Query from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=39379


Here is the ribbon tab for Power Query:
 

Saturday, December 14, 2013

How do I bring up the query designer in SQL Server 2012 Express?

Query Designer is a Graphic User Interface.

It is quite easy.
There are two ways you can do it.

Step 1. Open a Query pane by right clicking either the Server Node or right clicking one
of the user databases as shown.
 SERVER NODE


USER DATABASE NODE

Step 2. Once the query pane is open, click inside the query pane. The main menu
changes
to display the Query menu item as shown.

 


Step 3.Click Query menu item to display a drop-down list and click on Design Query in Editor or Ctrl+Shift+Q
 

This should bring up the designer as shown.


Step 3b. Another way is to right click inside the query pane and choose Design Query in Editor as before.