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• SQLAuthority News – Learning Never Ends – Becoming Student Again

  - by pinaldave

  From my past few blog posts you may see a pattern – learning.  I finished my own college education a few years ago, but I firmly believe that learning should never stop.  We can learn on the job, or from outside reading, but we should always try to be learning new things.  It keeps the brain sharp!  In fact, I often find myself learning new things from reviewing old material.  If you have been reading my blog lately, you will recognize the name Koenig Solutions. You might also be rolling your eyes at me and my enthusiasm for learning and training.  College was hard work, why continue it?  Didn’t we all get educations so that we could get jobs and go on vacation? Of course, having a job means that you cannot take vacations all the time.  I have often asked my friend who owns Koenig, jokingly, when he is going to open a Koenig center in Bangalore. I relocated to Bangalore 1.5 years ago, so I wanted a center I could walk to anytime.  Last week I was very happy to hear that they have opened a center in Bangalore. Pinal Dave at Friend’s Company I could not let a new center open without visiting it and congratulating my friend, so I recently stopped by.  I was immediately taken by the desire to go back to “school” and learn something new.  I have signed up to take a continuing education course through the new Koenig center and here is the exciting part: I will be blogging about it so that you all can be inspired to learn, too!  Keep checking back here for further updates and blog posts about my learning experience. However, what is the fun to attend the session in the town where you stay. I indeed visited their center in Bangalore but I have opted to learn the course in another city. Well, more information about the same in near future. Pinal Dave is going to be a student again Honestly, why not learn new things and become more confident?  When we have more education we will become better at our jobs, which can lead to more confidence and efficiency, but may also have more physical rewards – like a raise or promotion.  We don’t always have to focus on shallow rewards like money and recognition, so think about how much more you will enjoy your work when you know more about it.  Koenig is offering training for new certificates in SQL Server 2012, and I am planning on investigating these for sure. I feel good that I am going to be a student again and will be learning new stuff. As I said I will blog my experience as I go. I hope that my continuing education blog posts will inspire you, my readers, to go out and learn more.  I am serious about my education and my goal is to prove how serious I am here, on my blog. I am a big fan of Learning and Sharing and I hope this series will inspire you to learn new technology which can help you progress in your career and help balance your life with work. Note: This blog post is about what inspired me to sign up for learning course. Becoming student should be the attitude of a lifetime. This post is not about a career change. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Difference between DATABASEPROPERTY and DATABASEPROPERTYEX

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I asked a simple question on Facebook regarding difference between DATABASEPROPERTY and DATABASEPROPERTYEX in SQL Server. You can view the original conversation there over here. The conversion immediately became very interesting and lots of healthy discussion happened on facebook page. The best part of having conversation on facebook page is the comfort it provides and leaner commenting interface. Question Question from SQLAuthority.com: What is the difference between DATABASEPROPERTY and DATABASEPROPERTYEX in SQL Server? Answer Answer from Rakesh Kumar: DATABASEPROPERTY is supported for backward compatibility but does not provide information about the properties added in this release. Also, many properties supported by DATABASEPROPERTY have been replaced by new properties in DATABASEPROPERTYEX.- source (MSDN). Answer from Alphonso Jones: The only real difference I can see is one, the number of properties contained and the other is that EX returns a sql_variant while DATABASEPROPERTY returns only int. Answer from Ambati Venkatasiva: Both are system meta data functions. DATABASEPROPERTYEX Returns the current setting of the specified database option. DATABASEPROPERTYEX returns the sq-varient value and DATABASEPROPERTY returns integer value. Answer from Rama Sankar Molleti:  Here is the best example about databasepropertyex SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX('dbname', 'Collation') Result SQL_1xCompat_CP850_CI_AS Whereas with databaseproperty it retuns nothing as the return type for this is integer. Sql_variant datatype stores values of various sql server supported datatypes except text, ntext, image and timestamp. Answer from Alok Seth:  SELECT DATABASEPROPERTYEX('AdventureWorks', 'Status') DatabaseStatus_DATABASEPROPERTYEX GO --Result - ONLINE SELECT DATABASEPROPERTY('AdventureWorks', 'Status') DatabaseStatus_DATABASEPROPERTY GO --Result - NULL Summary Use DATABASEPROPERTYEX as it is the only function supported in future version as well it returns status of various database properties which does not exists with DATABASEPROPERTY. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – CSVExpress and Quick Data Load

  - by pinaldave

  One of the newest ETL tools is CSVexpress.com.  This is a program that can quickly load any CSV file into ODBC compliant databases uses data integration.  For those of you familiar with databases and how they operate, the question that comes to mind might be what use this program will have in your life. I have written earlier article on this subject over here SQL SERVER – Import CSV into Database – Transferring File Content into a Database Table using CSVexpress. You might know that RDBMS have automatic support for loading CSV files into tables – but it is not quite as easy as one click of a button.  First of all, most databases have a command line interface and you need the file and configuration script in order to load up.  You also need to know enough to write the script – which for novices can be extremely daunting.  On top of all this, if you work with more than one type of RDBMS, you need to know the ins and outs of uploading and writing script for more than one program. So you might begin to see how useful CSVexpress.com might be!  There are many other tools that enable uploading files to a database.  They can be very fancy – some can generate configuration files automatically, others load the data directly.  Again, novices will be able to tell you why these aren’t the most useful programs in the world.  You see, these programs were created with SQL in mind, not for uploading data.  If you don’t have large amounts of data to upload, getting the configurations right can be a long process and you will have to check the code that is generated yourself.  Not exactly “easy to use” for novices. That makes CSVexpress.com one of the best new tools available for everyone – but especially people who don’t want to learn a lot of new material all at once.  CSVexpress has an easy to navigate graphical user interface and no scripting or coding is required.  There are built-in constraints and data validations, and you can configure transforms and reject records right there on the screen.  But the best thing of all – it’s free! That’s right, you can download CSVexpress for free from www.csvexpress.com and start easily uploading and configuring riles almost immediately.  If you’re currently happy with your method of data configuration, keep up with the good work.  For the rest of us, there’s CSVexpress.com. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Utility, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Selecting Domain from Email Address

