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• SQL SERVER – DVM sys.dm_os_sys_info Column Name Changed in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  Have you ever faced situation where something does not work and when you try to go and fix it – you like fixing it and started to appreciate the breaking changes. Well, this is exactly I felt yesterday. Before I begin my story of yesterday I want to state it candidly that I do not encourage anybody to use * in the SELECT statement. One of the my DBA friend who always used my performance tuning script yesterday sent me email asking following question - “Every time I want to retrieve OS related information in SQL Server – I used DMV sys.dm_os_sys_info. I just upgraded my SQL Server edition from 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2012 RC0 and it suddenly stopped working. Well, this is not the production server so the issue is not big yet but eventually I need to resolve this error. Any suggestion?” The funny thing was original email was very long but it did not talk about what is the exact error beside the query is not working. I think this is the disadvantage of being too friendly on email sometime. Well, never the less, I quickly looked at the DMV on my SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 RC0 version. To my surprise I found out that there were few columns which are renamed in SQL Server 2012 RC0. Usually when people see breaking changes they do not like it but when I see these changes I was happy as new names were meaningful and additionally their new conversion is much more practical and useful. Here are the columns previous names - Previous Column Name New Column Name physical_memory_in_bytes physical_memory_kb bpool_commit_target committed_target_kb bpool_visible visible_target_kb virtual_memory_in_bytes virtual_memory_kb bpool_commited committed_kb If you read it carefully you will notice that new columns now display few results in the KB whereas earlier result was in bytes. When I see the results in bytes I always get confused as I could not guess what exactly it will convert to. I like to see results in kb and I am glad that new columns are now displaying the results in the kb. I sent the details of the new columns to my friend and ask him to check the columns used in application. From my comment he quickly realized why he was facing error and fixed it immediately. Overall – all was well at the end and I learned something new. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DMV, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Inviting Ideas for SQL in Sixty Seconds – 12/12/12

  - by pinaldave

  Today is 12/12/12 – I am not sure when will I write this kind of date again – maybe never. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime when we have the same date, month and year all have same digit. December 12th is one of the most fantastic day in my personal life. Four years ago, this day I got married to my wife – Nupur Dave.  Here are photos of our wedding (Dec 12, 2008). Here is a very interesting photo of myself earlier this year. It is not photoshoped or modified photo. The only modification I have done here is to add arrow and speech bubble. Every Wednesday I tried to put one SQL in Sixty Seconds Video. The journey has been fantastic and so far I have put a total of 35 SQL in Sixty Seconds Video. The goal of the video is to learn something in 1 minute. In our daily life we are all very busy and hardly have time for anything. No matter how much we are busy – we all have one minute of time. Sometime we wait for a minute in elevators, at the escalator, at a coffee shop, or just waiting for our phone reboot. Today is a fantastic day – 12/12/12. Let me invite all of you submits SQL in Sixty Seconds idea. If I like your idea and create a sixty second video over it – you will win surprise learning material from me. There are two very simple rules of the contest: - I should have not have already recorded the tip. The tip should be descriptive. Do not just suggest to cover “Performance Tuning” or “How to Create Index” or “More of reporting services”. The tip should have around 100 words of description explaining SQL Tip. The contest is open forever. The winner will be announced whenever I use the tip to convert to video. If I use your tip, I will for sure mention in the blog post that it is inspired from your suggestion. Meanwhile, do not forget to subscribe YouTube Channel. Here are my latest three videos from SQL in Sixty Seconds. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: About Me, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL in Sixty Seconds, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology, Video

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

  - by pinaldave

  SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical function PERCENTILE_DISC(). The book online gives following definition of this function: Computes a specific percentile for sorted values in an entire rowset or within distinct partitions of a rowset in Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate 0 (RC 0). For a given percentile value P, PERCENTILE_DISC sorts the values of the expression in the ORDER BY clause and returns the value with the smallest CUME_DIST value (with respect to the same sort specification) that is greater than or equal to P. If you are clear with understanding of the function – no need to read further. If you got lost here is the same in simple words – find value of the column which is equal or more than CUME_DIST. Before you continue reading this blog I strongly suggest you read about CUME_DIST function over here Introduction to CUME_DIST – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, CUME_DIST() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS CDist, PERCENTILE_DISC(0.5) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY ProductID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS PercentileDisc FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY SalesOrderID DESC GO The above query will give us the following result: You can see that I have used PERCENTILE_DISC(0.5) in query, which is similar to finding median but not exactly. PERCENTILE_DISC() function takes a percentile as a passing parameters. It returns the value as answer which value is equal or great to the percentile value which is passed into the example. For example in above example we are passing 0.5 into the PERCENTILE_DISC() function. It will go through the resultset and identify which rows has values which are equal to or great than 0.5. In first example it found two rows which are equal to 0.5 and the value of ProductID of that row is the answer of PERCENTILE_DISC(). In some third windowed resultset there is only single row with the CUME_DIST() value as 1 and that is for sure higher than 0.5 making it as a answer. To make sure that we are clear with this example properly. Here is one more example where I am passing 0.6 as a percentile. Now let’s have fun following query: USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, CUME_DIST() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS CDist, PERCENTILE_DISC(0.6) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY ProductID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID) AS PercentileDisc FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY SalesOrderID DESC GO The above query will give us the following result: The result of the PERCENTILE_DISC(0.6) is ProductID of which CUME_DIST() is more than 0.6. This means for SalesOrderID 43670 has row with CUME_DIST() 0.75 is the qualified row, resulting answer 773 for ProductID. I hope this explanation makes it further clear. 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 – Introduction to FIRST _VALUE and LAST_VALUE – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical functions FIRST_VALUE() and LAST_VALUE(). This function returns first and last value from the list. 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 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: What’s the most interesting thing here is that as we go from row 1 to row 10, the value of the FIRST_VALUE() remains the same but the value of the LAST_VALUE is increasing. The reason behind this is that as we progress in every line – considering that line and all the other lines before it, the last value will be of the row where we are currently looking at. To fully understand this statement, see the following figure: This may be useful in some cases; but not always. However, when we use the same thing with PARTITION BY, the same query starts showing the result which can be easily used in analytical algorithms and needs. Let us have fun through the following query: Let us fun following query. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty, FIRST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) FstValue, LAST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (PARTITION BY SalesOrderID 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: Let us understand how PARTITION BY windows the resultset. I have used PARTITION BY SalesOrderID in my query. This will create small windows of the resultset from the original resultset and will follow the logic or FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE in this resultset. Well, this is just an introduction to these functions. In the future blog posts we will go deeper to discuss the usage of these two functions. By the way, these functions can be applied over VARCHAR fields as well and are not limited to the numeric field only. 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 – Sharing your ETL Resources Across Applications with Ease

