8 December 2009 5 Comments

Using XLWT and Python to export an Oracle dataset to Excel (Python Simple ETL Part 2)

A few months ago, I showed how you can do simple back and forth ETL task with python scripts – this time I’m going to take it one step further and show how with an extra python module we can actually export data to a usable Excel format as well. I often use this method […]

1 December 2009 1 Comment

Cut-N-Paste Corner: Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008 Simple Loop Template

I think that ‘data wrangling’ takes a special kind of problem solving mentality. Keeping data current, cleaning it, merging it, aggregating it, and creating summary (or data warehouse) tables for reporting purposes… For MANY years I used Express installations of SQL Server 2000 as my ultimate data Swiss Army knife. It was like a secret […]

29 July 2009 20 Comments

Using a simple Python script for End-to-End Data Transformation and ETL (Part 1)

In the Data Transformation Services (DTS) / Extract Transform and Load (ETL) world these days we’ve got a LOT of expensive ass products. Some are good, some are marginal, and some are pieces of over-complicated (and poorly performing) java-based shit. But, hey, enough with the negativity – I digress, I just want to show you […]