  - by pinaldave

  Recently I came across a quick need where I needed to retrieve domain of the email address. The email address is in the database table. I quickly wrote following script which will extract the domain and will also count how many email addresses are there with the same domain address. SELECT RIGHT(Email, LEN(Email) - CHARINDEX('@', email)) Domain , COUNT(Email) EmailCount FROM   dbo.email WHERE  LEN(Email) > 0 GROUP BY RIGHT(Email, LEN(Email) - CHARINDEX('@', email)) ORDER BY EmailCount DESC Above script will select the domain after @ character. Please note, if there is more than one @ character in the email, this script will not work as that email address is already invalid. Do you have any similar script which can do the same thing efficiently? Please post as a comment. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Difference Between CURRENT_TIMESTAMP and GETDATE() – CURRENT_TIMESTAMP Equivalent in SQL Server

  - by pinaldave

  A common question – I often get from Oracle/MySQL Professionals: “What is the Equivalent to CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in SQL Server?” Here is a common question I often get from SQL Server Professionals: “What are differences between Difference Between CURRENT_TIMESTAMP and GETDATE ()?” Very simple question but have showed up so frequently that I feel like to write about it. Well in SQL Server GETDATE() is Equivalent to CURRENT_TIMESTAMP. However, if you use CURRENT_TIMESTAMP in your select statement it will work fine. You can see in the above example – both of them returns the same value. Now let us go to next question regarding difference between GETDATE and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP. Well, the matter of the fact, there is no difference between them in SQL Server (Reference Link). CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is an ANSI SQL function, whereas GETDATE is T-SQL implementation of the same function. Both of them derive value from the operating system of the computer on which SQL Server instance is running. Above discussion prompts another question – in this case, what should one use GETDATE or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP? Well, this is indeed tricky and interesting question. I think I am very comfortable using the GETDATE () so I will go to use it but a matter of the fact there is no right or wrong answer. If you want to follow ancient saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”, I suggest using the GETDATE (), or continue using CURRENT_TIMESTAMP. With that said, there is one very important property we all need to keep in mind. If you use CURRENT_TIMESTAMP while creating an object, they are automatically converted to GETDATE() and stored internally. To illustrate what I am suggesting here is the example - Create a table using the following script CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTable]( [Cold2] [datetime] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GO ALTER TABLE [dbo].[TestTable] ADD DEFAULT (CURRENT_TIMESTAMP) FOR [Cold2] GO Now go to SSMS and generate the script for the table and you will notice following syntax. CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTable]( [Cold2] [datetime] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GO ALTER TABLE [dbo].[TestTable] ADD DEFAULT (GETDATE()) FOR [Cold2] GO You can notice that SQL Server have automatically converted CURRENT_TIMESTAMP to GETDATE(). I guess this gives us an idea how they behave. Now go ahead and make your choice! Do let me know which one will you use CURRENT_TIMESTAMP or GETDATE () in the comments area. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DateTime, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – DMV sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object – Describes the First Result Metadata for the Module

  - by pinaldave

  Here is another interesting follow up blog post of SQL SERVER – sp_describe_first_result_set New System Stored Procedure in SQL Server 2012. While I was writing earlier blog post I had come across DMV sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object as well. I found that SQL Server 2012 is providing all this quick and new features which quite often we miss  to learn it and when in future someone demonstrates the same to us, we express our surprise on the subject. DMV sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object returns result set which describes the columns used in the stored procedure. Here is the quick example. Let us first create stored procedure. USE [AdventureWorks] GO ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[CompSP] AS SELECT [DepartmentID] id ,[Name] n ,[GroupName] gn FROM [HumanResources].[Department] GO Now let us run following two DMV which gives us meta data description of the stored procedure passed as a parameter. Option1: Pass second parameter @include_browse_information as a 0. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object ( OBJECT_ID('[dbo].[CompSP]'),0) AS Table1 GO Option2: Pass second parameter @include_browse_information as a 1. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_exec_describe_first_result_set_for_object ( OBJECT_ID('[dbo].[CompSP]'),1) AS Table1 GO Here is the result of Option1 and Option2. If you see the result, there is absolutely no difference between the results. Both of the resultset are returning column names which are aliased in the stored procedure. Let us scroll on the right side and you will notice that there is clear difference in some columns. You will see in second resultset source_database, Source_schema as well few other columns are reporting original table instead of NULL values. When @include_browse_information result is set to 1 it will provide the columns details of the underlying table. I have just discovered this DMV, I have yet to use it in production code and find out where exactly I will use this DMV. Do you have any idea? Does any thing comes up to your mind where this DMV can be helpful. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DMV, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – SQL Server Interview Questions And Answers Book Summary

  - by pinaldave

  Today we are using computers for various activities, motor vehicles for traveling to places, and mobile phones for conversation. How many of us can claim the invention of micro-processor, a basic wheel, or the telegraph? Similarly, this book was not written overnight. The journey of this book goes many years back with many individuals to be thanked for. To begin with, we want to thank all those interviewers who reject interviewees by saying they need to know ‘the key things’ regardless of having high grades in class. The whole concept of interview questions and answers revolves around knowing those ‘key things’. The core concept of this book will continue to evolve over time. I am sure many of you will come along with us on this journey and submit your suggestions to us to make this book a key reference for anybody who wants to start with SQL Server. Today we want to acknowledge the fact that you will help us keep this book alive forever with the latest updates. We want to thank everyone who participates in this journey with us. Though each of these chapters are geared towards convenience we highly recommend reading each of the sections irrespective of the roles you might be doing since each of the sections have some interesting trivia about working with SQL Server. In the industry the role of accidental DBA’s (especially with SQL Server) is very common. Hence if you have performed the role of DBA for a short stint and want to brush-up your fundamentals then the upcoming sections will be a great review. Table Of Contents Database Concepts With Sql Server Common Generic Questions & Answers Common Developer Questions Common Tricky Questions Miscellaneous Questions On Sql Server 2008 Dba Skills Related Questions Data Warehousing Interview Questions & Answers General Best Practices [Amazon] | [Flipkart] Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Best Practices, Database, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – OVER clause with FIRST _VALUE and LAST_VALUE – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012 – ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING

