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  • SQL Server source control from Visual Studio

    - by David Atkinson
    Developers have long since had to context switch between two IDEs, Visual Studio for application code development and SQL Server Management Studio for database development. While this is accepted, especially given the richness of the database development feature set in SSMS, loading a separate tool can seem a little overkill. This is where SQL Connect comes in. This is an add-in to Visual Studio that provides a connected development experience for the SQL Server developer. Connected database development involves modifying a development sandbox database, as opposed to offline development, where SQL text files are modified independently of the database. One of the main complaints of Data Dude (VS DBPro) is that it enforces the offline approach. This gripe is what SQL Connect addresses. If you don't already use SQL Source Control, you can get up and running with SQL Connect by adding a new project to your Visual Studio solution as follows: Then choose your existing development database and you're ready to go. If you already use SQL Source Control, you will need to link SQL Connect to your existing database scripts folder repository, so SQL Connect and SQL Source Control can be used collaboratively (note that SQL Source Control v.3.0.9.18 or later is required). Locate the repository (this can be found in the Setup tab in SQL Source Control). .and create a working folder for it (here I'm using TortoiseSVN). Back in Visual Studio, locate the SQL Connect panel (in the View menu if it hasn't auto loaded) and select Import SQL Source Control project Locate your working folder and click Import. This creates a Red Gate database project under your solution: From here you can modify your development database, and manage your changes in source control. To associate your development database with the project, right click on the project node, select Properties, set the database and Save. Now you're ready to make some changes. Locate the object you'd like to modify in the Solution Explorer, and double click it to invoke a query window or table designer. You also have the option to edit the creation SQL directly using Edit SQL File in Project. Keeping the development database and Visual Studio project in sync is as easy as clicking on a button. One you've made your change, you can use whichever mechanism you choose to commit to source control. Here I'm using the free open-source AnkhSVN to integrate Subversion with Visual Studio. Maintaining your database in a Visual Studio solution means that you can commit database changes and application code changes in the same changeset. This is desirable if you have continuous integration set up as you want to ensure that all files related to a change are committed atomically, so you avoid an interim "broken build". More discussion on SQL Connect and its benefits can be found in the following article on Simple Talk: No More Disconnected SQL Development in Visual Studio The SQL Connect project team is currently assessing the backlog for the next development effort, and they'd appreciate your feature suggestions, as well as your votes on their suggestions site: http://redgate.uservoice.com/forums/140800-sql-connect-for-visual-studio- A 28-day free trial of SQL Connect is available from the Red Gate website. Technorati Tags: SQL Server

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  • Come play in the SQL Server 2008 R2 Hosted Trial virtual lab!

    - by ssqa.net
    In continuation to SQL_Server_2008_R2 release date announcement you can access a complete, integrated Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, SharePoint 2010, and Office 2010 environment… right from your desktop. SQL Server 2008 R2 Hosted Trial Our Hosted Trial makes it easy for you to experience new features without any need for configuration or additional work. Register now to try out up to seven labs: SQL Server 2008 R2 – Multi Server Management SQL Server 2008 R2 – PowerPivot SQL Server 2008 R2 – Reporting...(read more)

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  • Linq To SQL: Behaviour for table field which is NotNull and having Default value or binding

    - by kaushalparik27
    I found this something interesting while wandering over community which I would like to share. The post is whole about: DBML is not considering the table field's "Default value or Binding" setting which is a NotNull. I mean the field which can not be null but having default value set needs to be set IsDbGenerated = true in DBML file explicitly.Consider this situation: There is a simple tblEmployee table with below structure: The fields are simple. EmployeeID is a Primary Key with Identity Specification = True with Identity Seed = 1 to autogenerate numeric value for this field. EmployeeName and their EmailAddress to store in rest of 2 fields. And the last one is "DateAdded" with DateTime datatype which doesn't allow NULL but having Default Value/Binding with "GetDate()". That means if we don't pass any value to this field then SQL will insert current date in "DateAdded" field.So, I start with a new website, add a DBML file and dropped the said table to generate LINQ To SQL context class. Finally, I write a simple code snippet to insert data into the tblEmployee table; BUT, I am not passing any value to "DateAdded" field. Because I am considering SQL Server's "Default Value or Binding (GetDate())" setting to this field and understand that SQL will insert current date to this field.        using (TestDatabaseDataContext context = new TestDatabaseDataContext())        {            tblEmployee tblEmpObjet = new tblEmployee();            tblEmpObjet.EmployeeName = "KaushaL";            tblEmpObjet.EmployeeEmailAddress = "[email protected]";            context.tblEmployees.InsertOnSubmit(tblEmpObjet);            context.SubmitChanges();        }Here comes the twist when application give me below error:  This is something not expecting! From the error it clearly depicts that LINQ is passing NULL value to "DateAdded" Field while according to my understanding it should respect Sql Server's "Default value or Binding" setting for this field. A bit googling and I found very interesting related to this problem.When we set Primary Key to any field with "Identity Specification" Property set to true; DBML set one important property "IsDbGenerated=true" for this field. BUT, when we set "Default Value or Biding" property for some field; we need to explicitly tell the DBML/LINQ to let it know that this field is having default binding at DB side that needs to be respected if I don't pass any value. So, the solution is: You need to explicitly set "IsDbGenerated=true" for such field to tell the LINQ that the field is having default value or binding at Sql Server side so, please don't worry if i don't pass any value for it.You can select the field and set this property from property window in DBML Designer file or write the property in DBML.Designer.cs file directly. I have attached a working example with required table script with this post here. I hope this would be helpful for someone hunting for the same. Happy Discovery!