  - by pinaldave

  Frequently an organization will find that the same resources are used in multiple ETL applications, for example, the same database, general purpose processing logic, or file system locations.  Creating an easy way to reuse these resources across multiple applications would increase efficiency and reduce errors.  Moreover, not every ETL developer has the same skill set, and it is likely that one developer will be more adept at writing code while another is more comfortable configuring database connections.  Real productivity gains will come when these developers are able to work independently while still making their work available to others assigned to the same project.  These are the benefits of a centralized version control system. Of course, most version control systems could be used to store and serve files, but the real need is to store and serve entire ETL applications so that each developer’s ongoing work can immediately benefit from another developer’s completed work.  In other words, the version control system needs to be tightly integrated with the tools used to develop the ETL application. The following screen shot shows such a tool. Desktop ETL tool that tightly integrates with a central version control system Developers can checkout or commit entire projects or just a single artifact.  Each artifact may be managed independently so if you need to go back to an earlier version of one artifact, changes you may have made to other artifacts are not lost.  By being tightly integrated into the graphical environment used to create and edit the project artifacts, it is extremely easy and straight-forward to move your files to and from the version control system and there is no dependency on another vendor’s version control system.  The built in version control system is optimized for managing the artifacts of ETL applications. It is equally important that the version control system supports all of the actions one typically performs such as rollbacks, locking and unlocking of files, and the ability to resolve conflicts.  Note that this particular ETL tool also has the capability to switch back and forth between multiple version control systems. It also needs to be easy to determine the status of an artifact.  Not just that it has been committed or modified, but when and by whom.  Generally you must query the version control system for this information, but having it displayed within the development environment is more desirable. Who’s ETL tool works in this fashion?  Last month I mentioned the data integration solution offered by expressor software.  The version control features I described in this post are all available in their just released expressor 3.1 Standard Edition through the integration of their expressor Studio development environment with a centralized metadata repository and version control system. You can download their Studio application, which is free, or evaluate the full Standard Edition on your own hardware.  It may be worth your time. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to CUME_DIST – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is written in response to the T-SQL Tuesday post of Prox ‘n’ Funx. This is a very interesting subject. By the way Brad Schulz is my favorite guy when it is about blogging. I respect him as well learn a lot from him. Everybody is writing something new his subject, I decided to start SQL Server 2012 analytic functions series. SQL Server 2012 introduces new analytical function CUME_DIST(). This function provides cumulative distribution value. It will be very difficult to explain this in words so I will attempt small example to explain you this function. Instead of creating new table, I will be using AdventureWorks sample database as most of the developer uses that for experiment. Let us fun following query. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, CUME_DIST() OVER(ORDER BY SalesOrderID) AS CDist FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY CDist DESC GO Above query will give us following result. Now let us understand what is the formula behind CUME_DIST and why the values in SalesOrderID = 43670 are 1. Let us take more example and be clear about why the values in SalesOrderID = 43667 are 0.5. Now let us enhence the same example and use PARTITION BY into the OVER clause and see the results. Run following query in SQL Server 2012. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderQty, ProductID, CUME_DIST() OVER(PARTITION BY SalesOrderID ORDER BY ProductID ) AS CDist FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID DESC, CDist DESC GO Now let us see the result of this query. We are have changed the ORDER BY clause as well partitioning by SalesOrderID. You can see that CUME_DIST() function provides us different results. Additionally now we see value 1 multiple times. As we are using partitioning for each group of SalesOrderID we get the CUME_DIST() value. CUME_DIST() was long awaited Analytical function and I am glad to see it in SQL Server 2012. 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 – Saturday Fun Puzzle with SQL Server DATETIME2 and CAST

