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• SQL to delete duplicate records in a table [closed]

  - by oo

  Possible Duplicate: Delete duplicate records from a SQL table without a primary key I have a table with the columns person_ID firstname lastname and I somehow ended up with a bunch of duplicates. Is there any way to look at all columns where firstname and lastname are the same and delete all except one of them (it doesn't matter which one is left as they are all the same.) EDIT: I just found a duplicate question and perfect answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/985384/delete-duplicate-records-from-a-sql-table-without-a-primary-key

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• SQL Spatial: Getting “nearest” calculations working properly

  - by Rob Farley

  If you’ve ever done spatial work with SQL Server, I hope you’ve come across the ‘nearest’ problem. You have five thousand stores around the world, and you want to identify the one that’s closest to a particular place. Maybe you want the store closest to the LobsterPot office in Adelaide, at -34.925806, 138.605073. Or our new US office, at 42.524929, -87.858244. Or maybe both! You know how to do this. You don’t want to use an aggregate MIN or MAX, because you want the whole row, telling you which store it is. You want to use TOP, and if you want to find the closest store for multiple locations, you use APPLY. Let’s do this (but I’m going to use addresses in AdventureWorks2012, as I don’t have a list of stores). Oh, and before I do, let’s make sure we have a spatial index in place. I’m going to use the default options. CREATE SPATIAL INDEX spin_Address ON Person.Address(SpatialLocation); And my actual query: WITH MyLocations AS (SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('LobsterPot Adelaide', geography::Point(-34.925806, 138.605073, 4326)),                        ('LobsterPot USA', geography::Point(42.524929, -87.858244, 4326))                ) t (Name, Geo)) SELECT l.Name, a.AddressLine1, a.City, s.Name AS [State], c.Name AS Country FROM MyLocations AS l CROSS APPLY (     SELECT TOP (1) *     FROM Person.Address AS ad     ORDER BY l.Geo.STDistance(ad.SpatialLocation)     ) AS a JOIN Person.StateProvince AS s     ON s.StateProvinceID = a.StateProvinceID JOIN Person.CountryRegion AS c     ON c.CountryRegionCode = s.CountryRegionCode ; Great! This is definitely working. I know both those City locations, even if the AddressLine1s don’t quite ring a bell. I’m sure I’ll be able to find them next time I’m in the area. But of course what I’m concerned about from a querying perspective is what’s happened behind the scenes – the execution plan. This isn’t pretty. It’s not using my index. It’s sucking every row out of the Address table TWICE (which sucks), and then it’s sorting them by the distance to find the smallest one. It’s not pretty, and it takes a while. Mind you, I do like the fact that it saw an indexed view it could use for the State and Country details – that’s pretty neat. But yeah – users of my nifty website aren’t going to like how long that query takes. The frustrating thing is that I know that I can use the index to find locations that are within a particular distance of my locations quite easily, and Microsoft recommends this for solving the ‘nearest’ problem, as described at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/library/ff929109.aspx. Now, in the first example on this page, it says that the query there will use the spatial index. But when I run it on my machine, it does nothing of the sort. I’m not particularly impressed. But what we see here is that parallelism has kicked in. In my scenario, it’s split the data up into 4 threads, but it’s still slow, and not using my index. It’s disappointing. But I can persuade it with hints! If I tell it to FORCESEEK, or use my index, or even turn off the parallelism with MAXDOP 1, then I get the index being used, and it’s a thing of beauty! Part of the plan is here: It’s massive, and it’s ugly, and it uses a TVF… but it’s quick. The way it works is to hook into the GeodeticTessellation function, which is essentially finds where the point is, and works out through the spatial index cells that surround it. This then provides a framework to be able to see into the spatial index for the items we want. You can read more about it at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb895265.aspx#tessellation – including a bunch of pretty diagrams. One of those times when we have a much more complex-looking plan, but just because of the good that’s going on. This tessellation stuff was introduced in SQL Server 2012. But my query isn’t using it. When I try to use the FORCESEEK hint on the Person.Address table, I get the friendly error: Msg 8622, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Query processor could not produce a query plan because of the hints defined in this query. Resubmit the query without specifying any hints and without using SET FORCEPLAN. And I’m almost tempted to just give up and move back to the old method of checking increasingly large circles around my location. After all, I can even leverage multiple OUTER APPLY clauses just like I did in my recent Lookup post. WITH MyLocations AS (SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('LobsterPot Adelaide', geography::Point(-34.925806, 138.605073, 4326)),                        ('LobsterPot USA', geography::Point(42.524929, -87.858244, 4326))                ) t (Name, Geo)) SELECT     l.Name,     COALESCE(a1.AddressLine1,a2.AddressLine1,a3.AddressLine1),     COALESCE(a1.City,a2.City,a3.City),     s.Name AS [State],     c.Name AS Country FROM MyLocations AS l OUTER APPLY (     SELECT TOP (1) *     FROM Person.Address AS ad     WHERE l.Geo.STDistance(ad.SpatialLocation) < 1000     ORDER BY l.Geo.STDistance(ad.SpatialLocation)     ) AS a1 OUTER APPLY (     SELECT TOP (1) *     FROM Person.Address AS ad     WHERE l.Geo.STDistance(ad.SpatialLocation) < 5000     AND a1.AddressID IS NULL     ORDER BY l.Geo.STDistance(ad.SpatialLocation)     ) AS a2 OUTER APPLY (     SELECT TOP (1) *     FROM Person.Address AS ad     WHERE l.Geo.STDistance(ad.SpatialLocation) < 20000     AND a2.AddressID IS NULL     ORDER BY l.Geo.STDistance(ad.SpatialLocation)     ) AS a3 JOIN Person.StateProvince AS s     ON s.StateProvinceID = COALESCE(a1.StateProvinceID,a2.StateProvinceID,a3.StateProvinceID) JOIN Person.CountryRegion AS c     ON c.CountryRegionCode = s.CountryRegionCode ; But this isn’t friendly-looking at all, and I’d use the method recommended by Isaac Kunen, who uses a table of numbers for the expanding circles. It feels old-school though, when I’m dealing with SQL 2012 (and later) versions. So why isn’t my query doing what it’s supposed to? Remember the query... WITH MyLocations AS (SELECT * FROM (VALUES ('LobsterPot Adelaide', geography::Point(-34.925806, 138.605073, 4326)),                        ('LobsterPot USA', geography::Point(42.524929, -87.858244, 4326))                ) t (Name, Geo)) SELECT l.Name, a.AddressLine1, a.City, s.Name AS [State], c.Name AS Country FROM MyLocations AS l CROSS APPLY (     SELECT TOP (1) *     FROM Person.Address AS ad     ORDER BY l.Geo.STDistance(ad.SpatialLocation)     ) AS a JOIN Person.StateProvince AS s     ON s.StateProvinceID = a.StateProvinceID JOIN Person.CountryRegion AS c     ON c.CountryRegionCode = s.CountryRegionCode ; Well, I just wasn’t reading http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff929109.aspx properly. The following requirements must be met for a Nearest Neighbor query to use a spatial index: A spatial index must be present on one of the spatial columns and the STDistance() method must use that column in the WHERE and ORDER BY clauses. The TOP clause cannot contain a PERCENT statement. The WHERE clause must contain a STDistance() method. If there are multiple predicates in the WHERE clause then the predicate containing STDistance() method must be connected by an AND conjunction to the other predicates. The STDistance() method cannot be in an optional part of the WHERE clause. The first expression in the ORDER BY clause must use the STDistance() method. Sort order for the first STDistance() expression in the ORDER BY clause must be ASC. All the rows for which STDistance returns NULL must be filtered out. Let’s start from the top. 1. Needs a spatial index on one of the columns that’s in the STDistance call. Yup, got the index. 2. No ‘PERCENT’. Yeah, I don’t have that. 3. The WHERE clause needs to use STDistance(). Ok, but I’m not filtering, so that should be fine. 4. Yeah, I don’t have multiple predicates. 5. The first expression in the ORDER BY is my distance, that’s fine. 6. Sort order is ASC, because otherwise we’d be starting with the ones that are furthest away, and that’s tricky. 7. All the rows for which STDistance returns NULL must be filtered out. But I don’t have any NULL values, so that shouldn’t affect me either. ...but something’s wrong. I do actually need to satisfy #3. And I do need to make sure #7 is being handled properly, because there are some situations (eg, differing SRIDs) where STDistance can return NULL. It says so at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb933808.aspx – “STDistance() always returns null if the spatial reference IDs (SRIDs) of the geography instances do not match.” So if I simply make sure that I’m filtering out the rows that return NULL… …then it’s blindingly fast, I get the right results, and I’ve got the complex-but-brilliant plan that I wanted. It just wasn’t overly intuitive, despite being documented. @rob_farley

