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• SQL SERVER – FT_IFTS_SCHEDULER_IDLE_WAIT – Full Text – Wait Type – Day 13 of 28

  - by pinaldave

  In the last few days during this series, I got many question about this Wait type. It would be great if you read my original related wait stats query in the first post because I have filtered it out in WHERE clause. However, I still get questions about this being one of the most wait types they encounter. The truth is, this is a background task processing and it really does not matter and it should be filtered out. There are many new Wait types related to Full Text Search that are introduced in SQL Server 2008. If you run the following query, you will be able to find them in the list. Currently there is not enough information for all of them available on BOL or any other place. But don’t worry; I will write an in-depth article when I learn more about them. SELECT * FROM sys.dm_os_wait_stats WHERE wait_type LIKE 'FT_%' The result set will contain following rows. FT_RESTART_CRAWL FT_METADATA_MUTEX FT_IFTSHC_MUTEX FT_IFTSISM_MUTEX FT_IFTS_RWLOCK FT_COMPROWSET_RWLOCK FT_MASTER_MERGE FT_IFTS_SCHEDULER_IDLE_WAIT We have understood so far that there is not much information available. But the problem is when you have this Wait type, what should you do?  The answer is to filter them out for the moment (i.e, do not pay attention on them) and focus on other pressing issues in wait stats or performance tuning. Here are two of my informal suggestions, which are totally independent from wait stats: Turn off the Full Text Search service in your system if you are  not necessarily using it on your server. Learn proper Full Text Search methodology. You can get Michael Coles’ book: Pro Full-Text Search in SQL Server 2008. Now I invite you to speak out your suggestions or any input regarding Full Text-related best practices and wait stats issue. Please leave a comment. 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 discussions of Wait Stats in this blog are generic and vary 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 Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Wait Stats, SQL Wait Types, T SQL, Technology

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• Developer’s Life – Every Developer is a Spiderman

  - by Pinal Dave

  I have to admit, Spiderman is my favorite superhero.  The most recent movie recently was released in theaters, so it has been at the front of my mind for some time. Spiderman was my favorite superhero even before the latest movie came out, but of course I took my whole family to see the movie as soon as I could!  Every one of us loved it, including my daughter.  We all left the movie thinking how great it would be to be Spiderman.  So, with that in mind, I started thinking about how we are like Spiderman in our everyday lives, especially developers. Let me list some of the reasons why I think every developer is a Spiderman. We have special powers, just like a superhero.  There is a reason that when there are problems or emergencies, we get called in, just like a superhero!  Our powers might not be the ability to swing through skyscrapers on a web, our powers are our debugging abilities, but there are still similarities! Spiderman never gives up.  He might not be the strongest superhero, and the ability to shoot web from your wrists is a pretty cool power, it’s not as impressive as being able to fly, or be invisible, or turn into a hulking green monster.  Developers are also human.  We have cool abilities, but our true strength lies in our willingness to work hard, find solutions, and go above and beyond to solve problems. Spiderman and developers have “spidey sense.”  This is sort of a joke in the comics and movies as well – that Spiderman can just tell when something is about to go wrong, or when a villain is just around the corner.  Developers also have a spidey sense about when a server is about to crash (usually at midnight on a Saturday). Spiderman makes a great superhero because he doesn’t look like one.  Clark Kent is probably fooling no one, hiding his superhero persona behind glasses.  But Peter Parker actually does blend in.  Great developers also blend in.  When they do their job right, no one knows they were there at all. “With great power comes great responsibility.”  There is a joke about developers (sometimes we even tell the jokes) about how if they are unhappy, the server or databases might mysteriously develop problems.  The truth is, very few developers would do something to harm a company’s computer system – they take their job very seriously.  It is a big responsibility. These are just a few of the reasons why I love Spiderman, why I love being a developer, and why I think developers are the greatest.  Let me know other reasons you love Spiderman and developers, or if you can shoot webs from your wrists – I might have a job for you. 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 – Fix Error: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error ’80040e07' or Microsoft SQL Native Client error ’80040e07'

  - by pinaldave

  I quite often receive questions where users are looking for solution to following error: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error ’80040e07′ Syntax error converting datetime from character string. OR Microsoft SQL Native Client error ’80040e07′ Syntax error converting datetime from character string. If you have ever faced above error – I have a very simple solution for you. The solution is being very check date which is inserted in the datetime column. This error often comes up when application or user is attempting to enter an incorrect date into the datetime field. Here is one of the examples – one of the reader was using classing ASP Application with OLE DB provider for SQL Server. When he tried to insert following script he faced above mentioned error. INSERT INTO TestTable (ID, MyDate) VALUES (1, '01-Septeber-2013') The reason for the error was simple as he had misspelled September word. Upon correction of the word, he was able to successfully insert the value and error was not there. Incorrect values or the typo’s are not the only reason for this error. There can be issues with cast or convert as well. If you try to attempt following code using SQL Native Client or in your application you will also get similar errors. SELECT CONVERT (datetime, '01-Septeber-2013', 112) The reason here is very simple, any conversion attempt or any other kind of operation on incorrect date/time string can lead to the above error. If you not using embeded dynamic code in your application language but using attempting similar operation on incorrect datetime string you will get following error. Msg 241, Level 16, State 1, Line 2 Conversion failed when converting date and/or time from character string. Remember: Check your values of the string when you are attempting to convert them to string – either there can be incorrect values or they may be incorrectly formatted. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL DateTime, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Introduction to Adaptive ETL Tool – How adaptive is your ETL?

