Browse by Tags

All Tags » sql (RSS)
Tuesday, March 04, 2008 11:54 AM

Local Server Group queries

This is really quite cool, especially since it's a tool feature, and one that will help SQL Server 2005 installs. Suppose you have many servers, all registered in Management Studio, in the Registered Servers window. Now you can right-click on the...
Posted by Rob Farley | with no comments
Filed under: ,
Tuesday, March 04, 2008 11:26 AM

Quicker backups by ignoring index data

Sick of how slow backups can run, even though you're using compression from some tool like Hyperbac ? Greg Linwood 's had a good idea to help. A large amount of the data in any database system is the data stored in indexes (copies of the data...
Posted by Rob Farley | with no comments
Filed under:
Tuesday, March 04, 2008 9:17 AM

SQL Server 2008 PowerShell SnapIn

Installing SQL Server 2008 gives you SQLPS.exe, an application you can run which is a PowerShell including the PSDrives for SQL Server (and compatible with SQL Server 2005 as well!). But how do you make this work with your current copy of PowerShell?...
Posted by Rob Farley | 12 comment(s)
Filed under: , ,
Tuesday, March 04, 2008 8:53 AM

Using ScriptingOptions with SQLPS

I've written before that SQL Server 2008 (February CTP) gives you SQLPS - a PowerShell interface to SQL Server. So I was trying to get the ScriptingOptions happening, and this is the only way I've found so far. It's ugly, and if you have a...
Posted by Rob Farley | 2 comment(s)
Filed under: , ,
Saturday, February 23, 2008 4:57 PM

Transfer SQL Server Objects Task internals

How often do you wonder what something's actually doing under the hood (in the way that it talks to SQL Server)? It's a trick I've written about before - when working out how SSRS did multivalue parameters . This time, it's Integration...
Posted by Rob Farley | 1 comment(s)
Filed under: ,
Thursday, January 31, 2008 5:35 PM

The end of collation woes in SQL Server

Collation is a wonderful thing. It's what makes sure that Greek people can see their data in a Greek order, and Germans can see theirs in a German order. It helps us determine whether data should be case sensitive, or whether those little dots and...
Posted by Rob Farley | 2 comment(s)
Filed under:
Tuesday, January 08, 2008 10:34 PM

Querying distances using Spatial data types in SQL 2008

SQL Server 2008 has spatial types which are very useful for all kinds of applications. I thought it would be nice to produce one of those charts like you get in maps, telling you the distance between cities. So I start by populating the data. This uses...
Posted by Rob Farley | 2 comment(s)
Filed under: , ,
Monday, November 26, 2007 5:18 PM

Two ways to find / drop a default constraint without knowing its name

So suppose you've created a default constraint without specifying the name (on a SQL Server 2005 machine). You do know the table and column, of course - you just don't have the name of the default constraint. Now you want to find the name so that...
Posted by Rob Farley | 2 comment(s)
Filed under: ,
Friday, November 23, 2007 8:48 AM

How multi-value query parameters in SSRS are treated by SQL Server

This is something that has bothered for me for a while. In SQL Server Reporting Services, you write a query against a data source, and that becomes the data set for the report. Brilliant. I like to write the query in Management Studio first, and then...
Posted by Rob Farley | 4 comment(s)
Filed under: ,
Thursday, November 22, 2007 12:54 PM

How to format the subtotals of a Reporting Services matrix differently, using InScope

Here's the scenario. Your SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) report has a matrix, showing the sales of each salesperson per year. You put conditional formatting in place so that cells in the matrix that have sales over 1000000 are in a different...
Posted by Rob Farley | 9 comment(s)
Filed under: ,
Thursday, November 01, 2007 8:07 PM

SQL and Virtual Earth

A while back I was talking to Bronwen Zande, of Brisbane-based SoulSolutions and GeekGirlBlogs . Anyway, she and her partner John are big fans of Virtual Earth . As it's well publicised that SQL Server 2008 will have new spatial types , including...
Posted by Rob Farley | with no comments
Filed under: , , ,
Sunday, October 28, 2007 2:01 PM

Time-zone change less of an issue with SQL Server 2008

Today the clocks went forward in most parts of Australia. And in the UK, clocks went back. I spoke to my grandmother in the UK last night - my grandfather turned 83, but he wasn't well enough to speak. And I imagine that in both locations, the fact...
Posted by Rob Farley | with no comments
Filed under:
More Posts Next page »