Aaron Hoffman's Blog

Google searches of "JavaScript null check" and "How to check for null in JavaScript" were returning results that left something to be desired in my opinion, so I compiled this list. See the code live here: JsFiddle:  http://jsfiddle.net/aaronhoffman/DdRHB/5/ Code also available here: https://github.com/aaronhoffman/utils/blob/master/JavaScript/NullChecks.js Comparison Chart: Hope this helps, Aaron p.s. I used a great tool Regex Pixie  http://www.regexpixie.com/  by StoneFinch  http://stonefinch.com/  to generate most of the code in this example (disclaimer, I currently work for them, however I would never promote a tool I don't use myself.)

Want your data to really pop ? Check out my latest project: Sizzle drag-and-drop interactive data visualization Sorting a Calculated field (or Value field) in Excel 2013 Pivot Tables may not be very clear.  Unlike the Row fields there is no option button in the column header allowing you to easily sort the column, but it is possible. In the example below, I have a Pivot Table with "ListItemAbv" as the Row and "Count of ListItemAbv" as a calculated field (there is also a filter on "RankOrder", but that is not relevant to the example) Notice that, by default, the Pivot Table is sorted by "ListItemAbv."  There is also an option button visible in the header column (A:3).  You can use that option button to easily sort the Pivot Table by "ListItemAbv." However, there is no option button available to sort the Pivot Table by the Calculated field "Count of ListItemAbv".  To sort by that calculated field, select

I recently purchased a Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse and wanted to turn off the middle button wheel scroll sound vibration. It is possible, however perhaps not obvious.  First you need to download the "Mouse and Keyboard Center" executable available on this page https://www.microsoft.com/accessories/en-us/products/mice/arc-touch-mouse/rvf-00052#techspecs-connect . (direct link Win10 x64: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=849754  ) Run the executable and install the software.  After the software is installed, turn off "Vibration." See image below: Hope this helps, Aaron p.s.  Want to make that next report really pop ? Check out this new tool I'm working on : drag-and-drop interactive data visualization

---------------- The easy way: Azure Site Extension to Add/Edit Users and Roles:  http://aaron-hoffman.blogspot.com/2016/08/aspnet-mvc-5-user-admin.html https://www.nuget.org/packages/AspNetUserMaintenanceAzureSiteExtension/ (old:  https://www.siteextensions.net/packages/AspNetUserMaintenanceAzureSiteExtension/ ) ---------------- ---------------- TLDR: Search for this line in your project and update it: WebSecurity.InitializeDatabaseConnection("DefaultConnection", "UserProfile", "UserId", "UserName", autoCreateTables: true); ---------------- There is a new Membership Provider in ASP.NET MVC 4 that can be used for Membership, Users, Passwords, Roles, Profile, Authentication and Authorization!  It is called the Simple Membership Provider .  It uses the WebMatrix WebData WebSecurity class as a facade. The Old Way You will no longer need to execute the old .NET 2.0 aspnet_regsql.exe like this: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framewor

I find it more and more difficult to attend a conference without the assistance of Twitter.  It allows me to quickly get a feel for the room.  The quotes that landed well with people, what they disagree with, the interesting side stories of the day.  I've often thought the Twitter Search function lacks much of what I wish it could do/should do.  How would Q & A sessions be improved if Twitter was used to crowd source the questions (or the answers for that matter)?  This idea, of course, can be applied more broadly and is not just relevant to conferences.  Analyzing tweets based on #hashtags, instant polls of crowds - How would our world change if this data was put to use? Now this may be considered a bad  example (in every way) of what I mean, but let's take a look at some of the most occurring @mentions in Tweets that can be related to the Thinc Iowa closing party.  One reason I would consider this a bad example is because number of occurrences alone is not very meanin

While tracking down the source of certain features (read bugs) within overly complex applications, I have sometimes found it useful to break on every call to every method within a file. The functionality to "Break on Every Method" is not built into Visual Studio, but it is possible to set up the necessary break points through a macro.  I did not originally write this macro, but while trying to find it again at a recent job I couldn't, so I decided to post it here for safe keeping.  It is fairly primitive, but it gets the job done.  Simply place the cursor within the file you are working with right before the first method you want to break on.  The macro will then search through the file for each opening brace "{" and place a break point at each one.  Hope it helps someone. To "install" this macro simply open up your macro explorer, edit a module and paste this macro/method in.  If you do not have any macros you will need to record an empty macro fi

I find that if I’m working with data from a SQL query it is easier to manipulate, sort, and filter that data in Excel than it is in the SQL query itself.  I am also a fan of using Excel as a Data Visualization/Reporting tool.  Because of these two things I tend to work in Excel quite a bit and have developed a few macros to help make my life easier. Many times when you are working with data from a SQL query and you sort on a “dimension” column (example below) you will have many repeated values in a single column.  If you want to page through the data and find when the values changes from one to the next, Excel does not have the built in ability to do this.  However the Macro to perform this function is pretty easy to write. In the image below the data was sorted on the “Type” column.  If cell B3 is selected and the FindNextValueChangeInColumn macro is run, cell B7 would be selected.  If it is run a second time cell B12 would be selected and so on. Here are the Macros to copy