This article is a re-publication of my original article on SQL Server central. The article is now re-published by Quest Software. The article basically provides an introduction to Service Broker with a simple example.

(February, 5, 2005)

User Defined Types in SQL Server 2005 is a great new feature that allows you to extend the type system of the database. By authoring your new data type as .NET assemblies according to a specific contract, you can register these assemblies in the database and then use the types in them. This new capability opens up a lot of interesting possibilities in the database to store information. This article provides an overview of how to create, define and use user defined types using an example. We also see how to consume the user defined type from a client application like ADO.NET

(November, 28, 2005)

SQL Server 2005 CLR Streaming Table Valued Functions is a new mechanism wherein, the results generated from a table valued functions can be consumed immediately in the code rather than waiting for all the results to be available (as was the case in regular T-SQL table valued functions). This article explores the basics of this new model and provides examples of this new feature.

(November, 2, 2005)

Native Web Services (also called HTTP Endpoints) is a new feature in SQL Server 2005 that allows you to expose stored procedures and scalar functions are web service methods that applications like Visual Studio consume. This capability has great benefits when non Microsoft applications try to connect to SQL Server and get some data. In this article, we will explore the basics of the native web services capability and also write a sample application demonstrating the concept.

(October 11, 2005)

In this second part of exploring the Service Broker in SQL Server 2005, we see how to write bi-directional message based applications and how to handle different message types.

(August 30, 2005)

This is the first in a series of many articles that will explore the features of the new Service Broker technology that is introduced in SQL Server 2005. Service Broker allows you to write reliable, scalable and transacted message oriented asynchronous database applications. In this article, we explore the basics of Service Broker and write our first Service Broker application.

(June 30, 2005)

Using the concept of CTEs, recursive CTEs allow you to write power expressions that can traverse hierarchies. Something that was very cumbersome to do in SQL Server 2000. In this article, we explore the concept of recursive CTEs, and how they work along with some samples.

(March 3, 2005)

Common Table Expressions (CTEs) in SQL Server 2005 are a new way of writing derived table expressions. With added features like readability and re-usability, CTEs are a good thing to know abut. In this article, we explore the basics of CTEs and how to write some simple ones.

(March 2, 2005)

User Defined Aggregates (UDAs) are a new concept in SQL Server 2005 which allows you to write custom aggregate functions. For example, you can write a custom aggregate function that computes a comma-separated string. This articles explores how to write UDAs and shows a couple of sample implementations.

(October 9, 2004)

This article presents a simple application that displays various database properties in a report. We then show how to manipulate the database connection string for the report using the web-service capabilities.

(September 11, 2004)

This article offers a beginner insight into the new DTS tool that comes with SQL Server 2005. We explore the basic features, capabilities and architecture of DTS and show a simple example of using DTS.

(August 21, 2004)

This article explains access to SQL RS reports using the web-service and then uses that concept to build a sample application.

(August 21, 2004)

This article explains access to SQL RS reports using a URL and using that concept to embedd reports inside an application.

(August 16, 2004)

This article explains how to access .NET components from SQL Server by using wrapper objects. This article has been updated from its earlier version.

(July 26, 2004)

Yukon promises many improvements over the existing version of SQL Server, SQL Server 2000. The one thing that really interests me is the integration of the .NET Framework within the SQL engine. In this article, you will see some basic examples of .NET integration in Yukon and how you can write .NET code that can be called from Yukon.

(April 20th, 2004)

SQL Server Reporting Services provides excellent support to integrate parameters into reports to enable users visualize only what they want. In this article we will see some basic features of using parameters in SQL Reporting Services.

(March 28th, 2004)

SQL Server Reporting Services is the new addition to SQL Server that provides a set of tools for creating, managing and publishing reports. The platfrom is a server based model and integrates with the Visual Studio IDE for report design. In this article, we will see some of the basic building blocks of Reporting Services and how to develop a simple report.

(March 7th, 2004)

Provides a quick introduction of how to trace statements executing in SQL Server using SQL Profiler.

(December 28th, 2003)

Triggers in SQL Server 2000 can be either enabled or disabled. This article shows how you can find out the status of a trigger and also manipulate it.

(November 24th, 2003)

Links to information, artiles, blogs and presentations on Yukon, the next generation database server from Microsoft.

(November 14, 2003)

This article shows how you can determine the name of your current database.