  - by pinaldave

  Yesterday I had discussed two analytical functions FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE. After reading the blog post I received very interesting question. “Don’t you think there is bug in your first example where FIRST_VALUE is remain same but the LAST_VALUE is changing every line. I think the LAST_VALUE should be the highest value in the windows or set of result.” I find this question very interesting because this is very commonly made mistake. No there is no bug in the code. I think what we need is a bit more explanation. Let me attempt that first. Before you do that I suggest you read yesterday’s blog post as this question is related to that blog post. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty, FIRST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) FstValue, LAST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) LstValue FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty GO The above query will give us the following result: As per the reader’s question the value of the LAST_VALUE function should be always 114 and not increasing as the rows are increased. Let me re-write the above code once again with bit extra T-SQL Syntax. Please pay special attention to the ROW clause which I have added in the above syntax. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty, FIRST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) FstValue, LAST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW) LstValue FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty GO Now once again check the result of the above query. The result of both the query is same because in OVER clause the default ROWS selection is always UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND CURRENT ROW. If you want the maximum value of the windows with OVER clause you need to change the syntax to UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING for ROW clause. Now run following query and pay special attention to ROW clause again. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty, FIRST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING) FstValue, LAST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING) LstValue FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty GO Here is the resultset of the above query which is what questioner was asking. So in simple word, there is no bug but there is additional syntax needed to add to get your desired answer. The same logic also applies to PARTITION BY clause when used. Here is quick example of how we can further partition the query by SalesOrderDetailID with this new functions. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty, FIRST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING) FstValue, LAST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID ROWS BETWEEN UNBOUNDED PRECEDING AND UNBOUNDED FOLLOWING) LstValue FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty GO Above query will give us windowed resultset on SalesOrderDetailsID as well give us FIRST and LAST value for the windowed resultset. There are lots to discuss for this two functions and we have just explored tip of the iceberg. In future post I will discover it further deep. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Read Only Files and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

  - by pinaldave

  Just like any other Developer or DBA SQL Server Management Studio is my favorite application. Any any moment of the time I have multiple instances of the same application are open and I am working on it. Recently, I have come across a very interesting feature in SSMS related to “Read Only” files. I believe it is a little unknown feature as well so decided to write a blog about the same. First create a read only SQL file. You can make any file read by Right Click >> Properties >> Select Attribute Read Only. Now open the same file in SQL Server Management Studio. You will find that besides the file name there is a small ‘lock’ icon. This small icon indicates that the file is read only. Now let us attempt to edit the read only file. It will let us edit the file any way we want, however when we attempt to save it, it gives following pop-up value. The options in the pop-up are self explanatory and I liked it. The goal of the read only file is to prevent users to make un-intended changes. However, when a user should have complete control over the user file. User should be aware that the file is read only but if he wants to edit the file or save as a new file the choices should be present in front of it and the pop-up menu precisely captures the same. Now let us check option related to this feature in SSMS. Go to Menu >> Options >> Environment >> Documents You will find the third option which is “Allow editing of read-only files; warn when attempt to save”. In the above scenario it was already checked. Let us uncheck the same and do the same exercise which we have done earlier. I closed all the earlier window to avoid confusion. With the new option selected when I attempt to even modify the Read Only file, it gives me totally different pop up screen. It gives me an option like “Edit In-Memory”, “Make Writeable” etc. When you select “Edit In-Memory” it allows you to edit the file and later you can save as new file – just like the earlier scenario which we have discussed. . If clicked on the Make Writeable it will remove the restriction of the Read Only and file can be edited as pleased. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Server Management Studio, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Rollback TRUNCATE Command in Transaction

  - by pinaldave

  This is very common concept that truncate can not be rolled back. I always hear conversation between developer if truncate can be rolled back or not. If you use TRANSACTIONS in your code, TRUNCATE can be rolled back. If there is no transaction is used and TRUNCATE operation is committed, it can not be retrieved from [...]

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• SQL SERVER – Weekly Series – Memory Lane – #006