  - by pinaldave

  Note: I have used SQL Server 2012 for this small fun experiment. Here is what we are going to do. We will run the script one at time instead of running them all together and try to guess the answer. I am confident that many will get it correct but if you do not get correct, you learn something new. Let us create database and sample table. CREATE DATABASE DB2012 GO USE DB2012 GO CREATE TABLE TableDT (DT1 VARCHAR(100), DT2 DATETIME2, DT1C AS DT1, DT2C AS DT2); INSERT INTO TableDT (DT1, DT2) SELECT GETDATE(), GETDATE() GO There are four columns in the table. The first column DT1 is regular VARCHAR and second DT2 is DATETIME2. Both of the column are been populated with the same data as I have used the function GETDATE(). Now let us do the SELECT statement and get the result from both the columns. Before running the query please guess the answer and write it down on the paper or notepad. Question 1: Guess the resultset SELECT DT1, DT2 FROM TableDT GO Now once again run the select statement on the same table but this time retrieve the computed columns only. Once again I suggest you write down the result on the notepad. Question 2: Guess the resultset SELECT DT1C, DT2C FROM TableDT GO Now here is the best part. Let us use the CAST function over the computed columns. Here I do want you to stop and guess the answer for sure. If you have not done it so far, stop do it, believe me you will like it. Question 3: Guess the resultset SELECT CAST(DT1C AS DATETIME2) CDT1C, CAST(DT2C AS DATETIME2) CDT1C FROM TableDT GO Now let us inspect all the answers together and see how many of you got it correct. Answer 1: Answer 2: Answer 3:  If you have not tried to run the script so far, you can execute all the three of the above script together over here and see the result together. SELECT CAST(DT1C AS DATETIME2) CDT1C, CAST(DT2C AS DATETIME2) CDT1C FROM TableDT GO Here is the Saturday Fun question to you – why do we get same result from both of the expressions in Question 3, where as in question 2 both the expression have different answer. I will publish the valid answer with explanation in future blog posts. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DateTime, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Move Database Files MDF and LDF to Another Location

  - by pinaldave

  When a novice DBA or Developer create a database they use SQL Server Management Studio to create new database. Additionally, the T-SQL script to create a database is very easy as well. You can just write CREATE DATABASE DatabaseName and it will create new database for you. The point to remember here is that it will create the database at the default location specified for SQL Server Instance (this default instance can be changed and we will see that in future blog posts). Now, once the database goes in production it will start to grow. It is not common to keep the Database on the same location where OS is installed. Usually Database files are on SAN, Separate Disk Array or on SSDs. This is done usually for performance reason and manageability perspective. Now the challenges comes up when database which was installed at not preferred default location and needs to move to a different location. Here is the quick tutorial how you can do it. Let us assume we have two folders loc1 and loc2. We want to move database files from loc1 to loc2. USE MASTER; GO -- Take database in single user mode -- if you are facing errors -- This may terminate your active transactions for database ALTER DATABASE TestDB SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE; GO -- Detach DB EXEC MASTER.dbo.sp_detach_db @dbname = N'TestDB' GO Now move the files from loc1 to loc2. You can now reattach the files with new locations. -- Move MDF File from Loc1 to Loc 2 -- Re-Attached DB CREATE DATABASE [TestDB] ON ( FILENAME = N'F:\loc2\TestDB.mdf' ), ( FILENAME = N'F:\loc2\TestDB_log.ldf' ) FOR ATTACH GO Well, we are done. There is little warning here for you: If you do ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE you may terminate your active transactions so do not use it randomly. Do it if you are confident that they are not needed or due to any reason there is a connection to the database which you are not able to kill manually after review. Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – OLEDB – Link Server – Wait Type – Day 23 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  When I decided to start writing about this wait type, the very first question that came to my mind was, “What does ‘OLEDB’ stand for?” A quick search on Wikipedia tells me that OLEDB means Object Linking and Embedding Database. (How many of you knew this?) Anyway, I found it very interesting that this wait type was in one of the top 10 wait types in many of the systems I have come across in my performance tuning experience. Books On-Line: ????OLEDB occurs when SQL Server calls the SQL Server Native Client OLE DB Provider. This wait type is not used for synchronization. Instead, it indicates the duration of calls to the OLE DB provider. OLEDB Explanation: This wait type primarily happens when Link Server or Remove Query has been executed. The most common case wherein this wait type is visible is during the execution of Linked Server. When SQL Server is retrieving data from the remote server, it uses OLEDB API to retrieve the data. It is possible that the remote system is not quick enough or the connection between them is not fast enough, leading SQL Server to wait for the result’s return from the remote (or external) server. This is the time OLEDB wait type occurs. Reducing OLEDB wait: Check the Link Server configuration. Checking Disk-Related Perfmon Counters Average Disk sec/Read (Consistent higher value than 4-8 millisecond is not good) Average Disk sec/Write (Consistent higher value than 4-8 millisecond is not good) Average Disk Read/Write Queue Length (Consistent higher value than benchmark is not good) At this point in time, I am not able to think of any more ways on reducing this wait type. Do you have any opinion about this subject? Please share it here and I will share your comment with the rest of the Community, and of course, with due credit unto you. Please read all the post in the Wait Types and Queue series. Note: The information presented here is from my experience and there is no way that I claim it to be accurate. I suggest reading Book OnLine for further clarification. All the discussion of Wait Stats in this blog is generic and varies from system to system. It is recommended that you test this on a development server before implementing it to a production server. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Detecting guest User Permissions – guest User Access Status