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  • Keeping an Eye on Your Storage

    - by Fatherjack
    There are plenty of resources that advise you about looking for signs that your storage hardware is having problems. SQL Server Alerts for 823, 824 and 825 are covered here by Paul Randall of SQL Skills: http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/a-little-known-sign-of-impending-doom-error-825/ and here by me: https://www.simple-talk.com/blogs/2011/06/27/alerts-are-good-arent-they/. Now until very recently I wasn’t aware that there was a different way to track the 823 + 824 errors. It was by complete chance that I happened to be searching about in the msdb database when I found the suspect_pages table. Running a query against it I got zero rows. This, as it turns out is a good thing. Highlighting the table name and pressing F1 got me nowhere – Is it just me or does Books Online fail to load properly for no obvious reason sometimes? So I typed the table name into the search bar and got my local version of http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174425.aspx. From that we get the following description: Contains one row per page that failed with a minor 823 error or an 824 error. Pages are listed in this table because they are suspected of being bad, but they might actually be fine. When a suspect page is repaired, its status is updated in the event_type column. So, in the table we would, on healthy hardware, expect to see zero rows but on disks that are having problems the event_type column would show us what is going on. Where there are suspect pages on the disk the rows would have an event_type value of 1, 2 or 3, where those suspect pages have been restored, repaired or deallocated by DBCC then the value would be 4, 5 or 7. Having this table means that we can set up SQL Monitor to check the status of our hardware as we can create a custom metric based on the query below: USE [msdb] go SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [dbo].[suspect_pages] AS sp All we need to do is set the metric to collect this value and set an alert to email when the value is not 1 and we are then able to let SQL Monitor take care of our storage. Note that the suspect_pages table does not have any updates concerning Error 825 which the links at the top of the page cover in more detail. I would suggest that you set SQL Monitor to alert on the suspect_pages table in addition to other taking other measures to look after your storage hardware and not have it as your only precaution. Microsoft actually pass ownership and administration of the suspect_pages table over to the database administrator (Manage the suspect_pages Table (SQL Server)) and in a surprising move (to me at least) advise DBAs to actively update and archive data in it. The table will only ever contain a maximum of 1000 rows and once full, new rows will not be added. Keeping an eye on this table is pretty important, although In my opinion, if you get to 1000 rows in this table and are not already waiting for new disks to be added to your server you are doing something wrong but if you have 1000 rows in there then you need to move data out quickly because you may be missing some important events on your server.

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  • can't connect to Sql Sever Management Express 2012

    - by Rare-Man
    i installed Sql Sever Management Express 2012 , but when i try to connect in Sql management studio enviroment , i have this error . TITLE: Connect to Server Cannot connect to .. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server) (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 2) For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft%20SQL%20Server&EvtSrc=MSSQLServer&EvtID=2&LinkId=20476 The system cannot find the file specified BUTTONS: OK ................................................................................... and in during installion i dont have option for select cluster !! this is my SQL Server Configuration Manager , my sql server service is empty ... And when get Remove a Failover Cluster Node , this error happened . http://oi57.tinypic.com/2lrvat.jpg

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  • Lync using SQL 2008 R2 SP1 - Publish Topology error

    - by EKS
    Error that shows in the web page opened by the Topology builder: Error: An error occurred: "Microsoft.Rtc.Common.Data.SqlConnectionException" "A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)" Looking in the log file: ( I assume this is the acutal error making it STOP) Installed SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility version is 8.05.1054 Error: SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility is not installed or its version is not high enough. SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatability SP2 or higher must be installed. I have installed SQLServer2005_BC_x64.msi from MS, and cant seem to find this SP2 version. SQL server is a 2008 R2 SP1. I have also tested with a 2008 SP3 SQL server same error. Named pippes output via ( OSQL /L) SQL-2008-1 SQL2

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  • SQL connection is too slow

    - by user66905
    We have a business web application in ASP.NET + SQL Server 2008. In the beginning, SQL Server and IIS were on the same machine. Now we bought another machine. Current configuration is IIS machine plus SQL Server machine, and they are connected by a 1gb LAN connection. With this configuration our web application is slower than before. Max bandwidth is 1-2% of network, about 15mbps. When we use another threads to the same SQL Server from the same IIS machine, network use is higher. So this is no problem with SQL Server. Ho we can make higher bandwidth for this SQL connection? Specs: .Net 3.5 SQL Server 2008 Standard file transfer can use 100% of LAN SQL connection by TCP/IP protocol SQL logins Pool tested with enable and

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  • The blocking nature of aggregates