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• I thought everyone did it like this – Training Session Code Management

  - by Fatherjack

  One of an occasional series of blogs about things that I do that perhaps others don’t. From very early on in my dealings with SQL Server Management Studio I started using Solutions and Projects. This means that I started using them when writing sessions and it wasn’t until speaking with someone at PASS Summit 2013 that I found out that this was a process that was unheard of by some people. So, here we go, a run through how I create and manage code and other documents that I use in presentations. For people unsure what solutions and projects are; • Solution – a container for one or more projects. • Project – a container for files, .sql files are grouped as Queries, all other files are stored as Misc. How do I start? Open Management Studio as normal, and then click File | New and select Project This will bring up the New Project dialog box and you can select/add details as necessary in the places indicated. If this is the first project you are creating then be sure to select the Create directory for solution check box (4). If know in advance that you are going to have more than one project in the solution then you may want to edit the Solution name (3) as by default it will take the name of the project that you enter at (2). This will lead you to the following folder structure (depending on the location that you chose in 3) above. In SSMS you need to turn on the Solution Explorer, either via the View menu or pressing Ctrl + Alt + L                   This will bring up a dockable window that will let you quickly access the files that you choose to include in the Solution.                     Can we get to work and write some code yet please? Yes, we can. As with many Microsoft products there are several ways to go about this, let’s look at the easiest way when creating new code. When writing a presentation I usually start from the position we are currently in – a brand new solution and project with no code. Later on we will look at incorporating existing code files into the Project where we need it. Right-click on the Project name and choose Add New Query           As soon as you click this you will be prompted to select the sql server that you want to connect to and once you have done that you will have your new query open in the text editor and the Solution Explorer will now look like this, showing your server connection and your new query.               And the Project folder will look like this         Now once you have written your code don’t press save, choose Save As and give the code a better name than QueryX.sql. SSMS will interpret this as a request to rename Query1 and your Project and the Project folder will show that SQLQuery1.sql no longer exists but there is now a file named as you requested. If you happen to click save in error then right-click the query in the project and choose rename.               You can then alter the name as you like, even when open in the SSMS text editor, and the file will be renamed. When creating a set of scripts for a presentation I name files with a numeric prefix so that when they are sorted by name they are in the order that I need to use them during the session. I love this idea but I’ve got loads of existing scripts I want to put in Projects Excellent, adding existing files to a project is easy, let’s consider that you have query files in your My Documents folder and you want to bring them into the Project we have just created. Right-click on the Project and choose Add | Existing Item           Navigate to the location of your chosen file and select it. The file will open in SSMS text editor and the Project will be updated to show that the selected query is now part of your project. If you look in Windows Explorer you will see that the query file has been copied into the Project folder, the original file still remains in your My Documents (or wherever it existed). I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to explore creating further Projects within a solution but will happily answer questions if you get into difficulties. What other advantages do I get from this? Well, as all your code is neatly in one Solution folder and the folder contains only files that are pertinent to the session you are presenting then it makes it very easy to share this code, simply copy the whole folder onto a USB stick, Blog, FTP location, wherever you choose and it’s all there in one self-contained parcel. You don’t have to limit yourself to .sql query files, you can add any sort of document via the Add Existing Item method, just try it out. Right-click on the protect and choose Add | Existing Item           Change the file type filter.                       You can multi select items here using Ctrl as you click each item you want. When you are done, click the Add button and the items will be brought into your project.                 Again, using this process means the files are copied into the project folder, leaving you original files untouched in their original location. Once they are here you can double click them in the SSMS Solution Explorer to open them, for files with a specific file type then the appropriate application will be launched – ie Word, Excel etc. However, if the files are something that the SSMS Text editor can display then they will open in a tab in SSMS. Try it out with a text file or even a PS1 file … This sounds excellent but what do I need to watch out for? One big thing to consider when working like this is the version of SSMS that you are using. There is something fundamentally different between the different versions in the way that the project (.ssmssqlproj) and solution (.sqlsuo and .ssmssln) files are formatted. If you create a solution in an older version of SSMS and then open it in a newer version you will be given the option to upgrade it. Once you do this upgrade then the older version of SSMS will not be able to open the solution any more. Now this ranks as more of an annoyance than disaster as the files within the projects are not affected in any way, you would just have to delete the files mentioned and recreate the solution in the older version again. Summary So, here we have seen how using SSMS Projects and Solutions can help keep related code files (and other document types) together in a neat structure so that they can be quickly navigated during a presentation and it also makes it incredibly simple to distribute your code and share it with others. I hope this is of use to you and helps you bring more order into your sql files, whether you are a person that does technical presentations or not, having your code grouped and managed can make for a lot of advantages as your code library expands.  