  - by pinaldave

  I am often reminded by the fact that BI/data warehousing infrastructure is very brittle and not very adaptive to change. There are lots of basic use cases where data needs to be frequently loaded into SQL Server or another database. What I have found is that as long as the sources and targets stay the same, SSIS or any other ETL tool for that matter does a pretty good job handling these types of scenarios. But what happens when you are faced with more challenging scenarios, where the data formats and possibly the data types of the source data are changing from customer to customer?  Let’s examine a real life situation where a health management company receives claims data from their customers in various source formats. Even though this company supplied all their customers with the same claims forms, they ended up building one-off ETL applications to process the claims for each customer. Why, you ask? Well, it turned out that the claims data from various regional hospitals they needed to process had slightly different data formats, e.g. “integer” versus “string” data field definitions.  Moreover the data itself was represented with slight nuances, e.g. “0001124” or “1124” or “0000001124” to represent a particular account number, which forced them, as I eluded above, to build new ETL processes for each customer in order to overcome the inconsistencies in the various claims forms.  As a result, they experienced a lot of redundancy in these ETL processes and recognized quickly that their system would become more difficult to maintain over time. So imagine for a moment that you could use an ETL tool that helps you abstract the data formats so that your ETL transformation process becomes more reusable. Imagine that one claims form represents a data item as a string – acc_no(varchar) – while a second claims form represents the same data item as an integer – account_no(integer). This would break your traditional ETL process as the data mappings are hard-wired.  But in a world of abstracted definitions, all you need to do is create parallel data mappings to a common data representation used within your ETL application; that is, map both external data fields to a common attribute whose name and type remain unchanged within the application. acc_no(varchar) is mapped to account_number(integer) expressor Studio first claim form schema mapping account_no(integer) is also mapped to account_number(integer) expressor Studio second claim form schema mapping All the data processing logic that follows manipulates the data as an integer value named account_number. Well, these are the kind of problems that that the expressor data integration solution automates for you.  I’ve been following them since last year and encourage you to check them out by downloading their free expressor Studio ETL software. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Business Intelligence, Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: ETL, SSIS

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• SQL SERVER – Importance of User Without Login – T-SQL Demo Script

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I wrote a blog post about SQL SERVER – Importance of User Without Login and my friend and SQL Expert Vinod Kumar has written excellent follow up blog post about Contained Databases inside SQL Server 2012. Now lots of people asked me if I can also explain the same concept again so here is the small demonstration for it. Let me show you how login without user can help. Before we continue on this subject I strongly recommend that you read my earlier blog post here. In following demo I am going to demonstrate following situation. Login using the System Admin account Create a user without login Checking Access Impersonate the user without login Checking Access Revert Impersonation Give Permission to user without login Impersonate the user without login Checking Access Revert Impersonation Clean up USE [AdventureWorks2012] GO -- Step 1 : Login using the SA -- Step 2 : Create Login Less User CREATE USER [testguest] 9ITHOUT LOGIN WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA=[dbo] GO -- Step 3 : Checking access to Tables SELECT * FROM sys.tables; -- Step 4 : Changing the execution contest EXECUTE AS USER   = 'testguest'; GO -- Step 5 : Checking access to Tables SELECT * FROM sys.tables; GO -- Step 6 : Reverting Permissions REVERT; -- Step 7 : Giving more Permissions to testguest user GRANT SELECT ON [dbo].[ErrorLog] TO [testguest]; GRANT SELECT ON [dbo].[DatabaseLog] TO [testguest]; GO -- Step 8 : Changing the execution contest EXECUTE AS USER   = 'testguest'; GO -- Step 9 : Checking access to Tables SELECT * FROM sys.tables; GO -- Step 10 : Reverting Permissions REVERT; GO -- Step 11: Clean up DROP USER [testguest]Step 3 GO Here is the step 9 we will be able to notice that how a user without login gets access to some of the data/object which we gave permission. What I am going to prove with this example? Well there can be different rights with different account. Once the login is authenticated it makes sense for impersonating a user with only necessary permissions to be used for further operation. Again this is very basic and fundamental example. There are lots of more points to be discussed as we go in future posts. Just do not take this blog post as a template and implement everything as it is. 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 – What the Business Says Is Not What the Business Wants

  - by pinaldave

  This blog post is written in response to T-SQL Tuesday hosted by Steve Jones. Steve raised a very interesting question; every DBA and Database Developer has already faced this situation. When I read the topic, I felt that I can write several different examples here. Today, I will cover this scenario, which seems quite amusing. Shrinking Database Earlier this year, I was working on SQL Server Performance Tuning consultancy; I had faced very interesting situation. No matter how much I attempt to reduce the fragmentation, I always end up with heavy fragmentation on the server. After careful research, I figured out that one of the jobs was continuously Shrinking the Database – which is a very bad practice. I have blogged about my experience over here SQL SERVER – SHRINKDATABASE For Every Database in the SQL Server. I removed the incorrect shrinking process right away; once it was removed, everything continued working as it should be. After a couple of days, I learned that one of their DBAs had put back the same DBCC process. I requested the Senior DBA to find out what is going on and he came up with the following reason: “Business Requirement.” I cannot believe this! Now, it was time for me to go deep into the subject. Moreover, it had become necessary to understand the need. After talking to the concerned people here, I understood what they needed. Please read the exact business need in their own language. The Shrinking “Business Need” “We shrink the database because if we take backup after shrinking the database, the size of the same is smaller. Once we take backup, we have to send it to our remote location site. Our business requirement is that we need to always make sure that the file is smallest when we transfer it to remote server.” The backup is not affected in any way if you shrink the database or not. The size of backup will be the same. After a couple of the tests, they agreed with me. Shrinking will create performance issues for the same as it will introduce heavy fragmentation in the database. The Real Solution The real business need was that they needed the smallest possible backup file. We finally implemented a quick solution which they are still using to date. The solution was compressed backup. I have written about this subject in detail few years before SQL SERVER – 2008 – Introduction to New Feature of Backup Compression. Compressed backup not only creates a small filesize but also increases the speed of the database as well. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Best Practices, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Observation of the View – Part 2