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I wrote the blog post SQL SERVER – Disable Guest Account – Serious Security Issue, and I got many comments asking questions related to the guest user. Here are the comments of Manoj: 1) How do we know if the uest user is enabled or disabled? 2) What is the default for guest user in SQL Server? Default settings for guest user When SQL Server is installed by default, the guest user is disabled for security reasons. If the guest user is not properly configured, it can create a major security issue. You can read more about this here. Identify guest user status There are multiple ways to identify guest user status: Using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) You can expand the database node >> Security >> Users. If you see the RED arrow pointing downward, it means that the guest user is disabled. Using sys.sysusers Here is a simple script. If you notice column dbaccess as 1, it means that the guest user is enabled and has access to the database. SELECT name, hasdbaccess FROM sys.sysusers WHERE name = 'guest' Using sys.database_principals and sys.server_permissions This script is valid in SQL Server 2005 and a later version. This is my default method recently. SELECT name, permission_name, state_desc FROM sys.database_principals dp INNER JOIN sys.server_permissions sp ON dp.principal_id = sp.grantee_principal_id WHERE name = 'guest' AND permission_name = 'CONNECT' Using sp_helprotect Just run the following stored procedure which will give you all the permissions associated with the user. sp_helprotect @username = 'guest' Disable Guest Account REVOKE CONNECT FROM guest Additionally, the guest account cannot be disabled in master and tempdb; it is always enabled. There is a special need for this. Let me ask a question back at you: In which scenario do you think this will be useful to keep the guest, and what will the additional configuration go along with the scenario? Note: Special mention to Imran Mohammed for being always there when users need help. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Security, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Order By Numeric Values Formatted as String

  - by pinaldave

  When I was writing this blog post I had a hard time to come up with the title of the blog post so I did my best to come up with one. Here is the reason why? I wrote a blog post earlier SQL SERVER – Find First Non-Numeric Character from String. One of the questions was that how that blog can be useful in real life scenario. This blog post is the answer to that question. Let us first see a problem. We have a table which has a column containing alphanumeric data. The data always has first as an integer and later part as a string. The business need is to order the data based on the first part of the alphanumeric data which is an integer. Now the problem is that no matter how we use ORDER BY the result is not produced as expected. Let us understand this with example. Prepare a sample data: -- How to find first non numberic character USE tempdb GO CREATE TABLE MyTable (ID INT, Col1 VARCHAR(100)) GO INSERT INTO MyTable (ID, Col1) SELECT 1, '1one' UNION ALL SELECT 2, '11eleven' UNION ALL SELECT 3, '2two' UNION ALL SELECT 4, '22twentytwo' UNION ALL SELECT 5, '111oneeleven' GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable GO The above query will give following result set. Now let us use ORDER BY COL1 and observe the result along with Original SELECT. -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable ORDER BY Col1 GO The result of the table is not as per expected. We need the result in following format. Here is the good example of how we can use PATINDEX. -- Use of PATINDEX SELECT ID, LEFT(Col1,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',Col1)-1) 'Numeric Character', Col1 'Original Character' FROM MyTable ORDER BY LEFT(Col1,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',Col1)-1) GO We can use PATINDEX to identify the length of the digit part in the alphanumeric string (Remember: Our string has a first part as an int always. It will not work in any other scenario). Now you can use the LEFT function to extract the INT portion from the alphanumeric string and order the data according to it. You can easily clean up the script by dropping following table. DROP TABLE MyTable GO Here is the complete script so you can easily refer it. -- How to find first non numberic character USE tempdb GO CREATE TABLE MyTable (ID INT, Col1 VARCHAR(100)) GO INSERT INTO MyTable (ID, Col1) SELECT 1, '1one' UNION ALL SELECT 2, '11eleven' UNION ALL SELECT 3, '2two' UNION ALL SELECT 4, '22twentytwo' UNION ALL SELECT 5, '111oneeleven' GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable GO -- Select Data SELECT * FROM MyTable ORDER BY Col1 GO -- Use of PATINDEX SELECT ID, Col1 'Original Character' FROM MyTable ORDER BY LEFT(Col1,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',Col1)-1) GO DROP TABLE MyTable GO Well, isn’t it an interesting solution. Any suggestion for better solution? Additionally any suggestion for changing the title of this blog post? Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL String, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Solution – 2 T-SQL Puzzles – Display Star and Shortest Code to Display 1