  - by pinaldave

  Here is the list of selected articles of SQLAuthority.com across all these years. Instead of just listing all the articles I have selected a few of my most favorite articles and have listed them here with additional notes below it. Let me know which one of the following is your favorite article from memory lane. 2006 This was my very first year of blogging so I was every day learning something new. As I have said many times, that blogging was never an intention. I had really not understood what exactly I am working on or beginning when I was beginning blogging in 2006. I had never knew that my life was going to change forever, once I started blogging. When I look back all of this year, I am happy that we are here together. 2007 IT Outsourcing to India – Top 10 Reasons Companies Outsource Outsourcing is about trust, collaboration and success. Helping other countries in need has been always the course of mankind, outsourcing is nothing different then that. With information technology and process improvements increasing the complexity, costs and skills required to accomplish routine tasks as well as challenging complex tasks, companies are outsourcing such tasks to providers who have the expertise to perform them at lower costs , with greater value and quality outcome. UDF – Remove Duplicate Chars From String This was a very interesting function I wrote in my early career. I am still using this function when I have to remove duplicate chars from strings. I have yet to come across a scenario where it does not work so I keep on using it till today. Please leave a comment if there is any better solution to this problem. FIX : Error : 3702 Cannot drop database because it is currently in use This is a very generic error when DROP Database is command is executed and the database is not dropped. The common mistake user is kept the connection open with this database and trying to drop the database. The database cannot be dropped if there is any other connection open along with it. It is always a good idea to take database in single user mode before dropping it. Here is the quick tutorial regarding how to bring the database in single user mode: Using T-SQL | Using SSMS. 2008 Install SQL Server 2008 – How to Upgrade to SQL Server 2008 – Installation Tutorial This was indeed one of the most popular articles in SQL Server 2008. Lots of people wanted to learn how to install SQL SErver 2008 but they were facing various issues while installation. I build this tutorial which becomes reference points for many. Default Collation of SQL Server 2008 What is the collation of SQL Server 2008 default installations? I often see this question confusing many experienced developers as well. Well the answer is in following image. Ahmedabad SQL Server User Group Meeting – November 2008 User group meetings are fun, now a days I am going to User Group meetings every week but there was a case when I have been just a beginner on this subject. The bug of the community was caught on me years ago when I started to present in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar SQ LServer User Groups. 2009 Validate an XML document in TSQL using XSD My friend Jacob Sebastian wrote an excellent article on the subject XML and XSD. Because of the ‘eXtensible’ nature of XML (eXtensible Markup Language), often there is a requirement to restrict and validate the content of an XML document to a pre-defined structure and values. XSD (XML Schema Definition Language) is the W3C recommended language for describing and validating XML documents. SQL Server implements XSD as XML Schema Collections. Star Join Query Optimization At present, when queries are sent to very large databases, millions of rows are returned. Also the users have to go through extended query response times when joining multiple tables are involved with such queries. ‘Star Join Query Optimization’ is a new feature of SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition. This mechanism uses bitmap filtering for improving the performance of some types of queries by the effective retrieval of rows from fact tables. 2010 These puzzles are very interesting and intriguing – there was lots of interest on this subject. If you have free time this weekend. You may want to try them out. SQL SERVER – Challenge – Puzzle – Usage of FAST Hint (Solution)  SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Challenge – Error While Converting Money to Decimal (Solution)  SQL SERVER – Challenge – Puzzle – Why does RIGHT JOIN Exists (Open)  Additionally, I had great fun presenting SQL Server Performance Tuning seminar at fantastic locations in Hyderabad. Installing AdventeWorks Database This has been the most popular request I have received on my blog. Here is the quick video about how one can install AdventureWorks. 2011 Effect of SET NOCOUNT on @@ROWCOUNT There was an interesting incident once while I was presenting a session. I wrote a code and suddenly 10 hands went up in the air.  This was a bit surprise to me as I do not know why they all got alerted. I assumed that there should be something wrong with either project, screen or my display. However the real reason was very interesting – I suggest you read the complete blog post to understand this interesting scenario. Error: Deleting Offline Database and Creating the Same Name This is very interesting because once a user deletes the offline database the MDF and LDF file still exists and if the user attempts to create a new database with the same name it will give error. I found this very interesting and the blog explains the concept very quickly. Have you ever faced a similar situation? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Memory Lane, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Updates on Contests, Books and SQL Server

  - by pinaldave

  There are lots of things happening on this blog and I feel sometime it is difficult to keep up. One of the suggestion I keep on receiving if there is a single page where one can visit and know the updates. I did consider of the same at some point but in era of RSS Feed it is difficult to have proper audience to that page. Here are few updates on various contest and books give away in recent time. Combo set of 5 Joes 2 Pros Book – 1 for YOU and 1 for Friend – I have received so many entries for this contest. Many have sent me email asking if this contest can be extended by couple of days. For the same the deadline for this contest is now Nov 10th 7 AM. You can send your entries by that time. The prize is 2 combo set of Joes 2 Pros is of USD 444. If you have not take part in the contest please take part now. Guess What is in the box? – There were many entry for this contest. We played this contest on blog as well, facebook. The answer of this contest was announced in 2 days in blog post announcing my new book. The winner was Manas Dash from Bangalore. He answered “The box will contain SQL book authored by Vinod and Pinal”. This was the closest answer we received. Win 5 SQL Programming Book Contest will have winner announced by Nov 15th and winners will be sent email. Win 5 SQL Wait Stats Book Contest is closed and winners have been sent their award. My third book SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers have run out of stock in India in 36 hours of its launch. We are working very hard to make it available again. Thank you again for excellent support! Without your participation all the give away have no significance. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Basic Calculation and PEMDAS Order of Operation

  - by pinaldave

  After thinking a long time, I have decided to write about this blog post. I had no plan to create a blog post about this subject but the amount of conversation this one has created on my Facebook page, I decided to bring up a few of the question and concerns discussed on the Facebook page. There are more than 10,000 comments here so far. There are lots of discussion about what should be the answer. Well, as far as I can tell there is a big debate going on on Facebook, for educational purpose you should go ahead and read some of the comments. They are very interesting and for sure teach some new stuff. Even though some of the comments are clearly wrong they have made some good points and I believe it for sure develops some logic. Here is my take on this subject. I believe the answer is 9 as I follow PEMDAS  Order of Operation. PEMDAS stands for  parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction. PEMDAS is commonly known as BODMAS in India. BODMAS stands for Brackets, Orders (ie Powers and Square Roots, etc), Division, Multiplication,  Addition and Subtraction. PEMDAS and BODMAS are almost same and both of them follow the operation order from LEFT to RIGHT. Let us try to simplify above statement using the PEMDAS or BODMAS (whatever you prefer to call). Step 1: 6 ÷ 2 (1+2) (parentheses first) Step 2: = 6 ÷ 2 * (1+2) (adding multiplication sign for further clarification) Step 3: = 6 ÷ 2* (3) (single digit in parentheses – simplify using operator) Step 4: = 6 ÷ 2 * 3 (Remember next Operation should be LEFT to RIGHT) Step 5: = 3 * 3 (because 6 ÷ 2 = 3; remember LEFT to RIGHT) Step 6: = 9 (final answer) Some often find Step 4 confusing and often ended up multiplying 2 and 3 resulting Step 5 to be 6 ÷ 6, this is incorrect because in this case we did not follow the order of LEFT to RIGHT. When we do not follow the order of operation from LEFT to RIGHT we end up with the answer 1 which is incorrect. Let us see what SQL Server returns as a result. I executed following statement in SQL Server Management Studio SELECT 6/2*(1+2) It is clear that SQL Server also thinks that the answer should be 9. Let us go ahead and ask Google what will be the answer of above question in Google I have searched for the following term: 6/2(1+2) The result also says the answer should be 9. If you want a further reference here is a great video which describes why the answer should be 9 and not 1. And here is a fantastic conversation on Google Groups. Well, now what is your take on this subject? You are welcome to share constructive feedback and your answer may be different from my answer. NOTE: A healthy conversation about this subject is indeed encouraged but if there is a single bad word or comment is flaming it will be deleted without any notification (it does not matter how valuable information it contains). Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – UNION ALL and ORDER BY – How to Order Table Separately While Using UNION ALL