    - by Rob Farley
    I wrote a post recently about how query tuning isn’t just about how quickly the query runs – that if you have something (such as SSIS) that is consuming your data (and probably introducing a bottleneck), then it might be more important to have a query which focuses on getting the first bit of data out. You can read that post here.  In particular, we looked at two operators that could be used to ensure that a query returns only Distinct rows. and The Sort operator pulls in all the data, sorts it (discarding duplicates), and then pushes out the remaining rows. The Hash Match operator performs a Hashing function on each row as it comes in, and then looks to see if it’s created a Hash it’s seen before. If not, it pushes the row out. The Sort method is quicker, but has to wait until it’s gathered all the data before it can do the sort, and therefore blocks the data flow. But that was my last post. This one’s a bit different. This post is going to look at how Aggregate functions work, which ties nicely into this month’s T-SQL Tuesday. I’ve frequently explained about the fact that DISTINCT and GROUP BY are essentially the same function, although DISTINCT is the poorer cousin because you have less control over it, and you can’t apply aggregate functions. Just like the operators used for Distinct, there are different flavours of Aggregate operators – coming in blocking and non-blocking varieties. The example I like to use to explain this is a pile of playing cards. If I’m handed a pile of cards and asked to count how many cards there are in each suit, it’s going to help if the cards are already ordered. Suppose I’m playing a game of Bridge, I can easily glance at my hand and count how many there are in each suit, because I keep the pile of cards in order. Moving from left to right, I could tell you I have four Hearts in my hand, even before I’ve got to the end. By telling you that I have four Hearts as soon as I know, I demonstrate the principle of a non-blocking operation. This is known as a Stream Aggregate operation. It requires input which is sorted by whichever columns the grouping is on, and it will release a row as soon as the group changes – when I encounter a Spade, I know I don’t have any more Hearts in my hand. Alternatively, if the pile of cards are not sorted, I won’t know how many Hearts I have until I’ve looked through all the cards. In fact, to count them, I basically need to put them into little piles, and when I’ve finished making all those piles, I can count how many there are in each. Because I don’t know any of the final numbers until I’ve seen all the cards, this is blocking. This performs the aggregate function using a Hash Match. Observant readers will remember this from my Distinct example. You might remember that my earlier Hash Match operation – used for Distinct Flow – wasn’t blocking. But this one is. They’re essentially doing a similar operation, applying a Hash function to some data and seeing if the set of values have been seen before, but before, it needs more information than the mere existence of a new set of values, it needs to consider how many of them there are. A lot is dependent here on whether the data coming out of the source is sorted or not, and this is largely determined by the indexes that are being used. If you look in the Properties of an Index Scan, you’ll be able to see whether the order of the data is required by the plan. A property called Ordered will demonstrate this. In this particular example, the second plan is significantly faster, but is dependent on having ordered data. In fact, if I force a Stream Aggregate on unordered data (which I’m doing by telling it to use a different index), a Sort operation is needed, which makes my plan a lot slower. This is all very straight-forward stuff, and information that most people are fully aware of. I’m sure you’ve all read my good friend Paul White (@sql_kiwi)’s post on how the Query Optimizer chooses which type of aggregate function to apply. But let’s take a look at SQL Server Integration Services. SSIS gives us a Aggregate transformation for use in Data Flow Tasks, but it’s described as Blocking. The definitive article on Performance Tuning SSIS uses Sort and Aggregate as examples of Blocking Transformations. I’ve just shown you that Aggregate operations used by the Query Optimizer are not always blocking, but that the SSIS Aggregate component is an example of a blocking transformation. But is it always the case? After all, there are plenty of SSIS Performance Tuning talks out there that describe the value of sorted data in Data Flow Tasks, describing the IsSorted property that can be set through the Advanced Editor of your Source component. And so I set about testing the Aggregate transformation in SSIS, to prove for sure whether providing Sorted data would let the Aggregate transform behave like a Stream Aggregate. (Of course, I knew the answer already, but it helps to be able to demonstrate these things). A query that will produce a million rows in order was in order. Let me rephrase. I used a query which produced the numbers from 1 to 1000000, in a single field, ordered. The IsSorted flag was set on the source output, with the only column as SortKey 1. Performing an Aggregate function over this (counting the number of rows per distinct number) should produce an additional column with 1 in it. If this were being done in T-SQL, the ordered data would allow a Stream Aggregate to be used. In fact, if the Query Optimizer saw that the field had a Unique Index on it, it would be able to skip the Aggregate function completely, and just insert the value 1. This is a shortcut I wouldn’t be expecting from SSIS, but certainly the Stream behaviour would be nice. Unfortunately, it’s not the case. As you can see from the screenshots above, the data is pouring into the Aggregate function, and not being released until all million rows have been seen. It’s not doing a Stream Aggregate at all. This is expected behaviour. (I put that in bold, because I want you to realise this.) An SSIS transformation is a piece of code that runs. It’s a physical operation. When you write T-SQL and ask for an aggregation to be done, it’s a logical operation. The physical operation is either a Stream Aggregate or a Hash Match. In SSIS, you’re telling the system that you want a generic Aggregation, that will have to work with whatever data is passed in. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be possible to make a sometimes-blocking aggregation component in SSIS. A Custom Component could be created which could detect whether the SortKeys columns of the input matched the Grouping columns of the Aggregation, and either call the blocking code or the non-blocking code as appropriate. One day I’ll make one of those, and publish it on my blog. I’ve done it before with a Script Component, but as Script components are single-use, I was able to handle the data knowing everything about my data flow already. As per my previous post – there are a lot of aspects in which tuning SSIS and tuning execution plans use similar concepts. In both situations, it really helps to have a feel for what’s going on behind the scenes. Considering whether an operation is blocking or not is extremely relevant to performance, and that it’s not always obvious from the surface. In a future post, I’ll show the impact of blocking v non-blocking and synchronous v asynchronous components in SSIS, using some of LobsterPot’s Script Components and Custom Components as examples. When I get that sorted, I’ll make a Stream Aggregate component available for download.

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  • The blocking nature of aggregates

