A blog about SQL Server, Books, Movies and life in general
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
SQL Champ - A Quiz to Prove Your SQL Knowledge
Take the test here: SQL Champ - A Quiz to Prove Your SQL Knowledge
And did you get everything correct?
And yes they wrote Knowlege instead of Knowledge :-)
Not An April Fool’s Joke: SQL Server 2000 Mainstream Support Ends In A Week
SQL 2000 SP4 - currently supported; support ends on either 12 months after SP5 is released or on 4/8/2008 whichever comes first. Extended support under which you get only break-fix assistance via Premier ends on 4/9/2013. I am not aware of release date for SP5 so far.
SQL 2005 SP2 - currently supported; support ends on either 12 months after SP3 is released or on 4/12/2011 whichever comes first. Extended support under which you get only break-fix assistance via Premier ends on 4/13/2016
More details can be found here: http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlreleaseservices/archive/2007/07/12/sql-server-support-lifetimes-customer-actions.aspx
And here:
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2852
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Links Of The Week 20080330
Check out (grand)ma in the background, she doesn't miss a beat.
Friday, March 28, 2008
How To Use COALESCE And NULLIF To Prevent Updating Columns When A Parameter IS NULL Or A Default Value
A variation of this question popped up twice in the SQL programming newsgroup since yesterday, this means it is time for a blogpost.
Let's say you have a proc like this
CREATE PROC prUpdateTable
@Salesman int = -1
AS
..........
If the user calls the proc like this exec prUpdateTable null then @Salesman will be null, if the user calls the proc like this exec prUpdateTable then the value of @Salesman will be -1. In both of this cases you don't want to change the value of the column. What can you do?
You can use a combination of NULLIF and COALESCE to handle this. Your update statement would look like this
UPDATE table
SET Column = COALESCE(NULLIF(@variable,-1),Column)
Here is some code to demonstrate that
CREATE TABLE #foo (id int,salesman int)
INSERT #foo VALUES(1,1)
INSERT #foo VALUES(2,1)
INSERT #foo VALUES(3,1)
INSERT #foo VALUES(4,1)
SELECT * FROM #foo
-------------
1 1
2 1
3 1
4 1
DECLARE @salesman int
SELECT @salesman = 5
--Column value will change to 5
UPDATE #foo
SET salesman = COALESCE(NULLIF(@salesman,-1),salesman)
WHERE ID =1
--Column value won't change
SELECT @salesman = -1
UPDATE #foo
SET salesman = COALESCE(NULLIF(@salesman,-1),salesman)
WHERE ID =2
--Column value won't change
SELECT @salesman = NULL
UPDATE #foo
SET salesman = COALESCE(NULLIF(@salesman,-1),salesman)
WHERE ID =3
--Column value will change to 3
SELECT @salesman = 3
UPDATE #foo
SET salesman = COALESCE(NULLIF(@salesman,-1),salesman)
WHERE ID =4
--And here is the output, as you can see when @salesman was -1 or NULL the table did not get updated
SELECT * FROM #foo
-------------
1 5
2 1
3 1
4 3
DROP TABLE #foo
As you can see only the first and the last update statement changed the value of the salesman column
Of course you would never do this if you were to update only one column, you would skip the update instead. If you have to update multiple columns then this is something you can use instead of writing a bunch of dynamic SQL or nested IF statements.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Technet Radio: A Look Inside SQLCAT (SQL Customer Advisory Team)
On this episode of TechNet Radio, We learn more about SQL CAT – the SQL Customer Advisory Team. With Launch of SQL 2008 on the way, the SQL CAT team has been working hard preparing lists of best practices, recommendations, technical whitepapers and technical end-to-end case studies on customer implementations.
Listen to it here: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=392382#392382
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Links Of The Week 20080322
Database
Programming Policy-Based Management with SMO - Part 1 - Intro
Programming Policy-Based Management with SMO - Part 2 - Conditions
Programming Policy-Based Management with SMO - Part 3 - ExpressionNode and Policy
Programming Policy-Based Management with SMO - Part 4 - Introducing ObjectSets
Programming Policy-Based Management with SMO - Part 5 - TargetSets and TargetSetLevels
Programming Policy-Based Management with SMO - Part 6 - Categories, Subscriptions, Wrapup
How It Works: SQL Server 2005 I/O Affinity and NUMA Don't Always Mix
Database Programming: The String Concatenation XML Trick, Sans Entitization
Database Programming: The String Concatenation XML Trick, Finalized
SQL Server 2008: Interesting Full-Text Dynamic Management Function
Minimal Logging changes in SQL Server 2008 (part-1)
More about sparse columns and column_sets
Which to use: "<>" or "!="?