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier, I have written an article about SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Observation of the View. I received an email from one of the readers, asking if there would no problems when we create the Index on the base table. Well, we need to discuss this situation in two different cases. Before proceeding to the discussion, I strongly suggest you read my earlier articles. To avoid the duplication, I am not going to repeat the code and explanation over here. In all the earlier cases, I have explained in detail how Index created on the View is not utilized. SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Limitation of the View 12 SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Observation of the View SQL SERVER – Indexed View always Use Index on Table As per earlier blog posts, so far we have done the following: Create a Table Create a View Create Index On View Write SELECT with ORDER BY on View However, the blog reader who emailed me suggests the extension of the said logic, which is as follows: Create a Table Create a View Create Index On View Write SELECT with ORDER BY on View Create Index on the Base Table Write SELECT with ORDER BY on View After doing the last two steps, the question is “Will the query on the View utilize the Index on the View, or will it still use the Index of the base table?“ Let us first run the Create example. USE tempdb GO IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE OBJECT_ID = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[SampleView]')) DROP VIEW [dbo].[SampleView] GO IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE OBJECT_ID = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[mySampleTable]') AND TYPE IN (N'U')) DROP TABLE [dbo].[mySampleTable] GO -- Create SampleTable CREATE TABLE mySampleTable (ID1 INT, ID2 INT, SomeData VARCHAR(100)) INSERT INTO mySampleTable (ID1,ID2,SomeData) SELECT TOP 100000 ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY o1.name), ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY o2.name), o2.name FROM sys.all_objects o1 CROSS JOIN sys.all_objects o2 GO -- Create View CREATE VIEW SampleView WITH SCHEMABINDING AS SELECT ID1,ID2,SomeData FROM dbo.mySampleTable GO -- Create Index on View CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX [IX_ViewSample] ON [dbo].[SampleView] ( ID2 ASC ) GO -- Select from view SELECT ID1,ID2,SomeData FROM SampleView ORDER BY ID2 GO -- Create Index on Original Table -- On Column ID1 CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX [IX_OriginalTable] ON mySampleTable ( ID1 ASC ) GO -- On Column ID2 CREATE UNIQUE NONCLUSTERED INDEX [IX_OriginalTable_ID2] ON mySampleTable ( ID2 ) GO -- Select from view SELECT ID1,ID2,SomeData FROM SampleView ORDER BY ID2 GO Now let us see the execution plans for both of the SELECT statement. Before Index on Base Table (with Index on View): After Index on Base Table (with Index on View): Looking at both executions, it is very clear that with or without, the View is using Indexes. Alright, I have written 11 disadvantages of the Views. Now I have written one case where the View is using Indexes. Anybody who says that I am being harsh on Views can say now that I found one place where Index on View can be helpful. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL View, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – CTE can be Updated

  - by Pinal Dave

  Today I have received a fantastic email from Matthew Spieth. SQL Server expert from Ohio. He recently had a great conversation with his colleagues in the office and wanted to make sure that everybody who reads this blog knows about this little feature which is commonly confused. Here is his statement and we will start our story with Matthew’s own statement: “Users often confuse CTE with Temp Table but technically they both are different, CTE are like Views and they can be updated just like views.“ Very true statement from Matthew. I totally agree with what he is saying. Just like him, I have enough, time came across a situation when developers think CTE is like temp table. When you update temp table, it remains in the scope of the temp table and it does not propagate it to the table based on which temp table is built. However, this is not the case when it is about CTE, when you update CTE, it updates underlying table just like view does. Here is the working example of the same built by Matthew to illustrate this behavior. Check the value in the base table first. USE AdventureWorks2012; -- Check - The value in the base table is updated SELECT Color FROM [Production].[Product] WHERE ProductNumber = 'CA-6738'; Now let us build CTE with the same data. ;WITH CTEUpd(ProductID, Name, ProductNumber, Color) AS( SELECT ProductID, Name, ProductNumber, Color FROM [Production].[Product] WHERE ProductNumber = 'CA-6738') Now let us update CTE with following code. -- Update CTE UPDATE CTEUpd SET Color = 'Rainbow'; Now let us check the BASE table based on which the CTE was built. -- Check - The value in the base table is updated SELECT Color FROM [Production].[Product] WHERE ProductNumber = 'CA-6738'; That’s it! You can update CTE and it will update the base table. Here is the script which you should execute all together. USE AdventureWorks2012; -- Check - The value in the base table is updated SELECT Color FROM [Production].[Product] WHERE ProductNumber = 'CA-6738'; -- Build CTE ;WITH CTEUpd(ProductID, Name, ProductNumber, Color) AS( SELECT ProductID, Name, ProductNumber, Color FROM [Production].[Product] WHERE ProductNumber = 'CA-6738') -- Update CTE UPDATE CTEUpd SET Color = 'Rainbow'; -- Check - The value in the base table is updated SELECT Color FROM [Production].[Product] WHERE ProductNumber = 'CA-6738'; If you are aware of such scenario, do let me know and I will post this on my blog with due credit to you. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com)Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL View, T SQL Tagged: CTE

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• SQL SERVER – Automated Type Conversion using Expressor Studio

  - by pinaldave

  Recently I had an interesting situation during my consultation project. Let me share to you how I solved the problem using Expressor Studio. Consider a situation in which you need to read a field, such as customer_identifier, from a text file and pass that field into a database table. In the source file’s metadata structure, customer_identifier is described as a string; however, in the target database table, customer_identifier is described as an integer. Legitimately, all the source values for customer_identifier are valid numbers, such as “109380”. To implement this in an ETL application, you probably would have hard-coded a type conversion function call, such as: output.customer_identifier=stringToInteger(input.customer_identifier) That wasn’t so bad, was it? For this instance, programming this hard-coded type conversion function call was relatively easy. However, hard-coding, whether type conversion code or other business rule code, almost always means that the application containing hard-coded fields, function calls, and values is: a) specific to an instance of use; b) is difficult to adapt to new situations; and c) doesn’t contain many reusable sub-parts. Therefore, in the long run, applications with hard-coded type conversion function calls don’t scale well. In addition, they increase the overall level of effort and degree of difficulty to write and maintain the ETL applications. To get around the trappings of hard-coding type conversion function calls, developers need an access to smarter typing systems. Expressor Studio product offers this feature exactly, by providing developers with a type conversion automation engine based on type abstraction. The theory behind the engine is quite simple. A user specifies abstract data fields in the engine, and then writes applications against the abstractions (whereas in most ETL software, developers develop applications against the physical model). When a Studio-built application is run, Studio’s engine automatically converts the source type to the abstracted data field’s type and converts the abstracted data field’s type to the target type. The engine can do this because it has a couple of built-in rules for type conversions. So, using the example above, a developer could specify customer_identifier as an abstract data field with a type of integer when using Expressor Studio. Upon reading the string value from the text file, Studio’s type conversion engine automatically converts the source field from the type specified in the source’s metadata structure to the abstract field’s type. At the time of writing the data value to the target database, the engine doesn’t have any work to do because the abstract data type and the target data type are just the same. Had they been different, the engine would have automatically provided the conversion. ?Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Database, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SSIS

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• SQL SERVER – Implementing IF … THEN in SQL SERVER with CASE Statements

