Ok, so real database developers don't use the graphical "Design Query in Editor"... yeah, I know. Sure, there's the odd time when you're typing a query and you don't have an Object Explorer (eg, in SSIS) and a moment of weakness sees you hit "Build Query" to save some typing, but in general I encourage people to ...

I feel like I keep finding reasons to use SQL Server 2008 Management Studio with SQL 2005 instances, and here's another - the COPY_ONLY option now appears on the Backup dialog box (others include the DROP & CREATE scripting option, multi-server queries and the Select Top 1000 Rows menu entry). It's not a new option (it just ...

The hairy Irishman (his description - I just call him Sacha) is presenting to the Adelaide SQL Server User Group today, talking about improvements in SQL Server 2008 Integration Services. Right now he's talking about the No Match output of the Lookup Component, and I'm wondering why I had always just accepted that in SQL 2005, rows that ...

This is an oldie, but a goodie. I was talking to Dave Gardiner about a question he had recently, the question of how to dynamically sort the results of a T-SQL query. He was thinking of something like this: --Not so useful - only works in a stored procedure IF (@order = 'Column1')     SELECT * from Table1 ORDER BY Column1 ...

It's nice to give Microsoft feedback and get the product changed! I first mentioned this in a post last month and logged a connect.microsoft.com entry. Microsoft checked it out, invesigtaed, and have now put a new property into SQL Server 2008 to resolve it! They write: Thanks a lot for your feedback. We are taking a look at this ...

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 Local Server Group, and pick the "New Query" option. Write a query, and it gives you a ...

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 in tables, just ordered differently) to help your queries run faster, so if you can tell the system ...

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? Well, I just worked this out. Darren Gosbell was lamenting with me about the fact that it's ...

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 better way of doing this, please post a comment for me. ...

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 Services' turn. SSIS has this Transfer SQL Server Object task, designed to be able to ...