Using BCP to export the contents of MAX datatypes to a file
Phil Factor presents a poetic stored procedure for storing any VARCHAR(MAX) to file.
CLR: Reflections on Reflection
Do you wish callers of your library could describe their types to you programmatically? Read a little about reflection in CLR Programming.
Microsoft Indexing Service HOW-TO
This article describes how to provide full text search using Microsoft Indexing Service in .NET applications.
Using Fuzzy Lookups for Record Linkage
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) includes two very interesting transforms, the Fuzzy Grouping and Fuzzy Lookup transformations. Brian Norberg discussed the former in another article and this time examines the Fuzzy Lookup Transformation.
Making SQL Server 2005 Integration Services Packages Portable
SSIS introduced a feature called "Package Configurations". Package configurations allow us to make SSIS packages portable and help us change SQL Server and file connectivity information dynamically.
Transaction Isolation and the New Snapshot Isolation Level
Concurrency and transaction isolation are a prickly subject, difficult to explain with any kind of clarity without boring the reader and leaving their poor brain in a complete muddle. Therefore, it is often ignored in the vain hope it won't affect us and we can forget all about it. Well you can't ignore it any more and with SQL Server 2005 there's a whole new isolation level added to the four that already exist.
Temporarily Changing an Unknown Password of the sa Account
You are asked for the sa password for a SQL Server in order to perform a software upgrade. You, the DBA, don't know the password and it's not documented. Rodney Landrum provides a way out of this dilemma, demonstrating two techniques for temporarily changing the password, and then returning it to its previous unknown value.
Encryption: Not the End-All Fix for Data Privacy
Many state data-breach laws exempt encrypted data from PR-nightmare public-notice requirements, but don't let that fool you into thinking it's an easy answer to the data privacy challenge. Here's the lowdown on loopholes, caveats and options to consider when applying encryption.
SQL Agent - A Job Scheduler Framework
In this article, I'll show you how to create a generic scheduler that runs on a Windows Service. The scheduler will be able to accept pluggable actions that we can develop later implementing a custom interface.
Background
Blogs
2025 Wrapped for Steve
By Steve Jones
I’ve often done some analysis of my year in different ways. Last year I...
The Book of Redgate: Spread across the world
By Steve Jones
This was Redgate in 2010, spread across the globe. First the EU/US Here’s Asia...
Merry Christmas
By John
Today is Christmas and while I do not expect anybody to actual be reading...
Forums
SQL Server 2019 - Agent job PowerShell step issue
I have a couple of SQL Agent job steps which run PowerShell commands of...
Database security permissions save script
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Database security permissions save script
Database backup job steps
I have a SQL Agent job for backing up a set of Analysis Services...
Question of the Day
The Large Encoded Value
I want to use the new BASE64_ENCODE() function in SQL Server 2025, but return a string that isn't large type. What is the longest varbinary string I can pass in and still get a varchar(8000) returned?
See possible answers