Hanselminutes #105 - Rocky Lhotka on Data Access Mania, LINQ and CSLA.NET
geekSpeak Recording: Extending SQL Server Integration Services with Reza Madani
Non DB tech
Unit Testing for Silverlight...
IronPython and the DLR march on
The Weekly Source Code 21 - ASP.NET MVC Preview 2 Source Code
Hanselminutes Podcast 104 - Dave Laribee on ALT.NET
The First Rule of Programming: It's Always Your Fault
The Weekly Source Code 20 - A Web Framework for Every Language
It’s common sense, stupid: How Not to Evangelize Unit Testing
Getting LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities to use NOLOCK
Google's Design Guidelines
Microsoft give an awesome response to the guy whose XBox was cleaned
Joe Duffy and Igor Ostrovsky: Parallel LINQ under the hood
FLOSS Weekly 27: Ward Cunningham
Non tech
TheGoogle.com - a Google offering for older adults
Open Letter to Comcast: STAY OUT OF MY COMPUTER!
The Laptop Cat [Pic]
Questions on Bear Stearns buyout - shareholders want answers on how the deal was arranged, and gained government approval and financing, all in a few hours, and seemingly without alternative bidders.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
SOT: I found a new 'worst query'
Take a look at Hi, I need help on simplyfying this Update query!
I don't even want to count the nested SELECTS, The query is 688 lines long, somehow schadenfreude enters my mind.
Now where does the update come into the picture?
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
What tastes better, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Oracle 11g?
You can win some cool prizes. the video is very funny
Monday, March 17, 2008
Links Of The Week 20080317
Database
TechNet Radio: SQL 2008 Part 2 of 2: Management, Troubleshooting and Throttling
SQL Server: XQuery/XPath, Retrieval Functions
sp_send_dbmail in a transaction with @query causes unresolvable deadlock
New Features Announced In SQL Server 2008
SQL Down Under show 35 - Roger Doherty - SQL Server 2008 for Database Developers
Applying SQL Server Service Packs and HotFixes
Database Programming: The String Concatenation XML Trick Revisited (Or, Adam Is Right, But We Can Fix It)
Geek City: Nonclustered Index Keys
Sybase iAnywhere Unveils Advantage Database Server 9.0
SQL Server Integration Services and Clustering - confguration gotcha to ensure SSIS works with failover of cluster!
Non DB tech
How the BBC rendered a spinning globe in 1985
I wrote Super Pac-Man: More confessions of an ex-Atari employee
From BFS to ZFS: past, present, and future of file systems
LINQPad.net - So Great! So Great!
.NET Rocks! #324 - Emre Kiciman on AjaxView
Mashups with SyndicationFeed and LINQ
Microsoft Research Offers Behind-the-Scenes Look at Future of Computing
IBM Researchers Develop World’s Tiniest Nanophotonic Switch to route optical data between cores in future computer chips
Getting up to speed with ASP.NET and the 3.5 Extensions
Using Unity and the ASP.NET MVC Preview 2
PowerShell Plus is now official!
List Of .NET Dependency Injection Containers (IOC).
The Weekly Source Code 19 - LINQ and More What, Less How
You Know, There's a Much Easier Way...
Non tech
Man had $12,000 in debts, repaid $15,000 over 8 yrs, still owes $12,200. Credit card industry stopped him from testifying to congressional panel
XKCD on mythbusters...
JP Morgan "buys" Bear Stearns for $2 a share, Fed flips the actual bill
2008-03-11, Jim Cramer: "No! No! No! Bear Stearns is not in trouble. If anything, they’re more likely to be taken over. Don’t move your money from Bear."