    - by Rob Farley
    I wrote a post recently about how query tuning isn’t just about how quickly the query runs – that if you have something (such as SSIS) that is consuming your data (and probably introducing a bottleneck), then it might be more important to have a query which focuses on getting the first bit of data out. You can read that post here.  In particular, we looked at two operators that could be used to ensure that a query returns only Distinct rows. and The Sort operator pulls in all the data, sorts it (discarding duplicates), and then pushes out the remaining rows. The Hash Match operator performs a Hashing function on each row as it comes in, and then looks to see if it’s created a Hash it’s seen before. If not, it pushes the row out. The Sort method is quicker, but has to wait until it’s gathered all the data before it can do the sort, and therefore blocks the data flow. But that was my last post. This one’s a bit different. This post is going to look at how Aggregate functions work, which ties nicely into this month’s T-SQL Tuesday. I’ve frequently explained about the fact that DISTINCT and GROUP BY are essentially the same function, although DISTINCT is the poorer cousin because you have less control over it, and you can’t apply aggregate functions. Just like the operators used for Distinct, there are different flavours of Aggregate operators – coming in blocking and non-blocking varieties. The example I like to use to explain this is a pile of playing cards. If I’m handed a pile of cards and asked to count how many cards there are in each suit, it’s going to help if the cards are already ordered. Suppose I’m playing a game of Bridge, I can easily glance at my hand and count how many there are in each suit, because I keep the pile of cards in order. Moving from left to right, I could tell you I have four Hearts in my hand, even before I’ve got to the end. By telling you that I have four Hearts as soon as I know, I demonstrate the principle of a non-blocking operation. This is known as a Stream Aggregate operation. It requires input which is sorted by whichever columns the grouping is on, and it will release a row as soon as the group changes – when I encounter a Spade, I know I don’t have any more Hearts in my hand. Alternatively, if the pile of cards are not sorted, I won’t know how many Hearts I have until I’ve looked through all the cards. In fact, to count them, I basically need to put them into little piles, and when I’ve finished making all those piles, I can count how many there are in each. Because I don’t know any of the final numbers until I’ve seen all the cards, this is blocking. This performs the aggregate function using a Hash Match. Observant readers will remember this from my Distinct example. You might remember that my earlier Hash Match operation – used for Distinct Flow – wasn’t blocking. But this one is. They’re essentially doing a similar operation, applying a Hash function to some data and seeing if the set of values have been seen before, but before, it needs more information than the mere existence of a new set of values, it needs to consider how many of them there are. A lot is dependent here on whether the data coming out of the source is sorted or not, and this is largely determined by the indexes that are being used. If you look in the Properties of an Index Scan, you’ll be able to see whether the order of the data is required by the plan. A property called Ordered will demonstrate this. In this particular example, the second plan is significantly faster, but is dependent on having ordered data. In fact, if I force a Stream Aggregate on unordered data (which I’m doing by telling it to use a different index), a Sort operation is needed, which makes my plan a lot slower. This is all very straight-forward stuff, and information that most people are fully aware of. I’m sure you’ve all read my good friend Paul White (@sql_kiwi)’s post on how the Query Optimizer chooses which type of aggregate function to apply. But let’s take a look at SQL Server Integration Services. SSIS gives us a Aggregate transformation for use in Data Flow Tasks, but it’s described as Blocking. The definitive article on Performance Tuning SSIS uses Sort and Aggregate as examples of Blocking Transformations. I’ve just shown you that Aggregate operations used by the Query Optimizer are not always blocking, but that the SSIS Aggregate component is an example of a blocking transformation. But is it always the case? After all, there are plenty of SSIS Performance Tuning talks out there that describe the value of sorted data in Data Flow Tasks, describing the IsSorted property that can be set through the Advanced Editor of your Source component. And so I set about testing the Aggregate transformation in SSIS, to prove for sure whether providing Sorted data would let the Aggregate transform behave like a Stream Aggregate. (Of course, I knew the answer already, but it helps to be able to demonstrate these things). A query that will produce a million rows in order was in order. Let me rephrase. I used a query which produced the numbers from 1 to 1000000, in a single field, ordered. The IsSorted flag was set on the source output, with the only column as SortKey 1. Performing an Aggregate function over this (counting the number of rows per distinct number) should produce an additional column with 1 in it. If this were being done in T-SQL, the ordered data would allow a Stream Aggregate to be used. In fact, if the Query Optimizer saw that the field had a Unique Index on it, it would be able to skip the Aggregate function completely, and just insert the value 1. This is a shortcut I wouldn’t be expecting from SSIS, but certainly the Stream behaviour would be nice. Unfortunately, it’s not the case. As you can see from the screenshots above, the data is pouring into the Aggregate function, and not being released until all million rows have been seen. It’s not doing a Stream Aggregate at all. This is expected behaviour. (I put that in bold, because I want you to realise this.) An SSIS transformation is a piece of code that runs. It’s a physical operation. When you write T-SQL and ask for an aggregation to be done, it’s a logical operation. The physical operation is either a Stream Aggregate or a Hash Match. In SSIS, you’re telling the system that you want a generic Aggregation, that will have to work with whatever data is passed in. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be possible to make a sometimes-blocking aggregation component in SSIS. A Custom Component could be created which could detect whether the SortKeys columns of the input matched the Grouping columns of the Aggregation, and either call the blocking code or the non-blocking code as appropriate. One day I’ll make one of those, and publish it on my blog. I’ve done it before with a Script Component, but as Script components are single-use, I was able to handle the data knowing everything about my data flow already. As per my previous post – there are a lot of aspects in which tuning SSIS and tuning execution plans use similar concepts. In both situations, it really helps to have a feel for what’s going on behind the scenes. Considering whether an operation is blocking or not is extremely relevant to performance, and that it’s not always obvious from the surface. In a future post, I’ll show the impact of blocking v non-blocking and synchronous v asynchronous components in SSIS, using some of LobsterPot’s Script Components and Custom Components as examples. When I get that sorted, I’ll make a Stream Aggregate component available for download.

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  • Be the surgeon

    - by Rob Farley
    It’s a phrase I use often, especially when teaching, and I wish I had realised the concept years earlier. (And of course, fits with this month’s T-SQL Tuesday topic, hosted by Argenis Fernandez) When I’m sick enough to go to the doctor, I see a GP. I used to typically see the same guy, but he’s moved on now. However, when he has been able to roughly identify the area of the problem, I get referred to a specialist, sometimes a surgeon. Being a surgeon requires a refined set of skills. It’s why they often don’t like to be called “Doctor”, and prefer the traditional “Mister” (the history is that the doctor used to make the diagnosis, and then hand the patient over to the person who didn’t have a doctorate, but rather was an expert cutter, typically from a background in butchering). But if you ask the surgeon about the pain you have in your leg sometimes, you’ll get told to ask your GP. It’s not that your surgeon isn’t interested – they just don’t know the answer. IT is the same now. That wasn’t something that I really understood when I got out of university. I knew there was a lot to know about IT – I’d just done an honours degree in it. But I also knew that I’d done well in just about all my subjects, and felt like I had a handle on everything. I got into developing, and still felt that having a good level of understanding about every aspect of IT was a good thing. This got me through for the first six or seven years of my career. But then I started to realise that I couldn’t compete. I’d moved into management, and was spending my days running projects, rather than writing code. The kids were getting older. I’d had a bad back injury (ask anyone with chronic pain how it affects  your ability to concentrate, retain information, etc). But most of all, IT was getting larger. I knew kids without lives who knew more than I did. And I felt like I could easily identify people who were better than me in whatever area I could think of. Except writing queries (this was before I discovered technical communities, and people like Paul White and Dave Ballantyne). And so I figured I’d specialise. I wish I’d done it years earlier. Now, I can tell you plenty of people who are better than me at any area you can pick. But there are also more people who might consider listing me in some of their lists too. If I’d stayed the GP, I’d be stuck in management, and finding that there were better managers than me too. If you’re reading this, SQL could well be your thing. But it might not be either. Your thing might not even be in IT. Find out, and then see if you can be a world-beater at it. But it gets even better, because you can find other people to complement the things that you’re not so good at. My company, LobsterPot Solutions, has six people in it at the moment. I’ve hand-picked those six people, along with the one who quit. The great thing about it is that I’ve been able to pick people who don’t necessarily specialise in the same way as me. I don’t write their T-SQL for them – generally they’re good enough at that themselves. But I’m on-hand if needed. Consider Roger Noble, for example. He’s doing stuff in HTML5 and jQuery that I could never dream of doing to create an amazing HTML5 version of PivotViewer. Or Ashley Sewell, a guy who does project management far better than I do. I could go on. My team is brilliant, and I love them to bits. We’re all surgeons, and when we work together, I like to think we’re pretty good! @rob_farley