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• Network communications mechanisms for SQL Server

  - by Akshay Deep Lamba

  Problem I am trying to understand how SQL Server communicates on the network, because I'm having to tell my networking team what ports to open up on the firewall for an edge web server to communicate back to the SQL Server on the inside. What do I need to know? Solution In order to understand what needs to be opened where, let's first talk briefly about the two main protocols that are in common use today: TCP - Transmission Control Protocol UDP - User Datagram Protocol Both are part of the TCP/IP suite of protocols. We'll start with TCP. TCP TCP is the main protocol by which clients communicate with SQL Server. Actually, it is more correct to say that clients and SQL Server use Tabular Data Stream (TDS), but TDS actually sits on top of TCP and when we're talking about Windows and firewalls and other networking devices, that's the protocol that rules and controls are built around. So we'll just speak in terms of TCP. TCP is a connection-oriented protocol. What that means is that the two systems negotiate the connection and both agree to it. Think of it like a phone call. While one person initiates the phone call, the other person has to agree to take it and both people can end the phone call at any time. TCP is the same way. Both systems have to agree to the communications, but either side can end it at any time. In addition, there is functionality built into TCP to ensure that all communications can be disassembled and reassembled as necessary so it can pass over various network devices and be put together again properly in the right order. It also has mechanisms to handle and retransmit lost communications. Because of this functionality, TCP is the protocol used by many different network applications. The way the applications all can share is through the use of ports. When a service, like SQL Server, comes up on a system, it must listen on a port. For a default SQL Server instance, the default port is 1433. Clients connect to the port via the TCP protocol, the connection is negotiated and agreed to, and then the two sides can transfer information as needed until either side decides to end the communication. In actuality, both sides will have a port to use for the communications, but since the client's port is typically determined semi-randomly, when we're talking about firewalls and the like, typically we're interested in the port the server or service is using. UDP UDP, unlike TCP, is not connection oriented. A "client" can send a UDP communications to anyone it wants. There's nothing in place to negotiate a communications connection, there's nothing in the protocol itself to coordinate order of communications or anything like that. If that's needed, it's got to be handled by the application or by a protocol built on top of UDP being used by the application. If you think of TCP as a phone call, think of UDP as a postcard. I can put a postcard in the mail to anyone I want, and so long as it is addressed properly and has a stamp on it, the postal service will pick it up. Now, what happens it afterwards is not guaranteed. There's no mechanism for retransmission of lost communications. It's great for short communications that doesn't necessarily need an acknowledgement. Because multiple network applications could be communicating via UDP, it uses ports, just like TCP. The SQL Browser or the SQL Server Listener Service uses UDP. Network Communications - Talking to SQL Server When an instance of SQL Server is set up, what TCP port it listens on depends. A default instance will be set up to listen on port 1433. A named instance will be set to a random port chosen during installation. In addition, a named instance will be configured to allow it to change that port dynamically. What this means is that when a named instance starts up, if it finds something already using the port it normally uses, it'll pick a new port. If you have a named instance, and you have connections coming across a firewall, you're going to want to use SQL Server Configuration Manager to set a static port. This will allow the networking and security folks to configure their devices for maximum protection. While you can change the network port for a default instance of SQL Server, most people don't. Network Communications - Finding a SQL Server When just the name is specified for a client to connect to SQL Server, for instance, MySQLServer, this is an attempt to connect to the default instance. In this case the client will automatically attempt to communicate to port 1433 on MySQLServer. If you've switched the port for the default instance, you'll need to tell the client the proper port, usually by specifying the following syntax in the connection string: <server>,<port>. For instance, if you moved SQL Server to listen on 14330, you'd use MySQLServer,14330 instead of just MySQLServer. However, because a named instance sets up its port dynamically by default, the client never knows at the outset what the port is it should talk to. That's what the SQL Browser or the SQL Server Listener Service (SQL Server 2000) is for. In this case, the client sends a communication via the UDP protocol to port 1434. It asks, "Where is the named instance?" So if I was running a named instance called SQL2008R2, it would be asking the SQL Browser, "Hey, how do I talk to MySQLServer\SQL2008R2?" The SQL Browser would then send back a communications from UDP port 1434 back to the client telling the client how to talk to the named instance. Of course, you can skip all of this of you set that named instance's port statically. Then you can use the <server>,<port> mechanism to connect and the client won't try to talk to the SQL Browser service. It'll simply try to make the connection. So, for instance, is the SQL2008R2 instance was listening on port 20080, specifying MySQLServer,20080 would attempt a connection to the named instance. Network Communications - Named Pipes Named pipes is an older network library communications mechanism and it's generally not used any longer. It shouldn't be used across a firewall. However, if for some reason you need to connect to SQL Server with it, this protocol also sits on top of TCP. Named Pipes is actually used by the operating system and it has its own mechanism within the protocol to determine where to route communications. As far as network communications is concerned, it listens on TCP port 445. This is true whether we're talking about a default or named instance of SQL Server. The Summary Table To put all this together, here is what you need to know: Type of Communication Protocol Used Default Port Finding a SQL Server or SQL Server Named Instance UDP 1434 Communicating with a default instance of SQL Server TCP 1433 Communicating with a named instance of SQL Server TCP * Determined dynamically at start up Communicating with SQL Server via Named Pipes TCP 445

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• SQL Server Log File Won't Shrink due cause "log are pending replication" on non replicated DB?