English is our language [PIC]
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
6th Annual Financial Services Developer Conference
Visit http://www.financialdevelopers.com/ to download The Silverlight 2 Retail Financial Services Demonstrator
Carl Franklin from Dotnetrocks recorded a podcast at the event, this podcast was about concurrency and how to handle multi-core programming. You should definitely check it out when it becomes available on dotnetrocks. If you are interested about PLINQ and concurrent programming with .NET then visit this site: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/concurrency/default.aspx
Tomorrow there are three sessions at the same time that I want to attend
Software Engineering with VSTS
Parallelize you .Net applications with parallel extensions to the .NET framework.
Useful evolution: Programming the New features in SQL Server 2008.
I have my
Sunday, March 09, 2008
StrataFrame Or CSLA.NET, Which Framework Would You Use?
The team I am part of at work is trying to pick a framework for new development and they like these two the best. Are these two something you would pick or do you know a better one?
CSLA.NET: http://www.lhotka.net/cslanet/
StrataFrame: http://www.strataframe.net/
Also keep in mind that while CSLA.NET is free, StrataFrame is not.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Video: SQL Server Data Services and the Future of Data in the Cloud
Watch it here: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=388698#388698
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Microsoft Announces SQL Server Data Services
SQL Server Data Service (SSDS) is a highly scalable and cost-effective on-demand data storage and query processing web service. It is built on robust SQL Server technologies and helps guarantees a business-ready service level agreement covering high availability, performance and security features. Microsoft SSDS is accessible using standards based protocols (SOAP, REST) for quick provisioning of on-demand data-driven & mashup applications.
How does Microsoft SQL Server Data Services differ from traditional on premise relational SQL Server Database?
SQL Server Data Services is a storage and query processing utility providing mega scale, high availability, reliability, and geo-distributed data services in the Cloud. Customers use the service on-demand, with no up-front cost. It eliminates the initial investment in hardware and software and the on-going cost for storage administration, scale maintenance. Developers and Service providers can quickly run their on-demand applications with minimal infrastructure cost.
What can I do with SQL Server Data Services?
Customers can use SQL Server Data Services to store virtually any amount of data in the Cloud. They can query and modify data as required by the specific business scenarios. SQL Server Data Services support standards-based REST and SOAP interfaces designed to work with any Internet-development toolkit. The primary wire format is XML. Developers and service providers can quickly run on-demand applications with ease. The data has flexible schema which can be modified dynamically by the application. The data is provided with high availability and reliability virtually anywhere, anytime.
Rest of the FAQs here: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/dataservices/faq.mspx
Main SQL Server Data Services site here: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/dataservices/default.mspx
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
In SQL Server 2008 The CONVERT function is enhanced to allow conversions between binary and character hexadecimal values
SQL Server 2008 CTP 6 has enhanced the convert function when you do conversion between binary and character hexadecimal values
There are 3 styles:
Style 0 works the same as on 2005 it converts binary to varchar, if you have 0x64656E6973 then you will get 'denis'
Style 1 converts binary to varchar but the values stay the same, if you have 0x64656E6973 you will get '0x64656E6973'
Style 2 strips the 0x but leaves the rest of the values, if you have 0x64656E6973 you will get '64656E6973'
Try it out
When you run this
SELECT CONVERT(varbinary(5),'denis')
The output will be this 0x64656E6973. Now we can use that in the select statements below