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  • Be the surgeon

    - by Rob Farley
    It’s a phrase I use often, especially when teaching, and I wish I had realised the concept years earlier. (And of course, fits with this month’s T-SQL Tuesday topic, hosted by Argenis Fernandez) When I’m sick enough to go to the doctor, I see a GP. I used to typically see the same guy, but he’s moved on now. However, when he has been able to roughly identify the area of the problem, I get referred to a specialist, sometimes a surgeon. Being a surgeon requires a refined set of skills. It’s why they often don’t like to be called “Doctor”, and prefer the traditional “Mister” (the history is that the doctor used to make the diagnosis, and then hand the patient over to the person who didn’t have a doctorate, but rather was an expert cutter, typically from a background in butchering). But if you ask the surgeon about the pain you have in your leg sometimes, you’ll get told to ask your GP. It’s not that your surgeon isn’t interested – they just don’t know the answer. IT is the same now. That wasn’t something that I really understood when I got out of university. I knew there was a lot to know about IT – I’d just done an honours degree in it. But I also knew that I’d done well in just about all my subjects, and felt like I had a handle on everything. I got into developing, and still felt that having a good level of understanding about every aspect of IT was a good thing. This got me through for the first six or seven years of my career. But then I started to realise that I couldn’t compete. I’d moved into management, and was spending my days running projects, rather than writing code. The kids were getting older. I’d had a bad back injury (ask anyone with chronic pain how it affects  your ability to concentrate, retain information, etc). But most of all, IT was getting larger. I knew kids without lives who knew more than I did. And I felt like I could easily identify people who were better than me in whatever area I could think of. Except writing queries (this was before I discovered technical communities, and people like Paul White and Dave Ballantyne). And so I figured I’d specialise. I wish I’d done it years earlier. Now, I can tell you plenty of people who are better than me at any area you can pick. But there are also more people who might consider listing me in some of their lists too. If I’d stayed the GP, I’d be stuck in management, and finding that there were better managers than me too. If you’re reading this, SQL could well be your thing. But it might not be either. Your thing might not even be in IT. Find out, and then see if you can be a world-beater at it. But it gets even better, because you can find other people to complement the things that you’re not so good at. My company, LobsterPot Solutions, has six people in it at the moment. I’ve hand-picked those six people, along with the one who quit. The great thing about it is that I’ve been able to pick people who don’t necessarily specialise in the same way as me. I don’t write their T-SQL for them – generally they’re good enough at that themselves. But I’m on-hand if needed. Consider Roger Noble, for example. He’s doing stuff in HTML5 and jQuery that I could never dream of doing to create an amazing HTML5 version of PivotViewer. Or Ashley Sewell, a guy who does project management far better than I do. I could go on. My team is brilliant, and I love them to bits. We’re all surgeons, and when we work together, I like to think we’re pretty good! @rob_farley

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  • Prevent SQL Injection in Dynamic column names

    - by Mr Shoubs
    I can't get away without writing some dynamic sql conditions in a part of my system (using Postgres). My question is how best to avoid SQL Injection with the method I am currently using. EDIT (Reasoning): There are many of columns in a number of tables (a number which grows (only) and is maintained elsewhere). I need a method of allowing the user to decide which (predefined) column they want to query (and if necessary apply string functions to). The query itself is far too complex for the user to write themselves, nor do they have access to the db. There are 1000's of users with varying requirements and I need to remain as flexible as possible - I shouldn't have to revisit the code unless the main query needs to change - Also, there is no way of knowing what conditions the user will need to use. I have objects (received via web service) that generates a condition (the generation method is below - it isn't perfect yet) for some large sql queries. The _FieldName is user editable (parameter name was, but it didn't need to be) and I am worried it could be an attack vector. I put double quotes (see quoted identifier) around the field name in an attempt to sanitize the string, this way it can never be a key word. I could also look up the field name against a list of fields, but it would be difficult to maintain on a timely basis. Unfortunately the user must enter the condition criteria, I am sure there must be more I can add to the sanatize method? and does quoting the column name make it safe? (my limited testing seems to think so). an example built condition would be "AND upper(brandloaded.make) like 'O%' and upper(brandloaded.make) not like 'OTHERBRAND'" ... Any help or suggestions are appreciated. Public Function GetCondition() As String Dim sb As New Text.StringBuilder 'put quote around the table name in an attempt to prevent some sql injection 'http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/sql-syntax-lexical.html sb.AppendFormat(" {0} ""{1}"" ", _LogicOperator.ToString, _FieldName) Select Case _ConditionOperator Case ConditionOperatorOptions.Equals sb.Append(" = ") ... End Select sb.AppendFormat(" {0} ", Me.UniqueParameterName) 'for parameter Return Me.Sanitize(sb) End Function Private Function Sanitize(ByVal sb As Text.StringBuilder) As String 'compare against a similar blacklist mentioned here: http://forums.asp.net/t/1254125.aspx sb.Replace(";", "") sb.Replace("'", "") sb.Replace("\", "") sb.Replace(Chr(8), "") Return sb.ToString End Function Public ReadOnly Property UniqueParameterName() As String Get Return String.Concat(":" _UniqueIdentifier) End Get End Property

