FUNCTION

Question

FUNCTION

achowe

SSCrazy

Points: 2075
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July 22, 2003 at 3:08 am

#159548

Can anyone explain to me how the following function works and what it is trying to acheive?Thanx!
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[refiner] ()
RETURNS varchar(255) AS
BEGIN
EXEC master..xp_cmdshell 'c:\pcplus\refiner.exe /auto=2'
return "done"
END
If riding in a plane is flying, then riding in a boat must be swimming. To experience the element, get out of the vehicle. Skydive!
Edited by - achowe on 07/22/2003 03:08:55 AM

If riding in a plane is flying, then riding in a boat must be swimming. To experience the element, get out of the vehicle. Skydive!

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MarkusB SSC-Dedicated Points: 37370 More actions · Answer 1

Basically what the function does is running a programm refiner and the returns the output as a string value. If you wanna know more about Refiner check this site:

http://www.afd.co.uk/pcpman/Refiner/

[font="Verdana"]Markus Bohse[/font]

mccork SSC-Insane Points: 22288 More actions · Answer 2

Actually it's not returning the output of Refiner. It's returning the string "done" in all cases, whether Refiner works ok, fails, or even not there at all.

Cheers,
- Mark

achowe SSCrazy Points: 2075 More actions · Answer 3

Thats what I thought.....we just cant seem to get refiner running using xp_cmdshell

If riding in a plane is flying, then riding in a boat must be swimming. To experience the element, get out of the vehicle. Skydive!

mccork SSC-Insane Points: 22288 More actions · Answer 4

Is refiner working ok using the same host command from a command prompt?

When using the command prompt, are you logged on as the same Windows account as MSSQLServer?

Should you save a Refiner session file and then utilise that session file with the /Session command line option?

Do you need to also use the Minimise=Yes and /Splash=No command line options?

Is this really a job for a SQL Server FUNCTION or are you better off with a PROCEDURE?

At this stage I'd step back and try to get it running from QA before progressing to a stored procedure or function. To capture the results of xp_cmdshell (provided of course the refiner command runs to completion) I suggest:

 

DROP TABLE #Refiner

GO

SET NOCOUNT ON

CREATE TABLE #Refiner (ID INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY, Result VARCHAR(250))



INSERT #Refiner EXEC master.dbo.xp_cmdshell 'c:\pcplus\refiner.exe /auto=2'



SELECT Result FROM #Refiner WHERE Result IS NOT NULL ORDER BY ID

Cheers,
- Mark