  - by Pinal Dave

  Here is the question I received the other day in email. “I have business logic in my .net code and we use lots of IF … ELSE logic in our code. I want to move the logic to Stored Procedure. How do I convert the logic of the IF…ELSE to T-SQL. Please help.” I have previously received this answer few times. As data grows the performance problems grows more as well. Here is the how you can convert the logic of IF…ELSE in to CASE statement of SQL Server. Here are few of the examples: Example 1: If you are logic is as following: IF -1 < 1 THEN ‘TRUE’ ELSE ‘FALSE’ You can just use CASE statement as follows: -- SQL Server 2008 and earlier version solution SELECT CASE WHEN -1 < 1 THEN 'TRUE' ELSE 'FALSE' END AS Result GO -- SQL Server 2012 solution SELECT IIF ( -1 < 1, 'TRUE', 'FALSE' ) AS Result; GO If you are interested further about how IIF of SQL Server 2012 works read the blog post which I have written earlier this year . Well, in our example the condition which we have used is pretty simple but in the real world the logic can very complex. Let us see two different methods of how we an do CASE statement when we have logic based on the column of the table. Example 2: If you are logic is as following: IF BusinessEntityID < 10 THEN FirstName ELSE IF BusinessEntityID > 10 THEN PersonType FROM Person.Person p You can convert the same in the T-SQL as follows: SELECT CASE WHEN BusinessEntityID < 10 THEN FirstName WHEN BusinessEntityID > 10 THEN PersonType END AS Col, BusinessEntityID, Title, PersonType FROM Person.Person p However, if your logic is based on multiple column and conditions are complicated, you can follow the example 3. Example 3: If you are logic is as following: IF BusinessEntityID < 10 THEN FirstName ELSE IF BusinessEntityID > 10 AND Title IS NOT NULL THEN PersonType ELSE IF Title = 'Mr.' THEN 'Mister' ELSE 'No Idea' FROM Person.Person p You can convert the same in the T-SQL as follows: SELECT CASE WHEN BusinessEntityID < 10 THEN FirstName WHEN BusinessEntityID > 10 AND Title IS NOT NULL THEN PersonType WHEN Title = 'Mr.' THEN 'Mister' ELSE 'No Idea' END AS Col, BusinessEntityID, Title, PersonType FROM Person.Person p I hope this solution is good enough to convert the IF…ELSE logic to CASE Statement in SQL Server. Let me know if you need further information about the same. 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

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• SQLAuthority News – Virtual Launch Event for Office 2010 – Contest – Win MS Office License

  - by pinaldave

  Office products are integral products of any PC. I accept that without Office Suites, I can not survive or make enough leaving. I am blogger and use word to create my blogs. I am SQL Server Trainer  and I use PowerPoint as my presentation tool. I am SQL Server consultant and I use Excel to keep my work log. I can not see my life with Office Tools. Just like any other Microsoft Product there is strong community following Office Tools. Please count me in. The same community is hosting a Virtual Launch Event for Office 2010 on May 25 and 26th. The webcasts is FREE to attend and people can take part either online or by going to the nearest available center. The sessions will be delivered by MVPs. To register please visit: http://www.meraoffice.com. In June, limited cities will be hosting Community Launch Events for Office 2010. At the launch events, attendees will get to see Office 2010 in action and learn how to do their work better with Office 2010.  The details are available on http://office.merawindows.com. To support one of the largest community, I am announcing one contents. It is very easy to take part in the contest. You just have to answer one very simple question. Contest: Choose best option: With which Microsoft Office Product Powerpivot is associated? Options: 1) PowerPoint 2) Excel 3) Word Hint: http://search.sqlauthority.com Rules: Winner will be awarded 1 Office 2007 Home and Student. This will be freely upgradeable to Office 2010 once it releases in June. The winners will be sent emails and they will redeem their awards via microsoftstore.co.in The prizes can only be shipped to India and Indian residents are eligible. Winner will be selected by selected community leaders and MVPs at their sole discretion. Winner will be informed by email about the award. Most creative and informative comment will win the contest. Please spread the words about this contest. SQLAuthority.com will also send SQL Server book to the person who generates the most traffic to this blog post using Twitter, Facebook and other social media. This competition is also open to Indian residents only. I will measure the traffic using my wordpress.com stats plugin. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Office

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• SQLAuthority News – Book Review – Beginning T-SQL 2008 by Kathi Kellenberger

  - by pinaldave

  Beginning T-SQL 2008 by Kathi Kellenberger Amazon Link Detail Review: Beginning T-SQL 2008 is one of the best books on the market if you are just beginning to work with Microsoft SQL, or have a little bit of experience and need to learn more quickly. Each chapter of the book introduces a new subject, and builds upon topics covered in previous chapters.  The author of the book, Kathi Kellenberger understands that you need to form a solid foundation of knowledge before moving on to new topics, and sets up each subject nicely.  Because the chapters move in an orderly progression, you continue to use skills you learned earlier. One of the best features of Beginning T-SQL 2008 is that each chapter has multiple examples and exercises.  Many books introduce a topic and then never go back to it.  This book gives enough examples that you will be familiar with the subject when you come across it in real life.  The exercises at the end of the chapter mean that you will be using the skills you learned – and there is no better way to cement a subject in your brain. The book also includes discussions of the common errors that programmers will come across, how to avoid them, and how to fix them if they happen.  Ms. Kellenberger understands that not only do mistakes happen, but they are bound to happen if you aren’t trained properly.  Mistakes are part of the learning process! The book begins by discussions relational theory, so that programmers will understand the way T-SQL works from the ground up.  It also walks readers through writing accurate queries, combining set-based and procedural processing, embedding logic in stored functions, and so much more. Overall, the main goal of Beginning T-SQL 2008 is to introduce novices to SQL programming, and quickly familiarize them with the basics of running the program.  The book is written with the idea that readers will not know any of the technical terms or vocabulary.  However, if you are a little more familiar with SQL and looking to become better, you will still find this book very helpful. Ratting: 4.5+ Stars Summary: I must recommend Beginning T-SQL 2008 highly enough.  If you are going to buy any beginners guide to Transect-SQL, this is the one you should spend your money on.  You can save yourself a lot of time and effort later by using this very affordable manual to learn the basics, which will allow you to become an expert much faster. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Book Review, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Social Media Series – Twitter and Myself

