August 2011 we ran a contest where every day we give away one book for an entire month. The contest had extreme success. Lots of people participated and lots of give away. I have received lots of questions if we are doing something similar this month. Absolutely, instead of running a contest a month long we are doing something more interesting. We are giving away USD 198 worth gift every day for this week. We are giving away Joes 2 Pros 5 Volumes (BOOK) SQL 2008 Development Certification Training Kit every day. One copy in India and One in USA. Total 2 of the giveaway (worth USD 198). All the gifts are sponsored from the Koenig Training Solution and Joes 2 Pros.

The books are available here Amazon | Flipkart | Indiaplaza

How to Win:

• Read the Question
• Read the Hints
• Answer the Quiz in Contact Form in following format
  • Question
  • Answer
  • Name of the country (The contest is open for USA and India residents only)
• 2 Winners will be randomly selected announced on August 20th.

Question of the Day:

Which of the following statement is incorrect?

a) Identity value can be negative.
b) Identity value can have negative interval.
c) Identity value can be of datatype VARCHAR
d) Identity value can have increment interval larger than 1

Query Hints:

BIG HINT POST

A simple way to determine if a table contains an identity field is to use the SSMS Object Explorer Design Interface. Navigate to the table, then right-click it and choose Design from the pop-up window. When your design tab opens, select the first field in the table to view its list of properties in the lower pane of the tab (In this case the field is ProductID). Look to see if the Identity Specification property in the lower pane is set to either yes or no. SQL Server will allow you to utilize IDENTITY_INSERT with just one table at a time. After you’ve completed the needed work, it’s very important to reset the IDENTITY_INSERT back to OFF.

Additional Hints:

I have previously discussed various concepts from SQL Server Joes 2 Pros Volume 2.

• SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Output Clause in Simple Examples
• SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Ranking Functions – Advanced NTILE in Detail
• SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Ranking Functions – RANK( ), DENSE_RANK( ), and ROW_NUMBER( )
• SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Advanced Aggregates with the Over Clause
• SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Aggregates with the Over Clause
• SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Overriding Identity Fields – Tricks and Tips of Identity Fields
• SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Many to Many Relationships

Next Step:

Answer the Quiz in Contact Form in following format

• Question
• Answer
• Name of the country (The contest is open for USA and India)

Bonus Winner

Leave a comment with your favorite article from the “additional hints” section and you may be eligible for surprise gift. There is no country restriction for this Bonus Contest. Do mention why you liked it any particular blog post and I will announce the winner of the same along with the main contest.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)