How to insert fast a file (i.e. binary one) from disk to a SQL Server table?

Certainly the SQL Server account should have a corresponding permissions to access the file on the disk. For example I take the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\oembios.bin having the size about 12 …

There are many examples of user defined table functions generating the series of dates(times) between two specified values. Usually, in OLAP you can see a table filled by the date/time series, too. Such table avoid to generate the values "on the fly".

However, in some cases you may …

How to delete the rows having the duplicated values of one or more columns and considered as duplicates? The example in Transact SQL is below.

SET NOCOUNT ON;
CREATE TABLE #t (
  product_name nvarchar(20),
  vendor_name nvarchar(20)
)
GO
INSERT INTO #t (product_name, vendor_name) VALUES
('SQL Server', 'Microsoft'),
('Oracle', 'Oracle'),
('DB2 …

It's pretty easy on SQL Server but pay attention to the database/server rights of used connection. Usually, the preparing like sp_configure requires a system administrator privileges.

Activate "xp_cmdshell" option (only once)

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
RECONFIGURE;
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1;
RECONFIGURE;

Create and run wrapping stored procedure …

Many years ago we had a need to manipulate the data of types "date" and "time" (DateTime in C# and Delphi/C++Builder). I had developed the corresponding class for these purposes.

Here is the interface with comments:

/*
 * Initializes the object with the values taken from the formatted string like …

Let's see one simple example showing how the methods and the languages of graphical user interface (GUI) description are progressing (or regressing, it depends) during the last 15-20 years.

The primitive form description requires:

1996: Delphi 2

object Form1: TForm1
  Left = 0
  Top = 0
  Caption = 'Test form'
  ClientHeight = 131
  ClientWidth …

Clearly, an index build on only one column of the bit type is useless because the selectivity is poor (50% of a table in average). However, when a table has several columns of the bit type, the composite index may be efficient.

For the test example, we'll create a table …

The one of the most frequent asked question in database development is "How to filter the data returned by a query according to some user selected criteria?". To complete the solution with dynamic ordering see my other blog post.

For every method template I will add icons indicating corresponding advantages …

A quine is a computer program which takes no input and produces a copy of its own source code as its only output. The challenge for programmers is to write the shortest code in the given language. Here are my examples in Transact SQL and in ANSI SQL.

Note that …

There are several methods to implement the dynamic ordering of result returned by SQL query. The examples of stored procedures below use the Microsoft's demo database AdventureWorks.

USE AdventureWorks
GO

Sequence of IF..ELSE

The sequence of IF..ELSE looks not so pretty but is efficient and rapid. When you …