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  • T-SQL generated from LINQ to SQL is missing a where clause

    - by Jimmy W
    I have extended some functionality to a DataContext object (called "CodeLookupAccessDataContext") such that the object exposes some methods to return results of LINQ to SQL queries. Here are the methods I have defined: public List<CompositeSIDMap> lookupCompositeSIDMap(int regionId, int marketId) { var sidGroupId = CompositeSIDGroupMaps.Where(x => x.RegionID.Equals(regionId) && x.MarketID.Equals(marketId)) .Select(x => x.CompositeSIDGroup); IEnumerator<int> sidGroupIdEnum = sidGroupId.GetEnumerator(); if (sidGroupIdEnum.MoveNext()) return lookupCodeInfo<CompositeSIDMap, CompositeSIDMap>(x => x.CompositeSIDGroup.Equals(sidGroupIdEnum.Current), x => x); else return null; } private List<TResult> lookupCodeInfo<T, TResult>(Func<T, bool> compLambda, Func<T, TResult> selectLambda) where T : class { System.Data.Linq.Table<T> dataTable = this.GetTable<T>(); var codeQueryResult = dataTable.Where(compLambda) .Select(selectLambda); List<TResult> codeList = new List<TResult>(); foreach (TResult row in codeQueryResult) codeList.Add(row); return codeList; } CompositeSIDGroupMap and CompositeSIDMap are both tables in our database that are represented as objects in my DataContext object. I wrote the following code to call these methods and display the T-SQL generated after calling these methods: using (CodeLookupAccessDataContext codeLookup = new CodeLookupAccessDataContext()) { codeLookup.Log = Console.Out; List<CompositeSIDMap> compList = codeLookup.lookupCompositeSIDMap(5, 3); } I got the following results in my log after invoking this code: SELECT [t0].[CompositeSIDGroup] FROM [dbo].[CompositeSIDGroupMap] AS [t0] WHERE ([t0].[RegionID] = @p0) AND ([t0].[MarketID] = @p1) -- @p0: Input Int (Size = 0; Prec = 0; Scale = 0) [5] -- @p1: Input Int (Size = 0; Prec = 0; Scale = 0) [3] -- Context: SqlProvider(Sql2005) Model: AttributedMetaModel Build: 3.5.30729.1 SELECT [t0].[PK_CSM], [t0].[CompositeSIDGroup], [t0].[InputSID], [t0].[TargetSID], [t0].[StartOffset], [t0].[EndOffset], [t0].[Scale] FROM [dbo].[CompositeSIDMap] AS [t0] -- Context: SqlProvider(Sql2005) Model: AttributedMetaModel Build: 3.5.30729.1 The first T-SQL statement contains a where clause as specified and returns one column as expected. However, the second statement is missing a where clause and returns all columns, even though I did specify which rows I wanted to view and which columns were of interest. Why is the second T-SQL statement generated the way it is, and what should I do to ensure that I filter out the data according to specifications via the T-SQL? Also note that I would prefer to keep lookupCodeInfo() and especially am interested in keeping it enabled to accept lambda functions for specifying which rows/columns to return.

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  • That’s a wrap! Almost, there’s still one last chance to attend a SQL in the City event in 2012

    - by Red and the Community
    The communities team are back from the SQL in the City multi-city US Tour and we are delighted to have met so many happy SQL Server professionals and Red Gate customers. We set out to run a series of back-to-back events in order to meet, talk to and delight as many SQL Server and Red Gate enthusiasts as possible in 5 different cities in 11 days. We did it! The attendees had a good time too and 99% of them would attend another SQL in the City event in 2013 – so it seems we left an impression. There were a range of topics on the event agenda, ranging from ‘The Whys & Hows of Continuous Integration’, ‘Database Maintenance Essentials’, ‘Red Gate tools – The Complete Lifecycle’, ‘Automated Deployment: Application And Database Releases Without The Headache’, ‘The Ten Commandments of SQL Server Monitoring’ and many more. Videos and slides from the events will be posted to the event website in November, after our last event of 2012. SQL in the City Seattle – November 5 Join us for free and hear from some of the very best names in the SQL Server world. SQL Server MVPs such as; Steve Jones, Grant Fritchey, Brent Ozar, Gail Shaw and more will be presenting at the Bell Harbor conference center for one day only. We’re even taking on board some of the recent attendee-suggestions of how we can improve the events (feedback from the 65% of attendees who came to our US tour events), first off we’re extending the drinks celebration in the evening! Rather than just a 30 minute drink and run, attendees will have up to 2 hours to enjoy free drinks, relax and network in a fantastic environment amongst some really smart like-minded professionals. If you’re interested in expanding your SQL Server knowledge, would like to learn more about Red Gate tools, get yourself registered for the last SQL in the City event of 2012. It’s free, fun and we’re very friendly! I look forward to seeing you in Seattle on Monday November 5. Cheers, Annabel.