(November 9, 2003)

This article shows how you can determine the number of rows in each table of a database using documented and un-documented features.

(October 12, 2003)

This article explains how to extend basic SQL Server processing by accessing external COM objects. For example, we will see how to load an XML from a file and use it in SQL Server.

(October 4, 2003)

This article explains how to access OLE automation objects like COM DLL's from SQL Server using the sp_OA set of procedures.

(October 4, 2003)

This article explains how to retrieve the the contents of the identity column without knowing its name.

(October 4, 2003)

This article explains how to check whether a table has an identity column using various methods.

(October 4, 2003)

This article explains how to write a function that can be used to proper case a string.

(October 4, 2003)

SQL Server 2000 provides excellent support for XML. With the advent of SQLXML, the XML features of the database are segregated into a seperate component that keeps changing and improving! One of the cool new features of SQLXML is the ability to visualize relational tables as XML views. This article provides an insight into how this feature of SQLXML can be used.

(September 02, 2003)

Many organizations have various islands of data that would need to be integrated. DTS provides a set of tools that allow the consolidation and transformation of data from various sources (governed by DTS connectivity) into single or multiple destinations. This article explores the basic features of DTS and also looks a couple of sample programs.

(August 19, 2003)

This article explains how to convert numbers to words using T-SQL.

(August 18, 2003)

This article explains how to use SQL-DMO to work with SQL Server.

(August 1, 2003)

This article explains how to script all the indexes in a database.

(July 27, 2003)

This article explains how to add a new trigger on an existing table.

(July 27, 2003)

This article explains how to script all the indexes of a table.

(July 27, 2003)

This article provides an overview of how to use the OPENXML command of SQL Server to play around with XML.

(July 22, 2003)

This article provides an overview of how to use the FOR XML EXPLICIT formatting in SQL Server.

(July 22, 2003)

This article provides an overview of the various FOR XML options available in SQL Server.

(July 22, 2003)

This article provides an overview of how to apply formatting on the client for URL queries.

(July 22, 2003)

This article provides an overview of how to use query templates to access SQL Server data via a URL.

(July 22, 2003)

This article looks at how you can call URL queries with parameters.

(July 22, 2003)

This article looks at how you can call stored procedures (with and without parameters) via a URL query.

(July 20, 2003)

This article looks at how you can find all the SQL Servers on the network.

(July 20, 2003)

This article looks at how you can transfer large amounts of data between tables.

(July 20, 2003)

This article looks at how you can access command line tools from a SQL Server stored procedure.

(July 20, 2003)

This article looks at how you can use derived columns to store computed values in SQL Server.

(July 20, 2003)

This article looks at how you can access enterprise manager user interfaces using SQLNS.

(July 15, 2003)

This article looks at how you can get the source code for SQL Server objects like a stored procedure.

(July 13, 2003)

This article looks at how you can use SQL Server Application Roles to provide custom security features for your application.

(July 8, 2003)

This article looks at how you can enable SQL Server to accept web services queries for its objects.

(July 6, 2003)

This article looks at how you can quickly duplicate the structure of a table.

(July 6, 2003)

This article looks at how you can determine all the columns available in a table.

(July 6, 2003)

This article looks at how you can determine the binary equivalent of a given integer number.

(July 6, 2003)

This article looks at how you can determine all the "ON" bits in a given integer number.

(July 6, 2003)

This article looks at how you can use the extended properties capabilities of SQL Server to generate some interesting applications.

(June 29, 2003)

This article looks at how you can find the number of days in a given month. The code also demonstrates how you can generate the number of days for all the months in a given year.

(June 29, 2003)

This article looks at how you can generate comma-seperated files using the BCP command.

(June 20, 2003)

This article looks at how you can customize the output of a URL-based query using stylesheets.

(June 20, 2003)

This article looks at how you can configure SQL Server to accept URL-based queries.

(June 20, 2003)

This article looks at how you can pick random rows from a SQL Server table

(June 19, 2003)

Often organizations have a need to generate "catalog" pages that contain information from a particular source (for example, list of products). The information in this page changes periodically and thus, the page will have to reflect these changes as and when they occur. There are many ways to generate such pages, but SQL Server gives a very cost effective solution using the sp_makewebtask procedure that allows the automation of these pages along with the ability to embed rich content. These pages can also be scheduled to be re-generated periodically and also when data changes. This article looks at how we can use this procedure.

(June 03, 2003)