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier on this blog we had asked two puzzles. The response from all of you is nothing but Amazing. I have received 350+ responses. Many are valid and many were indeed something I had not thought about it. I strongly suggest you read all the puzzles and their answers here - trust me if you start reading the comments you will not stop till you read every single comment. Seriously trust me on it. Personally I have learned a lot from it. Let us recap the puzzles here quickly. Puzzle 1: Why following code when executed in SSMS displays result as a * (Star)? SELECT CAST(634 AS VARCHAR(2)) Puzzle 2: Write the shortest code that produces results as 1 without using any numbers in the select statement. Bonus Q: How many different Operating System (OS) NuoDB support? As I mentioned earlier the participation was nothing but Amazing. I will write about the winners and the best answers in short time. Meanwhile I will give to the point answers to above puzzles. Solution 1: When you convert character or binary expressions (char, nchar, nvarchar, varchar,binary, or varbinary) to an expression of a different data type, data can be truncated, only partially displayed, or an error is returned because the result is too short to display. Conversions to char, varchar, nchar, nvarchar, binary, and varbinary are truncated, except for the conversions shown in the following table. Reference of the text and table from MSDN. Solution 2: The shortest code to produce answer 1 : SELECT EXP($) or SELECT COS($) or SELECT DAY($) When SELECT $ it gives us the result as 0.00 and the EXP of the same is 1. I believe it is pretty neat. There were plenty other answers but this was the shortest. Another shorter answer would be PRINT EXP($) but no one has proposed that as in original Question I have explicitly mentioned SELECT in the original question. Bonus Answer: 5 OS: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris, Joyent SmartOS Reference Please do read every single comment here. Do leave a comment which one do you think is the best comment out of all the comments. Meanwhile if there is a better solution and I have missed it do let me know as we still have time to correct it. I will be selecting the winner before the weekend as I am going through each and every of 350 comment. I will be selecting the best comments along with the winning comment. If our selection matches – one of you may still win something cool.  Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: NuoDB

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• SQL SERVER – NTFS File System Performance for SQL Server

  - by pinaldave

  Note: Before practicing any of the suggestion of this article, consult your IT Infrastructural Admin, applying the suggestion without proper testing can only damage your system. Question: “Pinal, we have 80 GB of data including all the database files, we have our data in NTFS file system. We have proper backups are set up. Any suggestion for our NTFS file system performance improvement. Our SQL Server box is running only SQL Server and nothing else. Please advise.” When I receive questions which I have just listed above, it often sends me deep thought. Honestly, I know a lot but there are plenty of things, I believe can be built with community knowledge base. Today I need you to help me to complete this list. I will start the list and you help me complete it. NTFS File System Performance Best Practices for SQL Server Disable Indexing on disk volumes Disable generation of 8.3 names (command: FSUTIL BEHAVIOR SET DISABLE8DOT3 1) Disable last file access time tracking (command: FSUTIL BEHAVIOR SET DISABLELASTACCESS 1) Keep some space empty (let us say 15% for reference) on drive is possible (Only on Filestream Data storage volume) Defragement the volume Add your suggestions here… The one which I often get a pretty big debate is NTFS allocation size. I have seen that on the disk volume which stores filestream data, when increased allocation to 64K from 4K, it reduces the fragmentation. Again, I suggest you attempt this after proper testing on your server. Every system is different and the file stored is different. Here is when I would like to request you to share your experience with related to NTFS allocation size. If you do not agree with any of the above suggestions, leave a comment with reference and I will modify it. Please note that above list prepared assuming the SQL Server application is only running on the computer system. The next question does all these still relevant for SSD – I personally have no experience with SSD with large database so I will refrain from comment. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Transaction Log Full – Transaction Log Larger than Data File – Notes from Fields #001

  - by Pinal Dave

  I am very excited to announce a new series on this blog – Notes from Fields. I have been blogging for almost 7 years on this blog and it has been a wonderful experience. Though, I have extensive experience with SQL and Databases, it is always a good idea that we consult experts for their advice and opinion. Following the same thought process, I have started this new series of Notes from Fields. In this series we will have notes from various experts in the database world. My friends at Linchpin People have graciously decided to support me in my new initiation.  Linchpin People are database coaches and wellness experts for a data driven world. In this very first episode of the Notes from Fields series database expert Tim Radney (partner at Linchpin People) explains a very common issue DBA and Developer faces in their career, when database logs fills up your hard-drive or your database log is larger than your data file. Read the experience of Tim in his own words. As a consultant, I encounter a number of common issues with clients.  One of the more common things I encounter is finding a user database in the FULL recovery model that does not make a regular transaction log backups or ever had a transaction log backup. When I find this, usually the transaction log is several times larger than the data file. Finding this issue is very significant to me in that it allows to me to discuss service level agreements with the client. I get to ask questions such as, are nightly full backups sufficient or do they need point in time recovery.  This conversation has now signed with the customer and gets them to thinking about their disaster recovery and high availability solutions. This issue is also very prominent on SQL Server forums and usually has the title of “Help, my transaction log has filled up my disk” or “Help, my transaction log is many times the size of my database”. In cases where the client only needs the previous full nights backup, I am able to change the recovery model to SIMPLE and shrink the transaction log using DBCC SHRINKFILE (2,1) or by specifying the transaction log file name by using DBCC SHRINKFILE (file_name, target_size). When the client needs point in time recovery then in most cases I will still end up switching the client to the SIMPLE recovery model to truncate the transaction log followed by a full backup. I will then schedule a SQL Agent job to make the regular transaction log backups with an interval determined by the client to meet their service level agreements. It should also be noted that typically when I find an overgrown transaction log the virtual log file count is also out of control. I clean up will always take that into account as well.  That is a subject for a future blog post. If your SQL Server is facing any issue we can Fix Your SQL Server. Additional reading: Monitoring SQL Server Database Transaction Log Space Growth – DBCC SQLPERF(logspace)  SQL SERVER – How to Stop Growing Log File Too Big Shrinking Truncate Log File – Log Full Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• SQL SERVER – Preserve Leading Zero While Coping to Excel from SSMS