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  • "Executing SQL directly; no cursor" error when using SCOPE_IDENTITY/IDENT_CURRENT

    - by Chris
    There wasn't much on google about this error, so I'm askin here. I'm switching a PHP web application from using MySQL to SQL Server 2008 (using ODBC, not php_mssql). Running queries or anything else isn't a problem, but when I try to do scope_identity (or any similar functions), I get the error "Executing SQL directly; no cursor". I'm doing this immediately after an insert, so it should still be in scope. Running the same insert statement then query for the insert ID works fine in SQL Server Management Studio. Here's my code right now (everything else in the database wrapper class works fine for other queries, so I'll assume it isn't relevant right now): function insert_id(){ return $this->query_first("SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY() as insert_id"); } query_first being a function that returns the first result from the first field of a query (basically the equivalent of execute_scalar() on .net). The full error message: Warning: odbc_exec() [function.odbc-exec]: SQL error: [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]Executing SQL directly; no cursor., SQL state 01000 in SQLExecDirect in C:[...]\Database_MSSQL.php on line 110

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  • How to call SQL Function with multiple parameters from C# web page

    - by Marshall
    I have an MS SQL function that is called with the following syntax: SELECT Field1, COUNT(*) AS RecordCount FROM GetDecileTable('WHERE ClientID = 7 AND LocationName = ''Default'' ', 10) The first parameter passes a specific WHERE clause that is used by the function for one of the internal queries. When I call this function in the front-end C# page, I need to send parameter values for the individual fields inside of the WHERE clause (in this example, both the ClientID & LocationName fields) The current C# code looks like this: String SQLText = "SELECT Field1, COUNT(*) AS RecordCount FROM GetDecileTable('WHERE ClientID = @ClientID AND LocationName = @LocationName ',10)"; SqlCommand Cmd = new SqlCommand(SQLText, SqlConnection); Cmd.Parameters.Add("@ClientID", SqlDbType.Int).Value = 7; // Insert real ClientID Cmd.Parameters.Add("@LocationName", SqlDbType.NVarChar(20)).Value = "Default"; // Real code uses Location Name from user input SqlDataReader reader = Cmd.ExecuteReader(); When I do this, I get the following code from SQL profiler: exec sp_executesql N'SELECT Field1, COUNT(*) as RecordCount FROM GetDecileTable (''WHERE ClientID = @ClientID AND LocationName = @LocationName '',10)', N'@ClientID int,@LocationID nvarchar(20)', @ClientID=7,@LocationName=N'Default' When this executes, SQL throws an error that it cannot parse past the first mention of @ClientID stating that the Scalar Variable @ClientID must be defined. If I modify the code to declare the variables first (see below), then I receive an error at the second mention of @ClientID that the variable already exists. exec sp_executesql N'DECLARE @ClientID int; DECLARE @LocationName nvarchar(20); SELECT Field1, COUNT(*) as RecordCount FROM GetDecileTable (''WHERE ClientID = @ClientID AND LocationName = @LocationName '',10)', N'@ClientID int,@LocationName nvarchar(20)', @ClientID=7,@LocationName=N'Default' I know that this method of adding parameters and calling SQL code from C# works well when I am selecting data from tables, but I am not sure how to embed parameters inside of the ' quote marks for the embedded WHERE clause being passed to the function. Any ideas?

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  • Redistribution of sqlpackage.exe [SSDT]

    - by jamiet
    This is a short note for anyone that may be interested in redistributing sqlpackage.exe. If this isn’t you then no need to keep reading. Ostensibly this is here for anyone that bingles for this information. sqlpackage.exe is a command-line that ships with SQL Server Development Tools (SSDT) in SQL Server 2012 and its main purpose (amongst other things) is to deploy .dacpac files from the command-line. Its quite conceivable that one might want to install only sqlpackage.exe rather than the full SSDT suite (for example on a production server) and I myself have recently had that need. I enquired to the SSDT product team about the possibility of doing this. I said: Back in VS DB Proj days it was possible to use VSDBCMD.exe on a machine that did not have the full VS shell install by shipping lots of pre-requisites along for the ride (details at How to: Prepare a Database for Deployment From a Command Prompt by Using VSDBCMD.EXE). Is there a similar mechanism for using VSDBMCD.exe’s replacement, sqlpackage.exe? here was the reply from Barclay Hill who heads up the development team: Yes, SQLPackage.exe is the analogy of VSDBCMD.exe. You can acquire separately, in a stand-alone package, by installing DACFX. You can get it from: Feature pack is here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29065 Web Platform Installer here: http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/install.aspx?appid=DACFX You will notice it has dependencies on SQLDOM and SQLCLRTYPES.  WebPI will install these for you, but it is al carte on the feature pack. So, now you know. I didn’t enquire about licensing of DACFX but given SSDT is free I am going to assume that the same applies to DACFX too. @Jamiet

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  • Redistribution of sqlpackage.exe [SSDT]

    - by jamiet
    This is a short note for anyone that may be interested in redistributing sqlpackage.exe. If this isn’t you then no need to keep reading. Ostensibly this is here for anyone that bingles for this information. sqlpackage.exe is a command-line that ships with SQL Server Development Tools (SSDT) in SQL Server 2012 and its main purpose (amongst other things) is to deploy .dacpac files from the command-line. Its quite conceivable that one might want to install only sqlpackage.exe rather than the full SSDT suite (for example on a production server) and I myself have recently had that need. I enquired to the SSDT product team about the possibility of doing this. I said: Back in VS DB Proj days it was possible to use VSDBCMD.exe on a machine that did not have the full VS shell install by shipping lots of pre-requisites along for the ride (details at How to: Prepare a Database for Deployment From a Command Prompt by Using VSDBCMD.EXE). Is there a similar mechanism for using VSDBMCD.exe’s replacement, sqlpackage.exe? here was the reply from Barclay Hill who heads up the development team: Yes, SQLPackage.exe is the analogy of VSDBCMD.exe. You can acquire separately, in a stand-alone package, by installing DACFX. You can get it from: Feature pack is here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29065 Web Platform Installer here: http://www.microsoft.com/web/gallery/install.aspx?appid=DACFX You will notice it has dependencies on SQLDOM and SQLCLRTYPES.  WebPI will install these for you, but it is al carte on the feature pack. So, now you know. I didn’t enquire about licensing of DACFX but given SSDT is free I am going to assume that the same applies to DACFX too. @Jamiet

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  • Upgrading from 2005 to R2

    - by DavidWimbush
    We're about to take the plunge and upgrade our servers from SQL 2005 to SQL 2008 R2. Real world accounts of people upgrading to R2 are a bit hard to find so I thought it might be useful to blog what happens. (I don't count marketing 'case studies' that just say stuff like "The process was effortless and the upgrade will pay for itself by the end the week.") We're using the database engine, Analysis Services and Reporting Services so upgrading by a major version number was looking a bit daunting. I wasn't expecting much trouble on the engine side of things but, as most of the action in 2008 and R2 appears to have been on the Reporting and BI front, I expected to have quite a bit of work to do. But our testing so far has been one nice surprise after another: The 2005 backups restore cleanly onto R2. R2's BI Studio upgraded the Reporting and Analysis Services solutions without any issues. The cubes all deployed and processed just fine. R2 BI Studio interacts fine with TFS 2008 version control. I'll blog some more as things develop.  