  - by user796466

  I have a non Mission Critial DB 9am-5pm SQL Server database that I have set up to do nightly full backups and log backups every 30 minutes during business hours. The database is in full recovery and normally I have no reason to truncate/shrink logs unless I do some heavy maintenance. Log backups manage the size with no issue. However I have not been at this client for several weeks and upon inspection I noticed that the log had grown to about 10 times the size of the .mdf file. I poked around backups had been running and I had not gotten any severity error alerts (SQL mail). I attempted to put DB in simple recovery and shrink the log, this was no good. I precede to try a log backup and I got: The log was not truncated because records at the beginning of the log are pending replication or Change Data Capture. Ensure the Log Reader Agent or capture job is running or use sp_repldone to mark transactions as distributed or captured. Restart SQL Server rinse repeat same thing ... I said ??? Replication is not nor ever has been set up on this DB or database /server ??? So the log backups have not been flushing the .ldf. So I did a couple hours of research and I found: http://www.sqlmonster.com/Uwe/Forum.aspx/sql-server/5445/Log-file-is-not-truncated-inspite-of-regular-log-backup http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/30708322/the-log-was-not-truncated-because-records-at-the-beginning-of-the-log-are-pending-replication.aspx seems to be some kind of poorly documented bug ?? The solution seems to have been to run exec sp_repldone, more precisley EXEC sp_repldone @xactid = NULL, @xact_segno = NULL, @numtrans = 0, @time= 0, @reset = 1 This procedure can be used in emergency situations to allow truncation of the transaction log when transactions pending replication are present. Using this procedure prevents Microsoft SQL Server 2000 from replicating the database until the database is unpublished and republished. ~ MSDN When I do that I get the following Msg 18757, Level 16, State 1, Procedure sp_repldone, Line 1 Unable to execute procedure. The database is not published. Execute the procedure in a database that is published for replication. Which makes sense Because the DB has never been published for replication. I have several questions: A) First and foremost is, WTF is going on ? What is causeing this, I am interested in knowing the why here ? Is this genuinley a bug or is there some aspect of the backup that is not functioning properly that cause's the DB to mimick a replicated state ? Someone please edify me on this. B) Second ... Do I really have to publish / replicate this DB to exec this SP to fix this ??? Sounds crazy or is there some T-SQL that I can put it in a published state exec the proc and be on my way ... C) Third, if I do indeed have to publish this database to exec the SP to release this unneeded mis replicated/intended log , to get my .ldf file and backup back on track. How do I publish the database without an online host that it is asking for ??? I don't generally do this kind of database administration and need some guidance. Sorry if this is too verbose but just voicing the question helps me clarify it ... Thank you in advance for your help

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• PowerShell: Read Excel to Create Inserts

  - by BuckWoody

  I’m writing a series of articles on how to migrate “departmental” data into SQL Server. I also hold workshops on the entire process – from discovering that the data exists to the modeling process and then how to design the Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) process. Finally I write about (and teach) a few methods on actually moving the data. One of those options is to use PowerShell. There are a lot of ways even with that choice, but the one I show is to read two columns from the spreadsheet and output statements that would insert the data using a stored procedure. Of course, you could re-write this as INSERT statements, out to a text file for bcp, or even use a database connection in the script to move the data directly from Excel into SQL Server. This snippet won’t run on your system, of course – it assumes a Microsoft Office Excel 2007 spreadsheet located at c:\temp called VendorList.xlsx. It looks for a tab in that spreadsheet called Vendors. The statement that does the writing just uses one column: Vendor Code. Here’s the breakdown of what I’m doing: In the first block, I connect to Microsoft Office Excel. That connection string is specific to Excel 2007, so if you need a different version you’ll need to look that up. In the second block I set up a selection from the entire spreadsheet based on that tab. Note that if you’re only after certain data you shouldn’t get the whole spreadsheet – that’s just good practice. In the next block I create the text I want, inserting the Vendor Code field as I go. Finally I close the connection. Enjoy! $ExcelConnection= New-Object -com "ADODB.Connection" $ExcelFile="c:\temp\VendorList.xlsx" $ExcelConnection.Open("Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;` Data Source=$ExcelFile;Extended Properties=Excel 12.0;") $strQuery="Select * from [Vendors$]" $ExcelRecordSet=$ExcelConnection.Execute($strQuery) do { Write-Host "EXEC sp_InsertVendors '" $ExcelRecordSet.Fields.Item("Vendor Code").Value "'" $ExcelRecordSet.MoveNext()} Until ($ExcelRecordSet.EOF) $ExcelConnection.Close() Script Disclaimer, for people who need to be told this sort of thing: Never trust any script, including those that you find here, until you understand exactly what it does and how it will act on your systems. Always check the script on a test system or Virtual Machine, not a production system. All scripts on this site are performed by a professional stunt driver on a closed course. Your mileage may vary. Void where prohibited. Offer good for a limited time only. Keep out of reach of small children. Do not operate heavy machinery while using this script. If you experience blurry vision, indigestion or diarrhea during the operation of this script, see a physician immediately. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!