  - by pinaldave

  I often see developers trying following syntax while using ORDER BY. SELECT Columns FROM TABLE1 ORDER BY Columns UNION ALL SELECT Columns FROM TABLE2 ORDER BY Columns However the above query will return following error. Msg 156, Level 15, State 1, Line 5 Incorrect syntax near the keyword ‘ORDER’. It is not possible to use two different ORDER BY in the UNION statement. UNION returns single resultsetand as per the Logical Query Processing Phases. However, if your requirement is such that you want your top and bottom query of the UNION resultset independently sorted but in the same resultset you can add an additional static column and order by that column. Let us re-create the same scenario. First create two tables and populated with sample data. USE tempdb GO -- Create table CREATE TABLE t1 (ID INT, Col1 VARCHAR(100)); CREATE TABLE t2 (ID INT, Col1 VARCHAR(100)); GO -- Sample Data Build INSERT INTO t1 (ID, Col1) SELECT 1, 'Col1-t1' UNION ALL SELECT 2, 'Col2-t1' UNION ALL SELECT 3, 'Col3-t1'; INSERT INTO t2 (ID, Col1) SELECT 3, 'Col1-t2' UNION ALL SELECT 2, 'Col2-t2' UNION ALL SELECT 1, 'Col3-t2'; GO If we SELECT the data from both the table using UNION ALL . -- SELECT without ORDER BY SELECT ID, Col1 FROM t1 UNION ALL SELECT ID, Col1 FROM t2 GO We will get the data in following order. However, our requirement is to get data in following order. If we need data ordered by Column1 we can ORDER the resultset ordered by Column1. -- SELECT with ORDER BY SELECT ID, Col1 FROM t1 UNION ALL SELECT ID, Col1 FROM t2 ORDER BY ID GO Now to get the data in independently sorted in UNION ALL let us add additional column OrderKey and use ORDER BY  on that column. I think the description does not do proper justice let us see the example here. -- SELECT with ORDER BY - with ORDER KEY SELECT ID, Col1, 'id1' OrderKey FROM t1 UNION ALL SELECT ID, Col1, 'id2' OrderKey FROM t2 ORDER BY OrderKey, ID GO The above query will give the desired result. Now do not forget to clean up the database by running the following script. -- Clean up DROP TABLE t1; DROP TABLE t2; GO Here is the complete script used in this example. USE tempdb GO -- Create table CREATE TABLE t1 (ID INT, Col1 VARCHAR(100)); CREATE TABLE t2 (ID INT, Col1 VARCHAR(100)); GO -- Sample Data Build INSERT INTO t1 (ID, Col1) SELECT 1, 'Col1-t1' UNION ALL SELECT 2, 'Col2-t1' UNION ALL SELECT 3, 'Col3-t1'; INSERT INTO t2 (ID, Col1) SELECT 3, 'Col1-t2' UNION ALL SELECT 2, 'Col2-t2' UNION ALL SELECT 1, 'Col3-t2'; GO -- SELECT without ORDER BY SELECT ID, Col1 FROM t1 UNION ALL SELECT ID, Col1 FROM t2 GO -- SELECT with ORDER BY SELECT ID, Col1 FROM t1 UNION ALL SELECT ID, Col1 FROM t2 ORDER BY ID GO -- SELECT with ORDER BY - with ORDER KEY SELECT ID, Col1, 'id1' OrderKey FROM t1 UNION ALL SELECT ID, Col1, 'id2' OrderKey FROM t2 ORDER BY OrderKey, ID GO -- Clean up DROP TABLE t1; DROP TABLE t2; GO I am sure there are many more ways to achieve this, what method would you use if you have to face the similar situation? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)   Filed under: Best Practices, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Resolution for New Year 2011

  - by pinaldave

  Today is the first day of the year so I want to write something very light. Last Year: 2010 Last Year was a blast; really traveled a lot. My family and I went on vacation. There I enjoyed being father, rolling on the floor and playing with my daughter. Here is the list of the countries I visited throughout 2010: Singapore (twice) Malaysia (twice) Sri Lanka (thrice) Nepal (once) United States of America (twice) United Arab Emirates (UAE) (once) My daughter who just completed 1 year on September 1, 2010 has so far visited three countries: Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, where I have done lots of community activities. The list containing all my activities can be found at Pinal Dave’s Community Events. I have written nearly 380 blog posts last year. It would be difficult for me to pick a few. However, I keep a running list of all of my articles over here: All Articles on SQLAuthority.com. I have so far received more than 10,000 email questions during the year and consequently I have done my best to answer most of them. I strongly believe if one would Search SQLAuthority.com blog, they would have found the answer quickly. The best part of 2010 for me was working on SQL Server Health Check and SQL Server Performance Tuning. This Year: 2011 This year, I came up with two simple goals: 1. Personal Goal: Reduce Weight 2. Professional Goal: Stay busy for the entire year with SQL Server Performance Tuning Projects. (Currently January 2011 is booked with performance tuning projects and 40 other days are already booked throughout the year). Future The future is something one cannot exactly guess and one cannot see. I just want to wish all of you the very best for this coming New Year. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: About Me, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – What’s New in SQL Server “Denali”