SELECT CONVERT(varchar(18), 0x64656E6973, 0) AS 'Style 0' --denis
SELECT CONVERT(varchar(18), 0x64656E6973, 1) AS 'Style 1' --0x64656E6973
SELECT CONVERT(varchar(18), 0x64656E6973, 2) AS 'Style 2' --64656E6973
When you run the code above on SQL Server 2005 all 3 select statements return 'denis'
It is all in Books On Line for CTP 6, it would have been nice if they also included the sys.dm_tran_commit_table dmv or the sys.dm_exec_trigger_stats dmv. I have no clue what the sys.dm_tran_commit_table dmv is supposed to do :-(
Thursday, February 21, 2008
46 New Dynamic Management Views In SQL Server 2008 CTP6
Remember the 33 new DMVs in SQL Server 2008 post? I was just poking around in SQL Server 2008 CTP6 and wanted to know if there were any new Dynamic Management Views since CTP5. There are 13 new DMVs in CTP6 and there are a total of 45 new Dynamic Management Views compared to SQL server 2005. The list of them is below, I think their names make clear what the dmv is supposed to do (or at least I think I know)
dm_audit_actions
dm_audit_class_type_map
dm_cdc_errors
dm_cdc_log_scan_sessions
dm_cryptographic_provider_algorithms
dm_cryptographic_provider_keys
dm_cryptographic_provider_properties
dm_cryptographic_provider_sessions
dm_database_encryption_keys
dm_db_mirroring_auto_page_repair
dm_db_mirroring_past_actions
dm_db_persisted_sku_features
dm_exec_procedure_stats
dm_exec_trigger_stats
dm_filestream_oob_handles
dm_filestream_oob_requests
dm_fts_fdhosts
dm_fts_index_keywords
dm_fts_index_keywords_by_document
dm_fts_outstanding_batches
dm_fts_parser
dm_os_dispatcher_pools
dm_os_dispatchers
dm_os_memory_brokers
dm_os_memory_node_access_stats
dm_os_memory_nodes
dm_os_nodes
dm_os_process_memory
dm_os_spinlock_stats
dm_os_sys_memory
dm_resource_governor_configuration
dm_resource_governor_resource_pools
dm_resource_governor_workload_groups
dm_server_audit_status
dm_sql_referenced_entities
dm_sql_referencing_entities
dm_tran_commit_table
dm_xe_map_values
dm_xe_object_columns
dm_xe_objects
dm_xe_packages
dm_xe_session_event_actions
dm_xe_session_events
dm_xe_session_object_columns
dm_xe_session_targets
dm_xe_sessions
The 13 DMVs listed below are new in CTP6
dm_audit_actions
dm_audit_class_type_map
dm_db_persisted_sku_features
dm_exec_procedure_stats
dm_exec_trigger_stats
dm_fts_fdhosts
dm_fts_index_keywords
dm_fts_index_keywords_by_document
dm_fts_outstanding_batches
dm_fts_parser
dm_os_dispatchers
dm_os_memory_node_access_stats
dm_server_audit_status
If you want to find out what the names of all the new DMVs are by running a query on your SQL Server 2008 box and you don't have a linked server to a SQL Server 2005 box then don't worry I have prepared the query below for you.
SELECT * FROM sysobjects
WHERE name LIKE 'dm_%'
AND name NOT IN('dm_os_hosts',
'dm_exec_cached_plan_dependent_objects',
'dm_os_memory_allocations',
'dm_os_loaded_modules',
'dm_db_task_space_usage',
'dm_os_memory_objects',
'dm_os_schedulers',
'dm_os_threads',
'dm_exec_requests',
'dm_db_missing_index_columns',
'dm_repl_tranhash',
'dm_qn_subscriptions',
'dm_db_session_space_usage',
'dm_exec_query_optimizer_info',
'dm_tran_top_version_generators',
'dm_os_waiting_tasks',
'dm_exec_background_job_queue',
'dm_exec_cursors',
'dm_db_missing_index_details',
'dm_clr_properties',
'dm_os_sublatches',
'dm_exec_query_memory_grants',
'dm_tran_current_snapshot',
'dm_io_virtual_file_stats',
'dm_exec_xml_handles',
'dm_os_wait_stats',
'dm_exec_text_query_plan',
'dm_broker_connections',
'dm_os_stacks',
'dm_os_ring_buffers',
'dm_db_missing_index_groups',
'dm_exec_cached_plans',
'dm_exec_sessions',
'dm_broker_forwarded_messages',
'dm_os_memory_clerks',
'dm_repl_articles',
'dm_fts_memory_buffers',
'dm_fts_index_population',
'dm_tran_current_transaction',
'dm_os_child_instances',
'dm_exec_connections',
'dm_exec_background_job_queue_stats',
'dm_fts_active_catalogs',
'dm_tran_database_transactions',
'dm_os_memory_cache_clock_hands',
'dm_repl_schemas',
'dm_db_mirroring_connections',
'dm_db_index_operational_stats',
'dm_db_partition_stats',
'dm_io_pending_io_requests',
'dm_os_memory_cache_entries',
'dm_os_virtual_address_dump',
'dm_tran_transactions_snapshot',
'dm_exec_query_plan',
'dm_os_memory_cache_hash_tables',
'dm_exec_query_stats',
'dm_clr_tasks',
'dm_os_worker_local_storage',
'dm_db_index_usage_stats',
'dm_db_index_physical_stats',