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• MS SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit Released

  - by Aamir Hasan

  The SQL Server 2008 Developer Training Kit will help you understand how to build web applications which deeply exploit the rich data types, programming models and new development paradigms in SQL Server 2008.  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E9C68E1B-1E0E-4299-B498-6AB3CA72A6D7&displaylang=en

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• SQL Azure vs. SQL Server

  If youd like to know the differences between SQL Server and SQL Azure, check this white paper. This FAQ is also interesting. var addthis_pub="guybarrette";...Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• SQL Azure vs. SQL Server

  - by guybarrette

  If you’d like to know the differences between SQL Server and SQL Azure, check this white paper. This FAQ is also interesting. var addthis_pub="guybarrette";

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• HTTP Push from SQL Server Comet SQL

  Article provides example solution for presenting data in "real-time" from Microsoft SQL Server in HTML browser. Article presents how to implement Comet functionality in ASP.NET and how to connect Comet with Query Notification from SQL Server....Did you know that DotNetSlackers also publishes .net articles written by top known .net Authors? We already have over 80 articles in several categories including Silverlight. Take a look: here.

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• Post SQL 2008 R2 Launch Thurs 15th London - UK SQL Server User Group is having a Social Event @ the

  - by tonyrogerson

  The UK SQL Server User Group is organising a Social event for SQL and SQL Server professionals, the event will be held after the SQL Server 2008 R2 launch event and is a short walk from that venue. See site for more information: http://sqlserverfaq.com/events/222/Social-for-SQL-and-SQL-Server-professionals-SQL-quiz-meet-your-peers-ask-the-group-Q-A.aspx We are putting some light bites on, if you are coming then do let us know through the site. Neil Hambly who is the London UK SQL Server User Group...(read more)

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• Non-English Character Display in Oracle SQL Developer

  - by thatjeffsmith

  I get a variation on this question at least once a week, if not more frequently. I’m from Israel, and the language on the databases is Hebrew. When I use the old and deprecated SQL*Plus (windows rich client) I can see the hebrew clearly, when I use the latest SQL Developer, I get gibberish. This question appears on the forums about every week or so as well. So what’s the deal? Well, it starts with a basic misunderstanding of NLS Client parameters. These should accurately reflect the language and locality setup on your LOCAL machine. DO NOT COPY what’s set in the database. The these parameters work together with the database so that information can be transferred back and forth correctly. Having the wrong NLS parameters locally can be bad. [ORACLE DOCS]Setting the NLS_LANG parameter properly is essential to proper data conversion. The character set that is specified by the NLS_LANG parameter should reflect the setting for the client operating system. Setting NLS_LANG correctly enables proper conversion from the client operating system character encoding to the database character set. When these settings are the same, Oracle Database assumes that the data being sent or received is encoded in the same character set as the database character set, so character set validation or conversion may not be performed. This can lead to corrupt data if conversions are necessary. OK, so what are you supposed to do? Set the Font! 9 times out of 10, this preference fixes the problem with display issues. Make sure you set a Font that supports the characters you’re trying to display. It’s as simple as that. This preference defines the font used to display characters in the editors and the data grids. If you have it set to a font that doesn’t have Hebrew character support – you’re not going to see Hebrew in SQL Developer. A few years ago…wow, like 15 years ago, I learned that the Tohama Font is pretty Unicode-friendly. Bad Font Selection A Font that’s not non-English friendly Good Font Selection Exact same text, except rendered with the Tahoma font Summary Having problems seeing non-English text in SQL Developer? Check the font! And do not start messing with NLS parameters without talking to your DBA first.

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• Fraud Detection with the SQL Server Suite Part 2