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I wrote two articles about how to efficiently copy data from SSMS to Excel. Since I wrote that post there are plenty of interest generated on this subject. There are a few questions I keep on getting over this subject. One of the question is how to get the leading zero preserved while copying the data from SSMS to Excel. Well it is almost the same way as my earlier post SQL SERVER – Excel Losing Decimal Values When Value Pasted from SSMS ResultSet. The key here is in EXCEL and not in SQL Server. The step here is to change the format of Excel Cell to Text from Numbers and that will preserve the value of the with leading or trailing Zeros in Excel. However, I assume this is done for display purpose only because once you convert column to Text you may find it difficult to do numeric operations over the column for example Aggregation, Average etc. If you need to do the same you should either convert the columns back to Numeric in Excel or do the process in Database and export the same value as along with it as well. However, I have seen in requirement in the real world where the user has to have a numeric value with leading Zero values in it for display purpose. Here is my suggestion, instead of manipulating numeric value in the database and converting it to character value the ideal thing to do is to store it as a numeric value only in the database. Whatever changes you want to do for display purpose should be handled at the time of the display using the format function of SQL or Application Language. Honestly, database is data layer and presentation is presentation layer – they are two different things and if possible they should not be mixed. If due to any reason you cannot follow above advise and you need is to have append leading zeros in the database only here are two of my previous articles I suggest you to refer them. I am open to learn new tricks as these articles are almost three years old. Please share your opinion and suggestions in the comments area. SQL SERVER – Pad Ride Side of Number with 0 – Fixed Width Number Display SQL SERVER – UDF – Pad Ride Side of Number with 0 – Fixed Width Number Display Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Excel

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• SQL SERVER – Quiz and Video – Introduction to Basics of a Query Hint

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is inspired from SQL Architecture Basics Joes 2 Pros: Core Architecture concepts – SQL Exam Prep Series 70-433 – Volume 3. [Amazon] | [Flipkart] | [Kindle] | [IndiaPlaza] This is follow up blog post of my earlier blog post on the same subject - SQL SERVER – Introduction to Basics of a Query Hint – A Primer. In the article we discussed various basics terminology of the query hints. The article further covers following important concepts of query hints. Expecting Seek and getting a Scan Creating an index for improved optimization Implementing the query hint Above three are the most important concepts related to query hint 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) You have the following query: DECLARE @UlaChoice TinyInt SET @Type = 1 SELECT * FROM LegalActivity WHERE UlaChoice = @UlaChoice You have a nonclustered index named IX_Legal_Ula on the UlaChoice field. The Primary key is on the ID field and called PK_Legal_ID 99% of the time the value of the @UlaChoice is set to ‘YP101′. What query will achieve the best optimization for this query? SELECT * FROM LegalActivity WHERE UlaChoice = @UlaChoice WITH(INDEX(X_Legal_Ula)) SELECT * FROM LegalActivity WHERE UlaChoice = @UlaChoice WITH(INDEX(PK_Legal_ID)) SELECT * FROM LegalActivity WHERE UlaChoice = @UlaChoice OPTION (Optimize FOR(@UlaChoice = ‘YP101′)) 2) You have the following query: SELECT * FROM CurrentProducts WHERE ShortName = ‘Yoga Trip’ You have a nonclustered index on the ShortName field and the query runs an efficient index seek. You change your query to use a variable for ShortName and now you are using a slow index scan. What query hint can you use to get the same execution time as before? WITH LOCK FAST OPTIMIZE FOR MAXDOP READONLY 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) 4 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 – 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 – 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 – How to Force New Cardinality Estimation or Old Cardinality Estimation

  - by Pinal Dave

  After reading my initial two blog posts on New Cardinality Estimation, I received quite a few questions. Once I receive this question, I felt I should have clarified it earlier few things when I started to write about cardinality. Before continuing this blog, if you have not read it before I suggest you read following two blog posts. SQL SERVER – Simple Demo of New Cardinality Estimation Features of SQL Server 2014 SQL SERVER – Cardinality Estimation and Performance – SQL in Sixty Seconds #072 Q: Does new cardinality will improve performance of all of my queries? A: Remember, there is no 0 or 1 logic when it is about estimation. The general assumption is that most of the queries will be benefited by new cardinality estimation introduced in SQL Server 2014. That is why the generic advice is to set the compatibility level of the database to 120, which is for SQL Server 2014. Q: Is it possible that after changing cardinality estimation to new logic by setting the value to compatibility level to 120, I get degraded performance for few queries? A: Yes, it is possible. However, the number of the queries where this impact should be very less. Q: Can I still run my database in older compatibility level and force few queries to newer cardinality estimation logic? If yes, How? A: Yes, you can do that. You will need to force your query with trace flag 2312 to use newer cardinality estimation logic. USE AdventureWorks2014 GO -- Old Cardinality Estimation ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorks2014 SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 110 GO -- Using New Cardinality Estimation SELECT [AddressID],[AddressLine1],[City] FROM [Person].[Address] OPTION(QUERYTRACEON 2312);; -- Using Old Cardinality Estimation SELECT [AddressID],[AddressLine1],[City] FROM [Person].[Address]; GO Q: Can I run my database in newer compatibility level and force few queries to older cardinality estimation logic? If yes, How? A: Yes, you can do that. You will need to force your query with trace flag 9481 to use newer cardinality estimation logic. USE AdventureWorks2014 GO -- NEW Cardinality Estimation ALTER DATABASE AdventureWorks2014 SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 120 GO -- Using New Cardinality Estimation SELECT [AddressID],[AddressLine1],[City] FROM [Person].[Address]; -- Using Old Cardinality Estimation SELECT [AddressID],[AddressLine1],[City] FROM [Person].[Address] OPTION(QUERYTRACEON 9481); GO I guess, I have covered most of the questions so far I have received. If I have missed any questions, please send me again and I will include the same. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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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 – Iridium I/O – SQL Server Deduplication that Shrinks Databases and Improves Performance

