Sql

How to Safely Convert Strings to Integers in Redshift

This is a very stupid problem. I am not writing this post because it’s a fascinating topic—rather, I’m writing it in the hopes that you avoid the headaches that I’ve gone through scouring the internet for the best answer to this question:

Installing dbt packages

At Fishtown Analytics we believe that analysts should function more like software engineers — building and…

Analytics Playbook: Log Tables

Create a log of historical data for richer reporting

At early stage tech companies, the application database is often the richest source of data available for analysis. Getting this data into a data warehouse like…

The Most Underutilized Function in SQL

Over the past nine months I’ve worked with over a dozen venture-funded startups to build out their internal analytics. In doing so, there’s a single SQL function that I have come to use surprisingly often. At first it wasn’t at all clear to me why I would want…

Analysts need collaboration & workflow tools

There has never been a better time to be an analyst, but we’re still not very good at this.

It’s Time for Open Source Analytics

When a software engineer starts on a new project, her first step is almost always to survey the ecosystem of open source software that exists in the problem space.