This is fun and interesting as far as examples go, but the overall idea of integrating Web API calls in database implementation may do more harm than good. There are...

Because you have lots of other ways (including SSIS) to accomplish the same and because I like separation of resposibility in my architecture and beacuse (in my view) each piece...

In my opinion this one thing you should not use CLR integration for... it is cool and interesting, but I would not do it in a production environment

Please provide SQL Server version and SP level for better support. I have seen that while working with VERY large BLOBs in pre SP1 servers (didn't try in SP2 and...

Make your compression function deterministic by decorating it with [Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlFunction(ISDeterministic=true)] wrap the function in a T-SQL user define function and check the BLOB length with DATALENGTH() before calling the CRL...

Grasshopper,

There was a limitation on how much memory you can allocate in a single [font="Courier New"]new byte[] [/font]call in SQL 2005 pre SP2. I don't know if that is the...

JoeA:

Thanks for pointing this out. You are right, I actually responded yesterday to an issue someone had with this code in SQL Server SP1. He was setting the same varbinary(max)...

Juan Carlos:

SQL Server 2005 has built-in encryption, a pretty cool feature that MS acquire from three different vendors. Check the books online, you probably find plenty of documentation there. Having...

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to comment on this article, there are some valid points here (and some I disagree with). A valid point: This...

Utsab:

1 - Yes, your best choice is BCP, make sure to set the database to BULK-LOGGED recovery model, also check BOL for non-logged BCP operations.

2 - I check their forums and...

There is a tool (SQLCompress.NET by Lago Information Technologies http://www.sqlcompress.net) about to be released (is in RC2 as I type). It does server side column level compression, it is...

Let me add some more advantages should you decide to go with 2005. NVARCHAR(MAX), VARCHAR(MAX) and VARBINARY(MAX) can store up to 2 GB of data and behave pretty much like the...