Happened to run across this and since my old web site is no longer active, here is the link to the post that would have been on my web site...

Another alternative for people who like to type as little as possible:

Try ctrl+shift+Q, which brings up the query designer (in SSMS) using the database of the current connection. Then...

Another alternative follows. Note that the error message contains details such as

the parameter values at the time of error and the name of the stored procedure

(or you could...

Generally speaking that is absolutely correct that a "select *" will be expensive. However, in this case the "Exists" keyword negates that effect, because apparently it tells the query...

Marek,

Why use "Row Count component"? Do you mean @@rowcount, or are you suggesting something else? Note that the request was to determine whether a table had rows at...

An alternative way to check if a table has records, if you don't need to know the rowcount:

[font="Courier New"]IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM mytable)

SET @loadtable=0 ...[/font]

In my quick tests, it...

Deana,

Your large Monday tran log backup may be due to a maintenance plan optimizations job (rebuilding all the indexes) - by default it will run at 1am Sunday if someone...

Lots of good info here, but might I suggest that you really should care about space.  Good database design means using the right datatype for the data that will be used. ...

Phil,

In this case, you may not even need to use global variables, but I've included in this sample some code that would allow you to do so depending on your needs. 

To...

 EXEC master..sp_addsrvrolemember @loginame = N'Domain\Username', @rolename = N'sysadmin'

Note that...

Yes, you can easily pass a global variable value into the Execute Process Task - simply use a Dynamic Properties Task.  This can be used to set a wide variety...

Can you do a point in time restore with the imaging software?  You can w/SQL backups.  How long would it take to get a DB restored from an image, and...

Kevin,

Actually, I think your crash when clicking "Define Columns" is a different issue: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814113/en-us .

A few years ago, I had a problem that sounds like yours: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=19&messageid=14383#bm71433

Since this issue is related to...

Perhaps someone accidentally un-registered it?  It is registered by default when the client tools are loaded.

Anyway, you should be able to find "custtask.dll" in

"C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\80\Tools\Binn"

If the file is there,...

I'm not sure what you mean by "running the script" and "hosted".  For my example, I had the code in an activex task within a DTS package.  If I simply run...