  - by pinaldave

  Pinal Dave on Twitter! Frequent readers of my blog might know that I am trying to get more involved in all social media sites, both professionally and personally.  Readers might also know that I have often struggled with finding the purpose of some social media sites – Twitter especially.  One of the great uses of social media is to stay connected and updated with followers.  Twitter’s 140 character limit means that Twitter is a great place to get quick updates from the world, but not a lot of deep information.  In fact, I have the feeling that Twitter’s form might actually limit its usefulness – especially for complex subjects like SQL Server. However, #sqlhelp has tag has for sure overcome that belief. You can instantly talk about SQL and get help with your SQL problems on twitter. I believe in keeping up with the changing times, and it didn’t feel right to give up on Twitter.  So I have determined a good way to use Twitter and set rules for myself.  The problem I was facing that if I followed everyone who interested me and let anyone follow me, I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of information Twitter could give me every day.  It didn’t seem like 140 characters should be able to take up so much of my time, but it took hours to sort through all the updates to find things that were of interest to me and to SQL Server. First, I was forced to unfollow anyone who made too many updates every day.  This was not an easy decision, but just for my own sake I had to limit the amount of information I could take in every day.  I still let anyone follow me who wants to, because I didn’t want to limit my readership, and I hope that they do not feel the way I did – that there are too many updates! Next, I made sure that the information I put on Twitter is useful and to the point.  I try to announce new blog posts on Twitter at least once a day, and I also try to find five posts from other people every day that are worth re-Tweeting.  This forces me to stay active in the community.  But it is not all business on Twitter.  It is also a place for me to post updates about my family and home life, for anyone who is interested. In simple words, I talk every thing and anything on twitter. If you’d like to follow me, my Twitter handle is www.twitter.com/pinaldave.  It is a good place to start if you’d like to keep updated with my blog and find out who I follow and who my influences are.  Twitter is perfect for getting little “tastes” of things you’re interested in.  If you are interested in my blog, SQL Server, or both, I hope that my Twitter updates will be interesting and helpful. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Social Media

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• SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Observation of the View

  - by pinaldave

  I always enjoy writing about concepts on Views. Views are frequently used concepts, and so it’s not surprising that I have seen so many misconceptions about this subject. To clear such misconceptions, I have previously written the article SQL SERVER – The Limitations of the Views – Eleven and more…. I also wrote a follow up article wherein I demonstrated that without even creating index on the basic table, the query on the View will not use the View. You can read about this demonstration over here: SQL SERVER – Index Created on View not Used Often – Limitation of the View 12. I promised in that post that I would also write an article where I would demonstrate the condition where the Index will be used. I got many responses suggesting that I can do that with using NOEXPAND; I agree. I have already written about this in my original summary article. Here is a way for you to see how Index created on View can be utilized. We will do the following steps on this exercise: Create a Table Create a View Create Index On View Write SELECT with ORDER BY on View USE tempdb GO IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.views WHERE OBJECT_ID = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[SampleView]')) DROP VIEW [dbo].[SampleView] GO IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects WHERE OBJECT_ID = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[mySampleTable]') AND TYPE IN (N'U')) DROP TABLE [dbo].[mySampleTable] GO -- Create SampleTable CREATE TABLE mySampleTable (ID1 INT, ID2 INT, SomeData VARCHAR(100)) INSERT INTO mySampleTable (ID1,ID2,SomeData) SELECT TOP 100000 ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY o1.name), ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY o2.name), o2.name FROM sys.all_objects o1 CROSS JOIN sys.all_objects o2 GO -- Create View CREATE VIEW SampleView WITH SCHEMABINDING AS SELECT ID1,ID2,SomeData FROM dbo.mySampleTable GO -- Create Index on View CREATE UNIQUE CLUSTERED INDEX [IX_ViewSample] ON [dbo].[SampleView] ( ID2 ASC ) GO -- Select from view SELECT ID1,ID2,SomeData FROM SampleView ORDER BY ID2 GO When we check the execution plan for this , we find it clearly that the Index created on the View is utilized. ORDER BY clause uses the Index created on the View. I hope this makes the puzzle simpler on how the Index is used on the View. Again, I strongly recommend reading my earlier series about the limitations of the Views found here: SQL SERVER – The Limitations of the Views – Eleven and more…. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Optimization, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL View, T SQL, Technology

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• SQL SERVER – Challenge – Puzzle – Usage of FAST Hint

  - by pinaldave

  I was recently working with various SQL Server Hints. After working for a day on various hints, I realize that for one hint, I am not able to come up with good example. The hint is FAST. Let us look at the definition of the FAST hint from the Book On-Line. FAST number_rows Specifies that the query is optimized for fast retrieval of the first number_rows. This is a nonnegative integer. After the first number_rows are returned, the query continues execution and produces its full result set. Now the question is in what condition this hint can be useful. I have tried so many different combination, I have found this hint does not make much performance difference, infect I did not notice any change in time taken to load the resultset. I noticed that this hint does not change number of the page read to return result. Now when there is difference in performance is expected because if you read the what FAST hint does is that it only returns first few results FAST – which does not mean there will be difference in performance. I also understand that this hint gives the guidance/suggestions/hint to query optimizer that there are only 100 rows are in expected resultset. This tricking the optimizer to think there are only 100 rows and which (may) lead to render different execution plan than the one which it would have taken in normal case (without hint). Again, not necessarily, this will happen always. Now if you read above discussion, you will find that basic understanding of the hint is very clear to me but I still feel that I am missing something. Here are my questions: 1) In what condition this hint can be useful? What is the case, when someone want to see first few rows early because my experience suggests that when first few rows are rendered remaining rows are rendered as well. 2) Is there any way application can retrieve the fast fetched rows from SQL Server? 3) Do you use this hint in your application? Why? When? and How? Here are few examples I have attempted during the my experiment and found there is no difference in execution plan except its estimated number of rows are different leading optimizer think that the cost is less but in reality that is not the case. USE AdventureWorks GO SET STATISTICS IO ON SET STATISTICS TIME ON GO --------------------------------------------- -- Table Scan with Fast Hint SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail GO SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail OPTION (FAST 100) GO --------------------------------------------- -- Table Scan with Where on Index Key SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE OrderQty = 14 GO SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE OrderQty = 14 OPTION (FAST 100) GO --------------------------------------------- -- Table Scan with Where on Index Key SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderDetailID < 1000 GO SELECT * FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail WHERE SalesOrderDetailID < 1000 OPTION (FAST 100) GO Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Social Media Series – LinkedIn and Professional Profile