'dm_os_buffer_descriptors',
'dm_tran_active_snapshot_database_transactions',
'dm_tran_active_transactions',
'dm_db_file_space_usage',
'dm_broker_activated_tasks',
'dm_broker_queue_monitors',
'dm_os_memory_cache_counters',
'dm_tran_session_transactions',
'dm_clr_appdomains',
'dm_exec_sql_text',
'dm_os_memory_pools',
'dm_os_latch_stats',
'dm_io_backup_tapes',
'dm_fts_memory_pools',
'dm_os_sys_info',
'dm_tran_locks',
'dm_exec_query_transformation_stats',
'dm_exec_query_resource_semaphores',
'dm_repl_traninfo',
'dm_db_missing_index_group_stats',
'dm_fts_population_ranges',
'dm_os_performance_counters',
'dm_os_workers',
'dm_io_cluster_shared_drives',
'dm_os_tasks',
'dm_exec_plan_attributes',
'dm_tran_version_store',
'dm_os_cluster_nodes',
'dm_clr_loaded_assemblies')
Enjoy exploring these DMVs
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack CTP, February 2008
Redistributable components for SQL Server 2008
Add-on providers for SQL Server 2008
Backward compatibility components for SQL Server 2008
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client (SQL Native Client) is a single dynamic-link library (DLL) containing both the SQL OLE DB provider and SQL ODBC driver. It contains run-time support for applications using native-code APIs (ODBC, OLE DB and ADO) to connect to Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005, or 2008. SQL Native Client should be used to create new applications or enhance existing applications that need to take advantage of new SQL Server 2008 features. This redistributable installer for SQL Native Client installs the client components needed during run time to take advantage of new SQL Server 2008 features, and optionally installs the header files needed to develop an application that uses the SQL Native Client API.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components
The SQL Server Backward Compatibility package includes the latest versions of Data Transformation Services 2000 runtime (DTS), SQL Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO), Decision Support Objects (DSO), and SQL Virtual Device Interface (SQLVDI). These versions have been updated for compatibility with both SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 and include all fixes shipped through SQL Server 2000 SP4 and SQL Server 2005 SP2.
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Add-in for Microsoft SharePoint Technologies
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Add-in for SharePoint Technologies allows you to take advantage of SQL Server 2008 report processing and management capabilities in SharePoint integrated mode. This version also includes data-driven subscriptions. The download provides a Report Viewer web part, web application pages, and support for using standard Windows SharePoint Services or Microsoft Office SharePoint Services.
Get it all here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D68DE3C9-60A9-49C9-A28C-5C46BBC3356F&displaylang=en
SQL Server 2008 February CTP is now available for public download
Download the February CTP from the Download Center!
What's New in SQL Server 2008 February CTP?
Enter to win an Xbox in the SQL Server 2008 February CTP Bug Bash!
Monday, February 18, 2008
If Airplanes Were Made By Using Scrum/Agile
Watch the video
If someone is interested in a high level post about Scrum then leave a comment and I will post something next week
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Weekly Links 20080217
Technical Stuff:
Bob Beauchemin has two post that deal with Spatial Data: Using SQL Server 2008 spatial and the Virtual Earth map control - 1 and Using SQL Server 2008 spatial and the Virtual Earth map control - 2. The Spatial Data posts are more for people who do front end as well as back end development.
Two Interesting articles by the PSS SQL Server Engineers
How it Works: SQL Server Per Query Degree Of Parallelism Worker Count(s) and How It Works: SQL Server 2005 Connection and Task Assignments
Kalen Delany's Geek City: String Statistics post. My own Functions That Are Not Often Used: SIGN from sqlblog. Amdahl’s Law by Linchi Shea
If that is not enough for you there are also a bunch of SQL Server 2008 Webcasts available as well as a bunch of SQL Server 2008 Videos.
The non technical stuff:
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