  - by pinaldave

  I was today doing SQL Server Advanced Training at Bangalore and I had few attendees asked me if I can give them review of the SQL Server Denali. I had not downloaded Denali on my work computer so I could not do demonstration of the same. However, I promised to blog about with additional details very next day. Denali is also known as SQL 11 and the compatibility mode number is 110. Here are few details about it. What is new in SQL Server “Denali” Download CTP1 Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Denali

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• SQLAuthority News – Story of Seattle – SQLPASS 2011 Event Log

  - by pinaldave

  Just like every year I attended SQL PASS in Seattle earlier this month. The event was scheduled from Oct 11-14, 2011 in the convention center of the Seattle. I have been to Seattle more than 6 times so far so it is not a new city for me anymore. The city has always impressed me with its vibrant life and pleasant weather. Just like every other time, I had excellent experience once again in the city. Though I just arrived on the day of the event and left right after the event was over – I hardly visited Seattle – still some good experience to share. Here are few quick photographs from my quick trip of Seattle city. Skyline of Seattle Seattle Convention Center A Shop Tenzing Momo and Co at Pike St Market The Seattle Gum Wall Shoreline in Seattle Nigel and Paras First Starbucks (Relocated) People on Street of Seattle Food at Sandy’s – All Veg Well, this is a short summary of my extremely quick city tour of Seattle. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL PASS, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Get Free Books on While Learning SQL Server 2012 Error Handling

  - by pinaldave

  Fans of this blog are aware that I have recently released my new books SQL Server Functions and SQL Server 2012 Queries. The books are available in market in limited edition but you can avail them for free on Wednesday Nov 14, 2012. Not only they are free but you can additionally learn SQL Server 2012 Error Handling as well. My book’s co-author Rick Morelan is presenting a webinar tomorrow on SQL Server 2012 Error Handling. Here is the brief abstract of the webinar: People are often shocked when they see the demo in this talk where the first statement fails and all other statements still commit. For example, did you know that BEGIN TRAN…COMMIT TRAN is not enough to make everything work together? These mistakes can still happen to you in SQL Server 2012 if you are not aware of the options. Rick Morelan, creator of Joes2Pros, will teach you how to predict the Error Action and control it with & without structured error handling. Register for the webinar now to learn: How to predict the Error Action and control it Nuances between successful and failing SQL statements Essential SQL Server 2012 configuration options Register for the Webinar and be present during the webinar. My co-author will announce a winner (may be more than 1 winner) during the session. If you are present during the session – you are eligible to win the book. The webinar is scheduled for 2 different times to accommodate various time zones. 1) 10am ET/7am PT 2) 1pm ET/11am PT. Each webinar will have their own winner. You can increase your chances by attending both the webinars. Do not miss this opportunity and register for the webinar right now. The recordings of the webinar may not be available. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Joes 2 Pros, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Get Directory Structure using Extended Stored Procedure xp_dirtree

  - by pinaldave

  Many years ago I wrote article SQL SERVER – Get a List of Fixed Hard Drive and Free Space on Server where I demonstrated using undocumented Stored Procedure to find the drive letter in local system and available free space. I received question in email from reader asking if there any way he can list directory structure within the T-SQL. When I inquired more he suggested that he needs this because he wanted set up backup of the data in certain structure. Well, there is one undocumented stored procedure exists which can do the same. However, please be vary to use any undocumented procedures. xp_dirtree 'C:\Windows' Execution of the above stored procedure will give following result. If you prefer you can insert the data in the temptable and use the same for further use. Here is the quick script which will insert the data into the temptable and retrieve from the same. CREATE TABLE #TempTable (Subdirectory VARCHAR(512), Depth INT); INSERT INTO #TempTable (Subdirectory, Depth) EXEC xp_dirtree 'C:\Windows' SELECT Subdirectory, Depth FROM #TempTable; DROP TABLE #TempTable; Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Stored Procedure, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Columnstore Index and sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats

  - by pinaldave

  As you know I have been writing on Columnstore Index for quite a while. Recently my friend Vinod Kumar wrote about  SQL Server 2012: ColumnStore Characteristics. A fantastic read on the subject if you have yet not caught up on that subject. After the blog post I called him and asked what should I write next on this subject. He suggested that I should write on DMV script which I have prepared related to Columnstore when I was writing our SQL Server Questions and Answers book. When we were writing this book SQL Server 2012 CTP versions were available. I had written few scripts related to SQL Server columnstore Index. I like Vinod’s idea and I decided to write about DMV, which we did not cover in the book as SQL Server 2012 was not released yet. We did not want to talk about the product which was not yet released. The first script which I had written was with DMV - sys.column_store_index_stats. This DMV was displaying the statistics of the columnstore indexes. When I attempted to run it on SQL Server 2012 RTM it gave me error suggesting that this DMV does not exists. Here is the script which I ran: SELECT * FROM sys.column_store_index_stats; It generated following error: Msg 208, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Invalid object name ‘column_store_index_stats’. I was pretty confident that this DMV was available when I had written the scripts. The next reaction was to type ‘sys.’ only in SSMS and wait for intelisense to popup DMV list. I scrolled down and noticed that above said DMV did not exists there as well. Now this is not bug or missing feature. This was indeed something can happen because the version which I was practicing was early CTP version. If you go to the page of the DMV here, it clearly stats notice on the top of the page. This documentation is for preview only, and is subject to change in later releases. Now this was not alarming but my next thought was if this DMV is not there where can I find the information which this DMV was providing. Well, while I was thinking about this, I noticed that my another friend Balmukund Lakhani was online on personal messenger. Well, Balmukund is “Know All” kid. I have yet to find situation where I have not got my answers from him. I immediately pinged him and asked the question regarding where can I find information of ‘column_store_index_stats’. His answer was very abrupt but enlightening for sure. Here is our conversation: Pinal: Where can I find information of column_store_index_stats? Balmukund: Assume you have never worked with CTP before and now try to find the information which you are trying to find. Honestly  it was fantastic response from him. I was confused as I have played extensively with CTP versions of SQL Server 2012. Now his response give me big hint. I should have not looked for DMV but rather should have focused on what I wanted to do. I wanted to retrieve the statistics related to the index. In SQL Server 2008/R2, I was able to retrieve the statistics of the index from the DMV - sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats. I used the same DMV on SQL Server 2012 and it did retrieved the necessary information for me. Here is the updated script which gave me all the necessary information I was looking for. Matter of the fact, if I have used my earlier SQL Server 2008 R2 script this would have just worked fine. SELECT DB_NAME(Database_ID) DBName, SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id) AS SchemaName, OBJECT_NAME(ius.OBJECT_ID) ObjName, i.type_desc, i.name, user_seeks, user_scans, user_lookups, user_updates,* FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats ius INNER JOIN sys.indexes i ON i.index_id = ius.index_id AND ius.OBJECT_ID = i.OBJECT_ID INNER JOIN sys.tables t ON t.OBJECT_ID = i.OBJECT_ID GO Let us see the resultset of above query. You will notice that column Type_desc describes the type of the index. You can additionally write WHERE condition on the column and only retrieve only selected type of Index. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Function to Round Up Time to Nearest Minutes Interval