  - by Pinal Dave

  Database performance is a common problem for SQL Server DBA’s.  It seems like we spend more time on performance than just about anything else.  In many cases, we use scripts or tools that point out performance bottlenecks but we don’t have any way to fix them.  For example, what do you do when you need to speed up a query that is already tuned as well as possible?  Or what do you do when you aren’t allowed to make changes for a database supporting a purchased application? Iridium I/O for SQL Server was originally built at Confio software (makers of Ignite) because DBA’s kept asking for a way to actually fix performance instead of just pointing out performance problems. The technology is certified by Microsoft and was so promising that it was spun out into a separate company that is now run by the Confio Founder/CEO and technology management team. Iridium uses deduplication technology to both shrink the databases as well as boost IO performance.  It is intriguing to see it work.  It will deduplicate a live database as it is running transactions.  You can watch the database get smaller while user queries are running. Iridium is a simple tool to use. After installing the software, you click an “Analyze” button which will spend a minute or two on each database and estimate both your storage and performance savings.  Next, you click an “Activate” button to turn on Iridium I/O for your selected databases.  You don’t need to reboot the operating system or restart the database during any part of the process. As part of my test, I also wanted to see if there would be an impact on my databases when Iridium was removed.  The ‘revert’ process (bringing the files back to their SQL Server native format) was executed by a simple click of a button, and completed while the databases were available for normal processing. I was impressed and enjoyed playing with the software and encourage all of you to try it out.  Here is the link to the website to download Iridium for free. . Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• SQL SERVER – Creating All New Database with Full Recovery Model

  - by pinaldave

  Sometimes, complex problems have very simple solutions. Let us see the following email which I received recently. “Hi Pinal, In our system when we create new database, by default, they are all created with the Simple Recovery Model. We have to manually change the recovery model after we create the database. We used the following simple T-SQL code: CREATE DATABASE dbname. We are very frustrated with this situation. We want all our databases to have the Full Recovery Model option by default. We are considering the following methods; please suggest the most efficient one among them. 1) Creating a Policy; when it is violated, the database model can be fixed 2) Triggers at Server Level 3) Automated Job which goes through all the databases and checks their recovery model; if the DBA has not changed the model, then the job will list the Databases and change their recovery model Also, we have a situation where we need a database in the Simple Recovery Model as well – how to white list them? Please suggest the best method.” Indeed, an interesting email! The answer to their question, i.e., which is the best method to fit their needs (white list, default, etc)? It will be NONE of the above. Here is the solution in one line and also the easiest way: Just go to your Model database: Path in SSMS >> Databases > System Databases >> model >> Right Click Properties >> Options >> Recovery Model - Select Full from dropdown. Every newly created database takes its base template from the Model Database. If you create a custom SP in the Model Database, when you create a new database, it will automatically exist in that database. Any database that was already created before making changes in the Model Database will not be affected at all. Creating Policy is also a good method, and I will blog about this in a separate blog post, but looking at current specifications of the reader, I think the Model Database should be modified to have a Full Recovery Option. While writing this blog post, I remembered my another blog post where the model database log file was growing drastically even though there were no transactions SQL SERVER – Log File Growing for Model Database – model Database Log File Grew Too Big. NOTE: Please do not touch the Model Database unnecessary. It is a strict “No.” If you want to create an object that you need in all the databases, then instead of creating it in model database, I suggest that you create a new database called maintenance and create the object there. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – A Puzzle Part 3 – Fun with SEQUENCE in SQL Server 2012 – Guess the Next Value

  - by pinaldave

  Before continuing this blog post – please read the two part of the SEQUENCE Puzzle here A Puzzle – Fun with SEQUENCE in SQL Server 2012 – Guess the Next Value and A Puzzle Part 2 – Fun with SEQUENCE in SQL Server 2012 – Guess the Next Value Where we played a simple guessing game about predicting next value. The answers the of puzzle is shared on the blog posts as a comment. Now here is the next puzzle based on yesterday’s puzzle. I recently shared the puzzle of the blog post on local user group and it was appreciated by attendees. First execute the script which I have written here. Today’s script is bit different than yesterday’s script as well it will require you to do some service related activities. I suggest you try this on your personal computer’s test environment when no one is working on it. Do not attempt this on production server as it will for sure get you in trouble. The purpose to learn how sequence behave during the unexpected shutdowns and services restarts. Now guess what will be the next value as requested in the query. USE AdventureWorks2012 GO -- Create sequence CREATE SEQUENCE dbo.SequenceID AS BIGINT START WITH 1 INCREMENT BY 1 MINVALUE 1 MAXVALUE 500 CYCLE CACHE 100; GO -- Following will return 1 SELECT next value FOR dbo.SequenceID; ------------------------------------- -- simulate server crash by restarting service -- do not attempt this on production or any server in use ------------------------------------ -- Following will return ??? SELECT next value FOR dbo.SequenceID; -- Clean up DROP SEQUENCE dbo.SequenceID; GO Once the server is restarted what will be the next value for SequenceID. We can learn interesting trivia’s about this new feature of SQL Server using this puzzle. Hint: Pay special attention to the difference between new number and earlier number. Can you see the same number in the definition of the CREATE SEQUENCE? Bonus Question: How to avoid the behavior demonstrated in above mentioned query. Does it have any effect of performance? I suggest you try to attempt to answer this question without running this code in SQL Server 2012. You can restart SQL Server using command prompt as well. I will follow up of the answer in comments below. Recently my friend Vinod Kumar wrote excellent blog post on SQL Server 2012: Using SEQUENCE, you can head over there for learning sequence in details. 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 Contests – Solution – Identify the Database Celebrity