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  • Remote SQL server connection failure

    - by Sevki
    I am trying to connect to my MSSQL server 2008 web instance and im failing horribly... i get the error 26 and before you jump on me i have done these Check the spelling of the SQL Server instance name that is specified in the connection string. Use the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool to enable SQL Server to accept remote connections over the TCP or named pipes protocols. For more information about the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration Tool, see Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections. Make sure that you have configured the firewall on the server instance of SQL Server to open ports for SQL Server and the SQL Server Browser port (UDP 1434). Make sure that the SQL Server Browser service is started on the server. in addition to theese i have disabled the firewall completely and tried other ports nothing works the same credentials work on the server but not on the client. this is the exact error message A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified) (.Net SqlClient Data Provider) Can anybody help?

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  • SQL Server Installaion error 0x84B40000

    - by Kurtevich
    I have a problem installing SQL Server 2008 R2. Long time ago I had it installed, and then uninstalled. It was left in "Add/remove programs", but I didn't pay attention on that. I had 2005 installed. And now there is a need to install 2008. I removed 2005 and started installing 2008, but it says that space on C: is not enough. That's when I found out that "Add/remove programs" shows it occupying more than 4 gigabytes, though I used to uninstall it. So I click "Remove", it shows all those many screens and validations, shows that removal completed, but the size of Program Files folder is still more than 4 GB. I removed (from "Add\remove programs" everything that had "SQL Server" in it's name, but that main "SQL Server 2008" item is still there and still 4 GB and uninstalling does nothing. Because installation of SQL Server did not show existing instances, and I don't see any running services related to SQL server (well, almost any, more details in the end), I though that this folder contains just some leftover staff and data and deleted it manually. Then agreed to removing of the item in "Add/remove programs" and everything looks clean. Now every time I try to install SQL Server (even in the minimum configuration), I receive the following error: SQL Server Setup has encountered the following error: The specified credentials that were provided for the SQL Server service are not valid. To continue, provide a valid account and password for the SQL Server service. Error code 0x84B40000. What is this service mentioned here? This error looks like I'm trying to add features to existing server and it can't login. But the setup didn't ask me for any credentials, except one username that couldn't be changed. Here are the services shown that can be related, both disabled and pointing to non-existing executables: SQL Active Directory Helper Service SQL Full-text Filter Daemon Launcher (MSSQLSERVER) I understand that this must be because of my manual deletion, but is there a way to clean it up now?

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  • interview questions - little help

    - by Idan
    i ran into thos quesiton in a google search.... they look pretty common, but i couldn't find a decent answer. any tips/links ? 1.Remove duplicates in array in O(n) without extra array 2.Write a program whose printed output is an exact copy of the source. Needless to say, merely echoing the actual source file is not allowed.

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  • LINQ-to-SQL IN/Contains() for Nullable<T>

    - by Craig Walker
    I want to generate this SQL statement in LINQ: select * from Foo where Value in ( 1, 2, 3 ) The tricky bit seems to be that Value is a column that allows nulls. The equivalent LINQ code would seem to be: IEnumerable<Foo> foos = MyDataContext.Foos; IEnumerable<int> values = GetMyValues(); var myFoos = from foo in foos where values.Contains(foo.Value) select foo; This, of course, doesn't compile, since foo.Value is an int? and values is typed to int. I've tried this: IEnumerable<Foo> foos = MyDataContext.Foos; IEnumerable<int> values = GetMyValues(); IEnumerable<int?> nullables = values.Select( value => new Nullable<int>(value)); var myFoos = from foo in foos where nullables.Contains(foo.Value) select foo; ...and this: IEnumerable<Foo> foos = MyDataContext.Foos; IEnumerable<int> values = GetMyValues(); var myFoos = from foo in foos where values.Contains(foo.Value.Value) select foo; Both of these versions give me the results I expect, but they do not generate the SQL I want. It appears that they're generating full-table results and then doing the Contains() filtering in-memory (ie: in plain LINQ, without -to-SQL); there's no IN clause in the DataContext log. Is there a way to generate a SQL IN for Nullable types?

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  • SQL Server 2008 - Editing Tables: Bit columns require 'True' or 'False'

    - by CJM
    Not so much a question as an observation... I'm just upgrading to SQL Server 2008 on my development machine in anticipation of upgrading my live applications. I didn't anticipate any problems since [I think] I generally use standard T-SQL, and probably not too far from ANSI standard SQL. So far so good, but I was really thrown by a very simple change: I was creating a simple, small look-up table to store a list of codes and including a bit column to indicate the current default code. But when I used the new/modified 'Edit Top 200 Rows' option, and entered my 0s and 1s in the the bit column I got an error: 'Invalid value for cell - String was not recognised as a valid boolean' After a bit of head-scratching, I tried True and False - and they worked. So it seems this new Edit feature requires 4 or 5 characters to be typed, rather than the previous 1. Checking further, we can still use '...where bitval = 1' but can now also use '...where bitval = 'true''. But any results returned render these bit columns as 0 or 1 still. It all sounds like half a step backwards. Not the end of the world, but and unnecessary annoyance. Does anybody have any insight on this issue? Or there any other new Gotchas with SQL Server 2008?

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