  - by pinaldave

  Though I have written more than 2300 blog posts, I always find things which I have not covered earlier in this blog post. Recently I was asked if I have written a function which rounds up or down the time based on the minute interval passed to it. Well, not earlier but it is here today. Here is a very simple example of how one can do the same. ALTER FUNCTION [dbo].[RoundTime] (@Time DATETIME, @RoundToMin INT) RETURNS DATETIME AS BEGIN RETURN ROUND(CAST(CAST(CONVERT(VARCHAR,@Time,121) AS DATETIME) AS FLOAT) * (1440/@RoundToMin),0)/(1440/@RoundToMin) END GO Above function needs two values. 1) The time which needs to be rounded up or down. 2) Time in minutes (the value passed here should be between 0 and 60 – if the value is incorrect the results will be incorrect.) Above function can be enhanced by adding functionalities like a) Validation of the parameters passed b) Accepting values like Quarter Hour, Half Hour etc. Here are few sample examples. SELECT dbo.roundtime1('17:29',30) SELECT dbo.roundtime1(GETDATE(),5) SELECT dbo.roundtime1('2012-11-02 07:27:07.000',15) When you run above code, it will return following results. Well, do you have any other way to achieve the same result? If yes, do share it here and I will be glad to share it on blog with due credit. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DateTime, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Quiz and Video – Introduction to SQL Error Actions

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is inspired from SQL Programming Joes 2 Pros: Programming and Development for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – SQL Exam Prep Series 70-433 – Volume 4. [Amazon] | [Flipkart] | [Kindle] | [IndiaPlaza] This is follow up blog post of my earlier blog post on the same subject - SQL SERVER – Introduction to SQL Error Actions – A Primer. In the article we discussed various basics terminology of the error handling. The article further covers following important concepts of error handling. Introduction to SQL Error Actions Statement Termination Scope Abortion Batch Termination Above three are the most important concepts related to error handling and SQL Server.  There are many more things one has to learn but without beginners fundamentals one can’t learn the advanced concepts. Let us have small quiz and check how many of you get the fundamentals right. Quiz 1.) Which SQL Server error action happens for errors with a severity of 11-16 when you set the XACT_ABORT setting to ON? You will get Statement Termination. You will get Scope Abortion. You will get Batch Abortion. You will get Connection Termination. SQL Server will pick the error action. 2.) Which SQL Server error action happens for errors with a severity of 11-16 when you set the XACT_ABORT setting to OFF? You will get Statement Termination You will get Scope Abortion You will get Batch Abortion You will get Connection Termination SQL Server will pick the error action Now make sure that you write down all the answers on the piece of paper. Watch following video and read earlier article over here. If you want to change the answer you still have chance. Solution 1) 3 2) 5 Now compare let us check the answers and compare your answers to following answers. I am very confident you will get them correct. Available at USA: Amazon India: Flipkart | IndiaPlaza Volume: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Please leave your feedback in the comment area for the quiz and video. Did you know all the answers of the quiz? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Joes 2 Pros, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Simple Explanation and Puzzle with SOUNDEX Function and DIFFERENCE Function