  - by pinaldave

  Pinal Dave on LinkedIn! It seems like a few year ago, there was a big “boom” in social media websites.  All of a sudden there were so many sites to choose from.  MySpace or Orkut?  Blogging websites for your business or a LinkedIn account?  The nature of the internet is to always be changing, but I believe that out of this huge growth of websites, a few have come to stay.  Facebook is obviously the leader in social media networking, especially for your personal life.  Blogging is great, but it can be more of a way to get your ideas out there, rather than a place for people to connect to you professionally.  If you want to have a professional “face” on the internet, LinkedIn is the way to go. LinkedIn is best explained as “professional Facebook.”  This is simplifying things a little bit too much, but it is certainly a website where you link up with professional contacts, so that others can see where you have worked, who you have worked with, and what projects you have done.  This is a much better place for professional contacts to find you than someplace like Facebook, where all they will see is your face and maybe picture of you at a birthday party or something like that! Because so much of my SQL Server life is conducted on the internet, especially on my blog, I felt that it would be a good idea to have a well-maintained LinkedIn web page as well, so that if anyone is curious about me and my credentials they can quickly and easily find me and see that I am for real, and not someone pretending to know a lot about SQL Server. My linked in profile is www.linkedin.com/in/pinaldave.  I keep all my professional information here, and I update it as often as possible.  Feel free to come find me, especially if you would like to “link up” and share professional information.  The technology world is becoming more and more interconnected, and more and more international.  I feel that it is very important to stay linked up virtually, because so many of us are so far apart physically. I try to keep very connected with my LinkedIn profile.  I let anyone connect with me, and I read updates from the professional world very often.  I keep this profile updated, but do not post things about my personal life or anything that I might put on Twitter, for example.  I also include my e-mail address here, if you would like to contact me professionally.  This is the best place for me to conduct business. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Social Media

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• SQL SERVER – Weekend Project – Visiting Friend’s Company – Koenig Solutions

  - by pinaldave

  I have decided to do some interesting experiments every weekend and share it next week as a weekend project on the blog. Many times our business lives and personal lives are very separate, however this post will talk about one instance where my two lives connect. This weekend I visited my friend’s company. My friend owns Koenig, so of course I am very interested so see that they are doing well.  I have been very impressed this year, as they have expanded into multiple cities and are offering more and more classes about Business Intelligence, Project Management, networking, and much more. Koenig Solutions originally were a company that focused on training IT professionals – from topics like databases and even English language courses.  As the company grew more popular, Koenig began their blog to keep fans updated, and gradually have added more and more courses. I am very happy for my friend’s success, but as a technology enthusiast I am also pleased with Koenig Solutions’ success.  Whenever anyone in our field improves, the field as a whole does better.  Koenig offers high quality classes on a variety of topics at a variety of levels, so anyone can benefit from browsing this blog. I am a big fan of technology (obviously), and I feel blessed to have gotten in on the “ground floor,” even though there are some people out there who think technology has advanced as far as possible – I believe they will be proven wrong.  And that is why I think companies like Koenig Solutions are so important – they are providing training and support in a quickly growing field, and providing job skills in this tough economy. I believe this particular post really highlights how I, and Koenig, feel about the IT industry.  It is quickly expanding, and job opportunities are sure to abound – but how can the average person get started in this exciting field?  This post emphasizes that knowledge is power – know what interests you in the IT field, get an education, and continue your training even after you’ve gotten your foot in the door. Koenig Solutions provides what I feel is one of the most important services in the modern world – in person training.  They obviously offer many online courses, but you can also set up physical, face-to-face training through their website.  As I mentioned before, they offer a wide variety of classes that cater to nearly every IT skill you can think of.  If you have more specific needs, they also offer one of the best English language training courses.  English is turning into the language of technology, so these courses can ensure that you are keeping up the pace. Koenig Solutions and I agree about how important training can be, and even better – they provide some of the best training around.  We share ideals and I am very happy see the success of my friend. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Developer Training

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• SQL SERVER – Dedicated Access Control for SQL Server Express Edition – An error occurred while obtaining the dedicated administrator connection (DAC) port.

  - by pinaldave

  Recently I had faced very interesting situation. Due to some reason we were not able to login into the production server for one of client. The reason for the same was that server was very busy, we had to login into the system and bring server to normal situation. When all the attempts failed, I decided to login using Dedicated Administrator Connection (DAC). However when I attempted to connect using DAC it threw following error for me. C:\Users\pinald>sqlcmd -A -d master -S .\SQLEXPRESS Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 11.0 : SQL Server Network Interfaces: An error occurred while obtaining the dedicated administrator connection (DAC) port. Make sure that SQL Browser is running, or check the error log for t he port number [xFFFFFFFF]. .Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 11.0 : Login timeout expired.Sqlcmd: Error: Microsoft SQL Server Native Client 11.0 : A network-related or instance-specific error has occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. Server is not found or not accessible. Check if instance name is correct and if SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. For more information see SQL Server Books Online. I was bit taken a back as I knew that my commands are correct to login and if DAC does not work, there should be some serious reason for it. When inquired further about the SQL Server version I learned that it was SQL Server Express version deployed. To conserve resources, SQL Server Express does not listen on the DAC port. There is an additional step to be done if SQL Server Express has to be used with DAC. Enable TRACEFLAG on SQL Server Express will enable the connection by DAC possible. Here is the quick methods how one can enable DAC on SQL Server Express. Go to Start >> All Program >>Microsoft SQL Server (your version) >> Configuration Tools >> SQL Server Configuration Manager. Click on SQL Server Services >> Select your SQL Server Express version >> Right Click Properties >> select Startup Parameters Once on the Startup Parameter add the Startup parameter which is TRACEFLAG -T7806. Click on OK and RESTART SQL Server Express edition. Now once again try to connect to SQL Server Express edition and it will work just fine. This is absolutely documented method on BOL and SQL Server Express needs to be restarted. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Error Messages, SQL Interview Questions and Answers, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQL Server Express

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• SQL SERVER – ColumnStore Index – Batch Mode vs Row Mode

