This short post, discusses about SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, what it is and what functionality it offers. SQL Server 2008 is undoubtedly an extremely powerful Relational Database Management System. It comes with many new features that increase the database developer’s productivity and make the life of the DBA easier. In September 2008, Microsoft has published … Read more…
In this article, we provide a list of commonly used string functions in SQL Server. By combining these functions, it is possible to easily manipulate strings. For each function, we provide useful examples, that can help you better understand these functions’ usage. REPLICATE This function given a string and an integer N, it repeats … Read more…
This article, discusses about the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration Tool. What is SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration Tool? An important security improvement in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is that various of its features that could be potentially susceptible to security risks are turned off by default. One of these features is … Read more…
At some time today, I had to compare the indices of various database tables. To this end, I needed a fast way of getting index information for specific tables. In SQL Server, there is a system stored procedure (stored in the master database) called sp_helpindex. The syntax for using it is the following: EXEC sp_helpindex … Read more…
Last night I installed Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2. Though, during the configuration process of BizTalk, I was prompt that SQL Server 2005 Service Packs were not detected. At that time I though to myself; how do I find if any, and which Service Pack is installed for SQL Server? By reading the Microsoft Help … Read more…
Hi friends, this article discusses the “Backup Compression” feature in SQL Server. About Backup Compression in SQL Server How many times have we backed up a database and then we have tried to minimize the size of the backup set by compressing it with an archiving utility? I am quite sure that such cases … Read more…
This article discusses about Grouping Sets in SQL Server 2008 and later. Read below to see how you can work without and how you can work with Grouping Sets in order to understand the benefits of this cool feature. Consider a database table containing sales data. The name of the table is dbo.[sales] Example without using … Read more…
Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) is another new feature in SQL Server 2008. It performs real-time I/O encryption and decryption of the data and log files, that is the entire database. For achieving that, it uses a database encryption key stored in the database boot record. A derived benefit of TDE is that whenever a database … Read more…
In this article, we will talk about Row Constructors in SQL Server, which was originally shipped with SQL Server 2008. Inserting Records to a Table Prior to the Row Constructors Feature There are many cases were we just want to insert some data to a table. The traditional ways of doing that in SQL … Read more…
In this article, we will be discussing about Table-Valued Parameters (TVPs) in SQL Server 2008 and later. Support of Table-Valued Parameters is another great new feature in SQL Server 2008 and later. I am sure that all of us had to make a stored procedure or function call in SQL Server many times. In the … Read more…
In this article, we will compare DATETIME2 vs DATETIME in SQL Server, discuss about their precision and see some examples. About DATETIME2 in SQL Server The DATETIME2 is a data type in SQL Server, that was originally included in SQL Server 2008. We all know of the existence of the DATETIME. So, what is … Read more…
Similarly to my previous post about the DATE data type in SQL Server 2008 and later, another data type, which was originally shipped in SQL Server 2008 is the “TIME” data type. Again, without having to manipulate the current datetime for getting the time, you just have to cast it to the TIME data type. … Read more…
One of the new data types originally shipped with SQL Server 2008 is the “DATE” data type. The DATE data type provides only the date without requiring from the database developers to extract the date from the datetime anymore. To this end you can just get the date with a single line of code: SELECT … Read more…
At some point in the past, I had to install Service Pack 1 for Visual Studio 2008. My machine ran Windows Vista SP1. During the installation process I was prompt with a warning message that the Machine Debug Manager service was still running. For completing the installation process on the safe side I had to … Read more…
In this article, we will be discussing about, the MERGE Statement in SQL Server. The MERGE Statement is a T-SQL enhancement, which was originally shipped with SQL Server 2008. What is the MERGE Statement in SQL Server? So what actually is the MERGE Statement? When and how should it be used? The MERGE Statement … Read more…