  - by Pinal Dave

  Last week we were running contest Identify the Database Celebrity and we had received a fantastic response to the contest. Thank you to the kind folks at NuoDB as they had offered two USD 100 Amazon Gift Cards to the winners of the contest. We had also additional contest that users have to download and install NuoDB and identified the sample database. You can read about the contest over here. Here is the answer to the questions which we had asked earlier in the contest. Part 1: Identify Database Celebrity Personality 1 – Edgar Frank “Ted” Codd (August 19, 1923 – April 18, 2003) was an English computer scientist who, while working for IBM, invented the relational model for database management, the theoretical basis for relational databases. He made other valuable contributions to computer science, but the relational model, a very influential general theory of data management, remains his most mentioned achievement. (Wki) Personality 2 – James Nicholas “Jim” Gray (born January 12, 1944; lost at sea January 28, 2007; declared deceased May 16, 2012) was an American computer scientist who received the Turing Award in 1998 “for seminal contributions to database and transaction processing research and technical leadership in system implementation.” (Wiki) Personality 3 – Jim Starkey (born January 6, 1949 in Illinois) is a database architect responsible for developing InterBase, the first relational database to support multi-versioning, the blob column type, type event alerts, arrays and triggers. Starkey is the founder of several companies, including the web application development and database tool company Netfrastructure and NuoDB. (Wiki) Part 2: Identify NuoDB Samples Database Names In this part of the contest one has to Download NuoDB and install the sample database Hockey. Hockey is sample database and contains few tables. Users have to install sample database and inform the name of the sample databases. Here is the valid answer. HOCKEY PLAYERS SCORING TEAM Once again, it was indeed fun to run this contest. I have received great feedback about it and lots of people wants me to run similar contest in future. I promise to run similar interesting contests in the near future. Winners Within next two days, we will let winners send emails. Winners will have to confirm their email address and NuoDB team will send them directly Amazon Cards. Once again it was indeed fun to run this contest. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL

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• SQL SERVER – Working with FileTables in SQL Server 2012 – Part 2 – Methods to Insert Data Into Table

  - by pinaldave

  Read Part 1 Working with FileTables in SQL Server 2012 – Part 1 – Setting Up Environment In this second part of the series, we will see how we can insert the files into the FileTables. There are two methods to insert the data into FileTables: Method 1: Copy Paste data into the FileTables folder First, find the folder where FileTable will be storing the files. Go to Databases >> Newly Created Database (FileTableDB) >> Expand Tables. Here you will see a new folder which says “FileTables”. When expanded, it gives the name of the newly created “FileTableTb”. Right click on the newly created table, and click on “Explore FileTable Directory”. This will open up the folder where the FileTable data will be stored. When clicked on the option it will open up following folder in my local machine where the FileTable data will be stored. \\127.0.0.1\mssqlserver\FileTableDB\FileTableTb_Dir You can just copy your document just there. I copied few word document there and ran select statement to see the result. USE [FileTableDB] GO SELECT * FROM FileTableTb GO SELECT * returns all the rows. Here is SELECT statement which has only few columns selected from FileTable. SELECT [name] ,[file_type] ,CAST([file_stream] AS VARCHAR) FileContent ,[cached_file_size] ,[creation_time] ,[last_write_time] ,[last_access_time] FROM [dbo].[FileTableTb] GO I believe this is the simplest method to populate FileTable, because you just have to move the files to the specific table. Method 2: T-SQL Insert Statement There are always cases when you might want to programmatically insert the images into SQL Server File table. Here is a quick method which you can use to insert the data in the file table. I have inserted a very small text file using T-SQL, and later on, reading that using SELECT statement demonstrated in method 1 above. INSERT INTO [dbo].[FileTableTb] ([name],[file_stream]) SELECT 'NewFile.txt', * FROM OPENROWSET(BULK N'd:\NewFile.txt', SINGLE_BLOB) AS FileData GO The above T-SQL statement will copy the NewFile.txt to new location. When you run SELECT statement, it will retrieve the file and list in the resultset. Additionally, it returns the content in the SELECT statement as well. I think it is a pretty interesting way to insert the data into the FileTable. SELECT [name] ,[file_type] ,CAST([file_stream] AS VARCHAR) FileContent ,[cached_file_size] ,[creation_time] ,[last_write_time] ,[last_access_time] FROM [dbo].[FileTableTb] GO There are more to FileTable and we will see those in my future blog posts. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Filestream

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