  - by pinaldave

  What do you do when you are in a hurry and hear someone say things which you do not agree or is wrong? Well, let me tell you what I do or what I recently did. I was walking by and heard someone mentioning “Columnstore Index are really great as they are using Batch Mode which makes them seriously fast.” While I was passing by and I heard this statement my first reaction was I thought Columnstore Index can use both – Batch Mode and Row Mode. I stopped by even though I was in a hurry and asked the person if he meant that Columnstore indexes are seriously fast because they use Batch Mode all the time or Batch Mode is one of the reasons for Columnstore Index to be faster. He responded that Columnstore Indexes can run only in Batch Mode. However, I do not like to confront anybody without hearing their complete story. Honestly, I like to do information sharing and avoid confronting as much as possible. There are always ways to communicate the same positively. Well, this is what I did, I quickly pull up my earlier article on Columnstore Index and copied the script to SQL Server Management Studio. I created two versions of the script. 1) Very Large Table 2) Reasonably Small Table. I a query which uses columnstore index on both of the versions. I found very interesting result of the my tests. I saved my tests and sent it to the person who mentioned about that Columnstore Indexes are using Batch Mode only. He immediately acknowledged that indeed he was incorrect in saying that Columnstore Index uses only Batch Mode. What really caught my attention is that he also thanked me for sending him detail email instead of just having argument where he and I both were standing in the corridor and neither have no way to prove any theory. Here is the screenshots of the both the scenarios. 1) Columnstore Index using Batch Mode 2) Columnstore Index using Row Mode Here is the logic behind when Columnstore Index uses Batch Mode and when it uses Row Mode. A batch typically represents about 1000 rows of data. Batch mode processing also uses algorithms that are optimized for the multicore CPUs and increased memory throughput.  Batch mode processing spreads metadata access costs and overhead over all the rows in a batch.  Batch mode processing operates on compressed data when possible leading superior performance. Here is one last point – Columnstore Index can use Batch Mode or Row Mode but Batch Mode processing is only available in Columnstore Index. I hope this statement truly sums up the whole concept. 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 – guest User and MSDB Database – Enable guest User on MSDB Database

  - by pinaldave

  I have written a few articles recently on the subject of guest account. Here’s a quick list of these articles: SQL SERVER – Disable Guest Account – Serious Security Issue SQL SERVER – Force Removing User from Database – Fix: Error: Could not drop login ‘test’ as the user is currently logged in. SQL SERVER – Detecting guest User Permissions – guest User Access Status One of the advices which I gave in all the three blog posts was: Disable the guest user in the user-created database. Additionally, I have mentioned that one should let the user account become enabled in MSDB database. I got many questions asking if there is any specific reason why this should be kept enabled, questions like, “What is the reason that MSDB database needs guest user?” Honestly, I did not know that the concept of the guest user will create so much interest in the readers. So now let’s turn this blog post into questions and answers format. Q: What will happen if the guest user is disabled in MSDB database? A:  Lots of bad things will happen. Error 916 - Logins can connect to this instance of SQL Server but they do not have specific permissions in a database to receive the permissions of the guest user. Q: How can I determine if the guest user is enabled or disabled for any specific database? A: There are many ways to do this. Make sure that you run each of these methods with the context of the database. For an example for msdb database, you can run the following code: USE msdb; 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' There are many other methods to detect the guest user status. Read them here: Detecting guest User Permissions – guest User Access Status Q: What is the default status of the guest user account in database? A: Enabled in master, TempDb, and MSDB. Disabled in model database. Q: Why is the default status of the guest user disabled in model database? A: It is not recommended to enable the guest in user database as it can introduce serious security threat. It can seriously damage the database if configured incorrectly. Read more here: Disable Guest Account – Serious Security Issue Q: How to disable guest user? A: REVOKE CONNECT FROM guest Q: How to enable guest user? A: GRANT CONNECT TO guest Did I miss any critical question in the list? Please leave your question as a comment and I will add it to this list. 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 – Log File Growing for Model Database – model Database Log File Grew Too Big

  - by pinaldave

  After reading my earlier article SQL SERVER – master Database Log File Grew Too Big, I received an email recently from another reader asking why does the log file of model database grow every day when he is not carrying out any operation in the model database. As per the email, he is absolutely sure that he is doing nothing on his model database; he had used policy management to catch any T-SQL operation in the model database and there were none. This was indeed surprising to me. I sent a request to access to his server, which he happily agreed for and within a min, we figured out the issue. He was taking the backup of the model database every day taking the database backup every night. When I explained the same to him, he did not believe it; so I quickly wrote down the following script. The results before and after the usage of the script were very clear. What is a model database? The model database is used as the template for all databases created on an instance of SQL Server. Any object you create in the model database will be automatically created in subsequent user database created on the server. NOTE: Do not run this in production environment. During the demo, the model database was in full recovery mode and only full backup operation was performed (no log backup). Before Backup Script Backup Script in loop DECLARE @FLAG INT SET @FLAG = 1 WHILE(@FLAG < 1000) BEGIN BACKUP DATABASE [model] TO  DISK = N'D:\model.bak' SET @FLAG = @FLAG + 1 END GO After Backup Script Why did this happen? The model database was in full recovery mode and taking full backup is logged operation. As there was no log backup and only full backup was performed on the model database, the size of the log file kept growing. Resolution: Change the backup mode of model database from “Full Recovery” to “Simple Recovery.”. Take full backup of the model database “only” when you change something in the model database. Let me know if you have encountered a situation like this? If so, how did you resolve it? It will be interesting to know about your experience. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Backup and Restore, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• SQLAuthority News – Social Media Series – Facebook and Google+

  - by pinaldave

  Pinal on Facebook and Google+ Unless you have been living under a rock for the last few years, you know that Facebook is the first and last word in social networking.  Everyone has a Facebook account – from your local store to the 10-year old school child.  Because of this ability to be completely connected to everyone in your entire life, keeping a Facebook page for a professional business can be tricky. For the most part, I use Facebook strictly for personal matters.  I am friends only with friends I know in the “real” world (as opposed to my “virtual” online friends) and with family, of course.  I chat with friends on Facebook and upload personal photos to share with family who are far away.  I hope this doesn’t make readers from my professional life feel left out.  You can follow me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SQLAuth, but you should know that Twitter is probably the better place to find updates about SQL Server and my blog (you can follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pinaldave). There are definitely businesses who keep in touch with their clients using Facebook, but I felt the need to keep my personal and professional life separate.  That’s why I was so excited to find out Google was coming out with their own social media site, Google+.  On Google+ I post some personal things as well, and there is a lot of overlap between what I put on Facebook and what I put on Google+.  But since Google+ has become so popular amongst the “techie” crowd, I have found that it’s a good place to follow some of the stars of the Microsoft world, like Scott Hanselman and Buck Woody. If you are also a member of Google+, I am looking to expand my circle there.  You can find me at https://plus.google.com/104990425207662620918/posts.  Google+ is the newest face in the social media world, and it still hasn’t found a good footing between personal and professional yet.  That’s why I felt it would be a good idea to jump on the site early and help them determine which way to go.  Maybe someday it will be a place where business and personal can mix. 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: Social Media