  - by Dejan Sarka

  This is the second part of the fraud detection whitepaper. You can find the first part in my previous blog post about this topic. My Approach to Data Mining Projects It is impossible to evaluate the time and money needed for a complete fraud detection infrastructure in advance. Personally, I do not know the customer’s data in advance. I don’t know whether there is already an existing infrastructure, like a data warehouse, in place, or whether we would need to build one from scratch. Therefore, I always suggest to start with a proof-of-concept (POC) project. A POC takes something between 5 and 10 working days, and involves personnel from the customer’s site – either employees or outsourced consultants. The team should include a subject matter expert (SME) and at least one information technology (IT) expert. The SME must be familiar with both the domain in question as well as the meaning of data at hand, while the IT expert should be familiar with the structure of data, how to access it, and have some programming (preferably Transact-SQL) knowledge. With more than one IT expert the most time consuming work, namely data preparation and overview, can be completed sooner. I assume that the relevant data is already extracted and available at the very beginning of the POC project. If a customer wants to have their people involved in the project directly and requests the transfer of knowledge, the project begins with training. I strongly advise this approach as it offers the establishment of a common background for all people involved, the understanding of how the algorithms work and the understanding of how the results should be interpreted, a way of becoming familiar with the SQL Server suite, and more. Once the data has been extracted, the customer’s SME (i.e. the analyst), and the IT expert assigned to the project will learn how to prepare the data in an efficient manner. Together with me, knowledge and expertise allow us to focus immediately on the most interesting attributes and identify any additional, calculated, ones soon after. By employing our programming knowledge, we can, for example, prepare tens of derived variables, detect outliers, identify the relationships between pairs of input variables, and more, in only two or three days, depending on the quantity and the quality of input data. I favor the customer’s decision of assigning additional personnel to the project. For example, I actually prefer to work with two teams simultaneously. I demonstrate and explain the subject matter by applying techniques directly on the data managed by each team, and then both teams continue to work on the data overview and data preparation under our supervision. I explain to the teams what kind of results we expect, the reasons why they are needed, and how to achieve them. Afterwards we review and explain the results, and continue with new instructions, until we resolve all known problems. Simultaneously with the data preparation the data overview is performed. The logic behind this task is the same – again I show to the teams involved the expected results, how to achieve them and what they mean. This is also done in multiple cycles as is the case with data preparation, because, quite frankly, both tasks are completely interleaved. A specific objective of the data overview is of principal importance – it is represented by a simple star schema and a simple OLAP cube that will first of all simplify data discovery and interpretation of the results, and will also prove useful in the following tasks. The presence of the customer’s SME is the key to resolving possible issues with the actual meaning of the data. We can always replace the IT part of the team with another database developer; however, we cannot conduct this kind of a project without the customer’s SME. After the data preparation and when the data overview is available, we begin the scientific part of the project. I assist the team in developing a variety of models, and in interpreting the results. The results are presented graphically, in an intuitive way. While it is possible to interpret the results on the fly, a much more appropriate alternative is possible if the initial training was also performed, because it allows the customer’s personnel to interpret the results by themselves, with only some guidance from me. The models are evaluated immediately by using several different techniques. One of the techniques includes evaluation over time, where we use an OLAP cube. After evaluating the models, we select the most appropriate model to be deployed for a production test; this allows the team to understand the deployment process. There are many possibilities of deploying data mining models into production; at the POC stage, we select the one that can be completed quickly. Typically, this means that we add the mining model as an additional dimension to an existing DW or OLAP cube, or to the OLAP cube developed during the data overview phase. Finally, we spend some time presenting the results of the POC project to the stakeholders and managers. Even from a POC, the customer will receive lots of benefits, all at the sole risk of spending money and time for a single 5 to 10 day project: The customer learns the basic patterns of frauds and fraud detection The customer learns how to do the entire cycle with their own people, only relying on me for the most complex problems The customer’s analysts learn how to perform much more in-depth analyses than they ever thought possible The customer’s IT experts learn how to perform data extraction and preparation much more efficiently than they did before All of the attendees of this training learn how to use their own creativity to implement further improvements of the process and procedures, even after the solution has been deployed to production The POC output for a smaller company or for a subsidiary of a larger company can actually be considered a finished, production-ready solution It is possible to utilize the results of the POC project at subsidiary level, as a finished POC project for the entire enterprise Typically, the project results in several important “side effects” Improved data quality Improved employee job satisfaction, as they are able to proactively contribute to the central knowledge about fraud patterns in the organization Because eventually more minds get to be involved in the enterprise, the company should expect more and better fraud detection patterns After the POC project is completed as described above, the actual project would not need months of engagement from my side. This is possible due to our preference to transfer the knowledge onto the customer’s employees: typically, the customer will use the results of the POC project for some time, and only engage me again to complete the project, or to ask for additional expertise if the complexity of the problem increases significantly. I usually expect to perform the following tasks: Establish the final infrastructure to measure the efficiency of the deployed models Deploy the models in additional scenarios Through reports By including Data Mining Extensions (DMX) queries in OLTP applications to support real-time early warnings Include data mining models as dimensions in OLAP cubes, if this was not done already during the POC project Create smart ETL applications that divert suspicious data for immediate or later inspection I would also offer to investigate how the outcome could be transferred automatically to the central system; for instance, if the POC project was performed in a subsidiary whereas a central system is available as well Of course, for the actual project, I would repeat the data and model preparation as needed It is virtually impossible to tell in advance how much time the deployment would take, before we decide together with customer what exactly the deployment process should cover. Without considering the deployment part, and with the POC project conducted as suggested above (including the transfer of knowledge), the actual project should still only take additional 5 to 10 days. The approximate timeline for the POC project is, as follows: 1-2 days of training 2-3 days for data preparation and data overview 2 days for creating and evaluating the models 1 day for initial preparation of the continuous learning infrastructure 1 day for presentation of the results and discussion of further actions Quite frequently I receive the following question: are we going to find the best possible model during the POC project, or during the actual project? My answer is always quite simple: I do not know. Maybe, if we would spend just one hour more for data preparation, or create just one more model, we could get better patterns and predictions. However, we simply must stop somewhere, and the best possible way to do this, according to my experience, is to restrict the time spent on the project in advance, after an agreement with the customer. You must also never forget that, because we build the complete learning infrastructure and transfer the knowledge, the customer will be capable of doing further investigations independently and improve the models and predictions over time without the need for a constant engagement with me.

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• SQL Server CTE Basics

  The CTE was introduced into standard SQL in order to simplify various classes of SQL Queries for which a derived table just wasn't suitable. For some reason, it can be difficult to grasp the techniques of using it. Well, that's before Rob Sheldon explained it all so clearly for us.

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• Idera Compliance Manager 3.5 and SQL Server 2012 Release Candidate

  Unlike most conventional database auditing solutions, SQL Compliance Manager places a blanket over data access with real-time auditing. Clients can pinpoint any malicious intent with sensitive column auditing. This feature gives specifics as to who has accessed information located within an audited table's sensitive columns. With transaction status auditing, database administrators can detect suspicious activity by auditing the status of transactions that execute DML statements on an audited database with the help of rollbacks and save-points. In addition, SQL Compliance Manager lives up t...

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• SQL: empty string vs NULL value

  - by Jacek Prucia

  I know this subject is a bit controversial and there are a lot of various articles/opinions floating around the internet. Unfortunatelly, most of them assume the person doesn't know what the difference between NULL and empty string is. So they tell stories about surprising results with joins/aggregates and generally do a bit more advanced SQL lessons. By doing this, they absolutely miss the whole point and are therefore useless for me. So hopefully this question and all answers will move subject a bit forward. Let's suppose I have a table with personal information (name, birth, etc) where one of the columns is an email address with varchar type. We assume that for some reason some people might not want to provide an email address. When inserting such data (without email) into the table, there are two available choices: set cell to NULL or set it to empty string (''). Let's assume that I'm aware of all the technical implications of choosing one solution over another and I can create correct SQL queries for either scenario. The problem is even when both values differ on the technical level, they are exactly the same on logical level. After looking at NULL and '' I came to a single conclusion: I don't know email address of the guy. Also no matter how hard i tried, I was not able to sent an e-mail using either NULL or empty string, so apparently most SMTP servers out there agree with my logic. So i tend to use NULL where i don't know the value and consider empty string a bad thing. After some intense discussions with colleagues i came with two questions: am I right in assuming that using empty string for an unknown value is causing a database to "lie" about the facts? To be more precise: using SQL's idea of what is value and what is not, I might come to conclusion: we have e-mail address, just by finding out it is not null. But then later on, when trying to send e-mail I'll come to contradictory conclusion: no, we don't have e-mail address, that @!#$ Database must have been lying! Is there any logical scenario in which an empty string '' could be such a good carrier of important information (besides value and no value), which would be troublesome/inefficient to store by any other way (like additional column). I've seen many posts claiming that sometimes it's good to use empty string along with real values and NULLs, but so far haven't seen a scenario that would be logical (in terms of SQL/DB design). P.S. Some people will be tempted to answer, that it is just a matter of personal taste. I don't agree. To me it is a design decision with important consequences. So i'd like to see answers where opion about this is backed by some logical and/or technical reasons.