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier this week I asked a question where I asked how to Swap Values of the column without using CASE Statement. Read here: A Puzzle – Swap Value of Column Without Case Statement,there were more than 50 solutions proposed in the comment. There were many creative solutions. I have mentioned my personal favorite (different ones) here: Solution of Puzzle – Swap Value of Column Without Case Statement. However, I received lots of questions regarding one of the Solution by SIJIN KUMAR V P. He has used the function SOUNDEX in his solution. The request was to explain how SOUNDEX and DIFFERENCE works. Well, there are pretty decent documentations provided over here SOUNDEX function and DIFFERENCE over on MSDN and if I attempt to explain this function I will end up writing the same details which are available on MSDN. Instead of writing theory, we will try to learn this function by using a couple of simple puzzles. You try to solve the puzzles using the MSDN and see if you can learn something very quickly. In simple words - SOUNDEX converts an alphanumeric string to a four-character code to find similar-sounding words or names. The first character of the code is the first character of character_expression and the second through fourth characters of the code are numbers that represent the letters in the expression. Vowels incharacter_expression are ignored unless they are the first letter of the string. DIFFERENCE function returns an integer value. The  integer returned is the number of characters in the SOUNDEX values that are the same. The return value ranges from 0 through 4: 0 indicates weak or no similarity, and 4 indicates strong similarity or the same values. Learning Puzzle 1: Now let us run following four queries and observe its output. SELECT SOUNDEX('SQLAuthority') SdxValue SELECT SOUNDEX('SLTR') SdxValue SELECT SOUNDEX('SaLaTaRa') SdxValue SELECT SOUNDEX('SaLaTaRaM') SdxValue When you look at the result set all the four values are same. The reason for all the values to be same is as for SQL Server SOUNDEX function all the four strings are similarly sounding string. Learning Puzzle 2: Now let us run following five queries and observe its output. SELECT DIFFERENCE (SOUNDEX('SLTR'),SOUNDEX('SQLAuthority')) SELECT DIFFERENCE (SOUNDEX('TH'),SOUNDEX('SQLAuthority')) SELECT DIFFERENCE ('SQLAuthority',SOUNDEX('SQLAuthority')) SELECT DIFFERENCE ('SLTR',SOUNDEX('SQLAuthority')) SELECT DIFFERENCE ('SLTR','SQLAuthority') When you look at the result set you will get the result in the ranges from 1 to 4. Here is how it works if your result is 0 which means absolutely not relevant to each other and if your result is 1 which means the results are relevant to each other. Have you ever used above two functions in your business need or on production server? If yes, would you please leave a comment with use cases. I believe it will be beneficial to everyone. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to PERCENT_RANK() – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical functions PERCENT_RANK(). This function returns relative standing of a value within a query result set or partition. It will be very difficult to explain this in words so I’d like to attempt to explain its function through a brief example. Instead of creating a new table, I will be using the AdventureWorks sample database as most developers use that for experiment purposes. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, RANK() OVER(ORDER BY SalesOrderID) Rnk, PERCENT_RANK() OVER(ORDER BY SalesOrderID) AS PctDist FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY PctDist DESC GO The above query will give us the following result: Now let us understand the resultset. You will notice that I have also included the RANK() function along with this query. The reason to include RANK() function was as this query is infect uses RANK function and find the relative standing of the query. The formula to find PERCENT_RANK() is as following: PERCENT_RANK() = (RANK() – 1) / (Total Rows – 1) If you want to read more about this function read here. Now let us attempt the same example with PARTITION BY clause USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) Rnk, PERCENT_RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS PctDist FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY PctDist DESC GO Now you will notice that the same logic is followed in follow result set. I have now quick question to you – how many of you know the logic/formula of PERCENT_RANK() before this blog post? Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – #TechEDIn – TechEd India 2012 – Things to Do and Explore for SQL Enthusiast

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd India 2012 is just 48 hours away and I have been receiving lots of requests regarding how SQL enthusiasts can maximize their time they’ll be spending at TechEd India 2012. Trust me – TechEd is the biggest Tech Event in India and it is much larger in magnitude than we can imagine. There are plenty of tracks there and lots of things to do. Honestly, we need clone ourselves multiple times to completely cover the event. However, I am going to talk about SQL enthusiasts only right now. In this post, I’ll share a few things they can do in this big event. But before I start talking about specific things, there is one thing which is a must – Keynote. There are amazing Keynotes planned every single day at TechEd India 2012. One should not miss them at all. Social Media I am a big believer of the social media. I am everywhere - Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and GPlus. I suggest you follow the tag #TechEdIn as well as contribute at the healthy conversation going on right now. You may want to follow a few of the SQL Server enthusiasts who are also attending events like TechEd India. This way, you will know where they are and you can contribute along with them. For a good start, you can follow all the speakers who are presenting at the event. I have linked all the speakers’ names with their respective Twitter accounts. Networking Do not stop meeting new people. Introduce yourself. Catch the speakers after their sessions. Meet other SQL experts and discuss SQL as well as life aside SQL. The best way to start the communication is to talk about something new. Here are a few lines I usually use when I have to break the ice: SQL Server 2012 is just released and I have installed it. How many SQL Server sessions are you going to attend? I am going to attend _________ I am a big fan of SQL Server. Sessions Agenda Day 1 T-SQL Rediscovered with SQL Server 2012 - Jacob Sebastian Catapult your data with SQL Server 2012 integration services - Praveen Srivatsa Processing Big Data with SQL Server 2012 and Hadoop  - Stephan Forte SQL Server Misconceptions and Resolution – A Practical Perspective – Pinal Dave and Vinod Kumar Securing with ContainedDB in SQL Server 2012  - Pranab Majumdar Agenda Day 2 Hand-on-Lab – Exploring Power View with SQL Server 2012 – Ravi S. Maniam Hand-on-Lab - SQL Server 2012 – AlwaysOn Availability Groups  - Amit Ganguli Agenda Day 3 Peeling SQL Server like an Onion: Internals Debunked  - Vinod Kumar Speed Up! – Parallel Processes and Unparalleled Performance  - Pinal Dave Keeping Your Database Available – ‘AlwaysOn’  - Balmukund Lakhani Lesser Known Facts of SQL Server Backup and Restore  - Amit Banerjee Top five reasons why you want SQL Server 2012 BI - Praveen Srivatsa Product Booth and Event Partners There will be a dedicated SQL Server booth at the event. I suggest you stop by there and do communication with SQL Server Experts. Additionally there will be booths of various event partners. Stop by their booth and see if they have a product which can help your career. I know that Pluralsight has recently released my course on their online learning site and if that interests you, you can talk about the subject with them. Bring Your Camera Make a list of the people you want to meet. Follow them on Twitter or send them an email and know their location. Introduce yourself, meet them and have your conversation. Do not forget to take a photo with them and later on, share the photo on social media. It would be nice to send an email to everyone with attached high resolution images if you have their email address. After-hours parties After-hours parties are not always about eating and meeting friends but sometimes, they are very informative. Last time I ended up meeting an SQL expert, and we end up talking for long hours on various aspects of SQL Server. After 4 hours, we figured out that he stays in the same apartment complex as mine and since we have had an excellent friendship, he has then become our family friend. So, my advice is that you start to seek out who is meeting where in the evening and see if you can get invited to the parties. Make new friends but never lose mutual respect by doing something silly. Meet Me I will be at the event for three days straight. I will be around the SQL tracks. Please stop by and introduce yourself. I would like to meet you and talk to you. Meeting folks from the Community is very important as we all speak the same language at the end of the day – SQL Server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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