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• SQL SERVER – Validating Spatial Object as NULL using IsNULL

  - by pinaldave

  Follow up questions are the most fun part of writing a blog post. Earlier I wrote about SQL SERVER – Validating Spatial Object with IsValidDetailed Function and today I received a follow up question on the same subject. The question was mainly about how NULL is handled by spatial functions. Well, NULL is NULL. It is very easy to work with NULL. There are two different ways to validate if the passed in the value is NULL or not. 1) Using IsNULL Function IsNULL function validates if the object is null or not, if object is not null it will return you value 0 and if object is NULL it will return you the value NULL. DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = 'Polygon((2 2, 3 3, 4 4, 5 5, 6 6, 2 2))' SELECT @p.ISNULL ObjIsNull GO DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = NULL SELECT @p.ISNULL ObjIsNull GO 2) Using IsValidDetailed Function IsValidateDetails function validates if the object is valid or not. If the object is valid it will return 24400: Valid but if the object is not valid it will give message with the error number. In case object is NULL it will return the value as NULL. DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = 'Polygon((2 2, 3 3, 4 4, 5 5, 6 6, 2 2))' SELECT @p.IsValidDetailed() IsValid GO DECLARE @p GEOMETRY = NULL SELECT @p.IsValidDetailed() IsValid GO When to use what? Now you can see that there are two different ways to validate the NULL values. I personally have no preference about using one over another. However, there is one clear difference between them. In case of the IsValidDetailed Function the return value is nvarchar(max) and it is not always possible to compare the value with nvarchar(max). Whereas the ISNULL function returns the bit value of 0 when the object is null and it is easy to determine if the object is null or not in the case of ISNULL function. Additionally, ISNULL function does not check if the object is valid or not and will return the value 0 if the object is not NULL. Now you know even though either of the function can be used in place of each other both have very specific use case. Use the one which fits your business case. 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: Spatial Database, SQL Spatial

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• SQLAuthority News – Reliving TechEd with Vinod Kumar at Bangalore User Groups

  - by pinaldave

  TechEd India 2012 was held in Bangalore last March 21 to 23, 2012. Just like every year, this event is bigger, grander and inspiring. Here is my blog post reviewing the event SQLAuthority News – #TechEdIn – TechEd India 2012 Memories and Photos. For me this is family event – I get to meet my friends who are dear as my family. I like to call User Groups as family too. Family shares life’s personal happiness and experience – the same way User Group shares professional experiences and quite often UG members become just like family member. When I learned that follower user group together building up a unique event I was pretty excited to learn who is going to be speaker for the event. BDotNet.in – Bangalore .NET Usergroup BITPro.in – Bangalore ITPro Usergroup It was indeed joy when I learned that presenter will be Vinod Kumar, who is integral part of user groups and hardcore SQL Server enthusiast. Vinod Kumar is going to present on following two sessions which are both focused on internals of the Windows and SQL Server. Understanding Windows with SysInternals Tools – This session will cover various tools from usage of Memory, x86 architecture, x64, WOW mode, Page faults, Virtual Memory mapping, OOM scenario, Perf Tool, PAL tool, Logman and more. Peeling the Onion: SQL Server Internals Demystified – This session will cover advanced disk formats, SQL Server 2012 security changes, memory changes, indirect checkPoint and more. I am very excited as this time I will get opportunity to sit in front rows (as I will be reaching there to get best possible position) and learn. I am looking forward to the event and I hope you will join us as well. Event Details: Date: Saturday, April 7, 2012 (10:30am until 1:30pm) Venue: Microsoft, Domlur, Bangalore. Event Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/139444029517882/ This session is FREE for all and everybody and anybody can walk in. Community Blog Posts Here are few of the blog post written by the community on this subject. Vinod Kumar on Reliving #TechEdIn at Blr UG Manas Dash on Reliving TechEd India 2012 with Vinod Kumar Sudeepta Ganguly on SysInternals n SQLInternals with Vinod Kumar Lohith Re Live TechEd India 2012 with Vinod Kumar  Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRw-p4mahLU Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Author Visit, T SQL, Technology, Video

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• SQLAuthority News – Social Media Series – YouTube and Movies

  - by pinaldave

  Pinal Dave on Youtube! Some people might not know it, but YouTube is actually more than a place to watch funny cat videos and people singing their favorite pop songs – it’s actually a social media site.  When you are a member of YouTube you can follow people who regularly post videos, post video responses of your own, and even gain a following for your own videos.  I myself was not aware of YouTube’s potential until recently, when I started to make SQL Server in Sixty Seconds videos. YouTube is very different than other types of social media, and a big factor is that anyone can look at videos without being a member.  Unlike other social media sites, like Twitter and Facebook, you have to have an account in order to participate.  But on YouTube you are even more anonymous.  To make and post videos you need an account, but anyone who comes to the site can look at what you’ve made without signing in or leaving any trace of having seen your material.  This makes YouTube very anonymous and hard to track. However, we should not overlook the power of video on the internet.  Over the past few months I have been making SQL Server in Sixty Second videos and have come to love it.  It is very exciting to be able to talk about a subject that mostly I write about, and for many people video is far more accessible and easy to understand.   I have really enjoyed diving into something new, and would love to have more people check out these videos and give me feedback.  You can find me at www.youtube.com/user/pinaldave. I am very excited with all the possibilities on YouTube and it might just be the technology evangelist in me, but I would love for other people to discover how fun and exciting this site can be, too.  Don’t think of it as just a place to find funny videos and waste a few minutes of your time, think of it as a place to learn and interact with interesting people.  Come watch a few of my videos, while you’re there.  Remember, everything is free and there are no contracts to sign, but I hope that you get as excited as I am and join up.  We need more people creating good content on this site! Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Social Media

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