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• SQL Server APPLY Basics

  One of the most interesting additions to SQL Server syntax in SQL Server 2005 was the APPLY operator. It allows several queries that were previously impossible. It is surprisingly difficult to find a simple explanation of what APPLY actually does. Rob Sheldon is the specialist in simple explanations, so we asked him.

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• Oracle to SQL Server: Crossing the Great Divide, Part 2

  A well-known Oracle expert records faithfully his struggles with the unfamiliar : SQL Server. He now sets himself the task of creating a table with a million rows of random data. As one might expect, it is the lack of familiarity with the workarounds and tricks of SQL Server that trips him up. His journey brings us fresh insights, and a glimpse at the alternative-universe of Oracle.

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• Alternative to TOP in SQL Server and Oracle.

  SELECT TOP 5 * FROM EMP ORDER BY SALARY;above query works in SQL Server. This returns top 5 employees. The problem with this query is it doesn't work with Oracle.In Oracle you would need to write the query as follows.SELECT * FROM EMP WHERE ROWNUMIf you are looking for a query which runs in both Oracle and SQL Server. Please use below one.select * from (SELECT row_number() over( ORDER by SALARY) as rank, EMP.* FROM EMP) s1 where s1.rank span.fullpost {display:none;}

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• Advice on database design / SQL for retrieving data with chronological order

  - by Remnant

  I am creating a database that will help keep track of which employees have been on a certain training course. I would like to get some guidance on the best way to design the database. Specifically, each employee must attend the training course each year and my database needs to keep a history of all the dates on which they have attend the course in the past. The end user will use the software as a planning tool to help them book future course dates for employees. When they select a given employee they will see: (a) Last attendance date (b) Projected future attendance date(i.e. last attendance date + 1 calendar year) In terms of my database, any given employee may have multiple past course attendance dates: EmpName AttandanceDate Joe Bloggs 1st Jan 2007 Joe Bloggs 4th Jan 2008 Joe Bloggs 3rd Jan 2009 Joe Bloggs 8th Jan 2010 My question is what is the best way to set up the database to make it easy to retrieve the most recent course attendance date? In the example above, the most recent would be 8th Jan 2010. Is there a good way to use SQL to sort by date and pick the MAX date? My other idea was to add a column called ‘MostRecent’ and just set this to TRUE. EmpName AttandanceDate MostRecent Joe Bloggs 1st Jan 2007 False Joe Bloggs 4th Jan 2008 False Joe Bloggs 3rd Jan 2009 False Joe Bloggs 8th Jan 2010 True I wondered if this would simplify the SQL i.e. SELECT Joe Bloggs WHERE MostRecent = ‘TRUE’ Also, when the user updates a given employee’s attendance record (i.e. with latest attendance date) I could use SQL to: Search for the employee and set the MostRecent value to FALSE Add a new record with MostRecent set to TRUE? Would anybody recommended either method over the other? Or do you have a completely different way of solving this problem?

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• vb6 ADODB connection string to sql server 2008

  - by phill

  I recently migrated a database from sql server 2005 to 2008 on windows server 2008. Clients connect fine from their XP machines and so does the SQL Management Studio 2008. I have also tested a remote connection using LINQPad which worked fine. However on my VB6 app, the connection string seems to give me problems. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? Dim strUserName As String Dim strPassword As String Dim sProc As String sProc = "Class_clsAdoFnx_Initialize" Me.DatabaseName = "db_app" 'Connect to SQL Server strUserName = "admin" strPassword = "mudslinger" Set cSQLConn = New ADODB.Connection '**Original connection String 'cSQLConn.CommandTimeout = 0 'cSQLConn.ConnectionString = " PROVIDER=SQLOLEDB" & _ ' ";SERVER=NET-BRAIN" & _ ' ";UID=" & strUserName & _ ' ";PWD=" & strPassword & _ ' ";DATABASE=" & Me.DatabaseName '***First attempt, no dice 'cSQLConn.ConnectionString = "Provider=sqloledb;" & _ ' "Data Source=NET-BRAIN;" & _ ' "Initial Catalog=DB_APP;" & _ ' "User Id=admin;" & _ ' "Password=mudslinger" 'cSQLConn.Open '***3rd attempt, no dice cSQLConn.Open "Provider=sqloledb;" & _ "Data Source=NET-BRAIN;" & _ "Initial Catalog=db_app;" & _ "User Id=admin;" & _ "Password=mudslinger", "admin", "mudslinger" thanks in advance.

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• How to connect from ruby to MS Sql Server

  - by apetrov

  Hi Crowd! I'm trying to connect to the sql server 2005 database from *NIX machine: I have the following configuration: Linux 64bit ruby -v ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [x86_64-linux] important gems: dbd-odbc (0.2.4) dbi (0.4.1) active record sql server adapter - as plugin ruby-odbc 0.9996 (installed without any options.) unixODBC is installed freeTDS is installed cat /etc/odbcinst.ini [FreeTDS] Description = TDS driver (Sybase/MS SQL) Driver = /usr/lib/libtdsodbc.so Setup = /usr/lib/odbc/libtdsS.so CPTimeout = CPReuse = FileUsage = 1 DSN: DRIVER=FreeTDS;TDS_Version=8.0;SERVER=XXXX;DATABASE=XXX;Port=1433;uid=XXX;pwd=XXXX;" or DRIVER=/usr/lib/libtdsodbc.so;TDS_Version=8.0;SERVER=XXXX;DATABASE=XXX;Port=1433;uid=XXX;pwd=XXXX;" I receive the following error: >>ActiveRecord::Base.sqlserver_connection({"mode"=>"ODBC", "adapter"=>"sqlserver", "dsn"=>my_dns) DBI::DatabaseError: IM002 (0) [unixODBC][Driver Manager]Data source name not found, and no default driver specified from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/DBD/ODBC/ODBC.rb:95:in `connect' from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/dbi.rb:424:in `connect' from /usr/lib/ruby/1.8/dbi.rb:215:in `connect' from /opt/ublip/rails/current/vendor/plugins/activerecord-sqlserver-adapter/lib/active_record/connection_adapters/sqlserver_adapter.rb:47:in `sqlserver_connection' It looks like ODBC unable to find appropriate ODBC driver, but I have no ideas why. I had a problem with /usr/lib/libtdsodbc.so which is empty in default debian package free-tds dev, but i solved it with remove broken package and installation from sources. Will appreciate any thought! Thanks & Regards Note: I'm albe to connect using the same steps on mac 10.5

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• Debugging SQL Server Slowness: Same Database, Different Servers

  - by Craig Walker

  For a while now we've been having anecdotal slowness on our newly-minted (VMWare-based) SQL Server 2005 database servers. Recently the problem has come to a head and I've started looking for the root cause of the issue. Here's the weird part: on the stored procedure that I'm using as a performance test case, I get a 30x difference in the execution speed depending on which DB server I run it on. This is using the same database (mdf) and log (ldf) files, detached, copied, and reattached from the slow server to the fast one. This doesn't appear to be a (virtualized) hardware issue: he slow server has 4x the CPU capacity and 2x the memory as the fast one. As best as I can tell, the problem lies in the environment/configuration of the servers (either operating system or SQL Server installation). However, I've checked a bunch of variables (SQL Server config options, running services, disk fragmentation) and found nothing that has made a difference in testing. What things should I be looking at? What tools can I use to investigate why this is happening?

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• SqlBulkCopy causes Deadlock on SQL Server 2000.

  - by megatoast

  I have a customized data import executable in .NET 3.5 which the SqlBulkCopy to basically do faster inserts on large amounts of data. The app basically takes an input file, massages the data and bulk uploads it into a SQL Server 2000. It was written by a consultant who was building it with a SQL 2008 database environment. Would that env difference be causing this? SQL 2000 does have the bcp utility which is what BulkCopy is based on. So, When we ran this, it triggered a Deadlock error. Error details: Transaction (Process ID 58) was deadlocked on lock resources with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction. I've tried numerous ways to try to resolve it. like temporarily setting the connection string variable MultipleActiveResultSets=true, which wasn't ideal, but it still gives a Deadlock error. I also made sure it wasn't a connection time out problem. here's the function. Any advice? /// <summary> /// Bulks the insert. /// </summary> public void BulkInsert(string destinationTableName, DataTable dataTable) { SqlBulkCopy bulkCopy; if (this.Transaction != null) { bulkCopy = new SqlBulkCopy ( this.Connection, SqlBulkCopyOptions.TableLock, this.Transaction ); } else { bulkCopy = new SqlBulkCopy ( this.Connection.ConnectionString, SqlBulkCopyOptions.TableLock | SqlBulkCopyOptions.UseInternalTransaction ); } bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("FeeScheduleID", "FeeScheduleID"); bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("ProcedureID", "ProcedureID"); bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("AltCode", "AltCode"); bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("AltDescription", "AltDescription"); bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("Fee", "Fee"); bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("Discount", "Discount"); bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("Comment", "Comment"); bulkCopy.ColumnMappings.Add("Description", "Description"); bulkCopy.BatchSize = dataTable.Rows.Count; bulkCopy.DestinationTableName = destinationTableName; bulkCopy.WriteToServer(dataTable); bulkCopy = null; }

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• Dynamic SQL To Dynamic LINQ in VB.NET with MS SQL Server 2008

  - by user337501

  I dread asking this question, because with what I've read so far I understand im gonna have to cram a lotta new things into my head. In spite of all the similiar questions(and the wide variety of answers) I thought I'd ask as nothing I've read tailors to what I need specifically enough. I need to represent the following query using LINQ: DECLARE @PurchasedInventoryItemID Int = 2 DECLARE @PurchasedInventorySectionID Int = 0 DECLARE @PurchasedInventoryItem_PurchasingCategoryID Int = 3 DECLARE @PurchasedInventorySection_PurchasingCategoryID Int = 0 DECLARE @IsActive Bit = 1 DECLARE @PropertyID Int = 2 DECLARE @PropertyValue nvarchar(1000) = 'Granny Smith' --Property1, Property2, Property3 ... SELECT O.PurchasedInventoryObjectID, O.PurchasedInventoryObjectName, O.PurchasedInventoryConjunctionID, O.Summary, O.Count, O.PropertyCount, O.IsActive FROM tblPurchasedInventoryObject As O INNER JOIN tblPurchasedInventoryConjunction As C ON C.PurchasedInventoryConjunctionID = O.PurchasedInventoryConjunctionID INNER JOIN tblPurchasedInventoryItem As I ON I.PurchasedInventoryItemID = C.PurchasedInventoryItemID INNER JOIN tblPurchasedInventorySection As S ON S.PurchasedInventorySectionID = C.PurchasedInventorySectionID INNER JOIN tblPurchasedInventoryPropertyMap as M ON M.PurchasedInventoryObjectID = O.PurchasedInventoryObjectID INNER JOIN tblPropertyValue As V ON V.PropertyValueID = M.PropertyValueID WHERE I.PurchasedInventoryItemID = @PurchasedInventoryItemID AND S.PurchasedInventorySectionID = @PurchasedInventorySectionID AND I.PurchasingCategoryID = @PurchasedInventoryItem_PurchasingCategoryID AND S.PurchasingCategoryID = @PurchasedInventorySection_PurchasingCategoryID AND O.IsActive = @IsActive AND V.PropertyID = @PropertyID AND V.Value = @PropertyValue Now, I know that a query in .NET doesnt look like this, this is my test in the SQL Design Studio. Naturally VB.NET variables will be used in place of the SQL local variables. My problem is this: All of the conditions after "WHERE" are optional. In that a query might be made that uses one, some, all, or none of the conditions. V.PropertyID and V.Value can also appear any number of times. In VB.NET I can make this query easy enough by simply concatenating strings, and using a loop to append the "V.PropertyID/V.Value" conditions. I can also make a Stored Procedure in MS SQL, which is easy enough. However, I want to accomplish this using LINQ. If anyone could direct me, I would be most appreciative.

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