J.T.

Wanted to get your opinion on using this method you proposed versus using Dynamic SQL and say sp_executesql or EXECUTE?

1. does the optimizer handle them diffrently. 

    a. Are they treated as two seperate query plans for the same query or one.

    b. Can XP_EXECRESULTSET take advantage of the caching of multiple calls from various users that sp_executesql can

    c. do you execute a XP_EXECRESULTSET  query with the same SPID as the current connection or is a new one made?

This is all I can think of off the top of my head anyone have other comparisions to ask let them rip.

-- J.T.

"I may not always know what I'm talking about, and you may not either."

I'm not sure how the optimizer would handle them. It would be easy enough to come up with a test query and then execute it via xp_execresultset and a dynamic sql method.

The main advantage of xp_execresultset is that is allows a query to be run in the context of another database without having to switch the current connection to that context. In the article I used FILEPROPERTY which only runs against the current database. I could do this in dynamic SQL (and someone in the forums of Boris Baliner’s article on “Quickly Viewing Available Space” (http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bBaliner/quicklyviewingavailablespace.asp) did just that) However, the result was quite long and required a lot of context switching.

I don't know if xp_execresultset can take advantage of caching but I wouldn't use it in any situation where that might be necessary in any case. As I stated, this is an undocumented procedure and Microsoft dropped it in SQL 2005. Using this procedure in an application would be ill-advised. I presented it as a tool for administrators as an alternative to writing long dynamic sql-based scripts.

Yes, it executes under the same SPID. To determine this add a ,@@SPID to the end of the query in the script, as shown below:

           SET @SQLCmd='SELECT ''SELECT name AS [File],

                  filename as [File Name],

                  CAST(size/128.0 as DECIMAL(10,2)) AS [Size in MB],

                  CAST(FILEPROPERTY(name, ''''SpaceUsed'''')/128.0 as DECIMAL(10,2)) as [Space Used],

                  CAST(size/128.0-(FILEPROPERTY(name, ''''SpaceUsed'''')/128.0) AS DECIMAL(10,2)) AS [Available Space] ,@@SPID

                  FROM SYSFILES'''

-- J.T.

"I may not always know what I'm talking about, and you may not either."

Two questions:

1: the "sid > 1" 

   If the "sa" create a product database,the sid in the sysdatabases table will be 'Ox01'.Then the command doesn't work well.

2:the query listed below

Declare @DBName sysname
Declare @SqlCmd Nvarchar(2000)
Set @DBName = ''

While @DBName Is not NULL
Begin
 Select @DBName = Min(Name) From master..sysdatabases Where sid > 1 And Name > @DBName
 Set @SqlCmd = 'SELECT ''SELECT name AS [File], filename as [File Name]
    , CAST(size/128.0 as DECIMAL(10,2)) AS [Size in MB]
    , CAST(FILEPROPERTY(name, ''''SpaceUsed'''')/128.0 as DECIMAL(10,2)) as [Space Used]
   , CAST(size/128.0-(FILEPROPERTY(name, ''''SpaceUsed'''')/128.0) AS DECIMAL(10,2)) AS [Available Space] FROM SYSFILES'''

 IF @DBName is NULL Break
 Exec Master..xp_execresultset @SqlCmd,@DBName
End

It just return "Command(s) completed successfully."

Thanks for mentioning that the xp_execresultset is missing from SQL Server 2005.  Yikes!  Before retiring your SQL Server 2000 servers, do this--

1) Copy proc sp_execresultset from the master database of any server, and create it in the master database of the SQL Server 2005 server.  (The xp_execresultset is unike other xp_ procs; it isn't compiled and reading it shows that it calls sp_execresultset.)

2) Copy proc xp_execresultset from the master database of any server, and create it in the master database of the SQL Server 2005 server, named sp_execresultset2.  (Doesn't work if you name it xp_ -- and, proc can be named sp_ to be called from databases other than master without "exec master.." -- at least that is true in SQL Server 2000.)

3) Edit the script to refer to sp_execresultset2 in place of master.dbo.xp_execresultset.

Take out the sid>1 conditional from the where clause.

One of the readers, Scott, pointed out that the SID=1 means sa created the database and that this isn't a good way to limit tha query to non-system databases. That should solve the problem. You are, as you pointed out, probably excluding all of your user databases as well because they were created by 'sa'.

Declare @DBName sysname
Declare @SqlCmd Nvarchar(2000)
Set @DBName = ''

While @DBName Is not NULL
Begin
 Select @DBName = Min(Name) From master..sysdatabases Where Name > @DBName
 Set @SqlCmd = 'SELECT ''SELECT name AS [File], filename as [File Name]
    , CAST(size/128.0 as DECIMAL(10,2)) AS [Size in MB]
    , CAST(FILEPROPERTY(name, ''''SpaceUsed'''')/128.0 as DECIMAL(10,2)) as [Space Used]
   , CAST(size/128.0-(FILEPROPERTY(name, ''''SpaceUsed'''')/128.0) AS DECIMAL(10,2)) AS [Available Space] FROM SYSFILES'''

 IF @DBName is NULL Break
 Exec Master..xp_execresultset @SqlCmd,@DBName
End

-- J.T.

"I may not always know what I'm talking about, and you may not either."

Good ideas. Just remember that this is still unsupported so don't call Redmond if you have problems with it.

That's what we're all here for anyway.

-- J.T.

"I may not always know what I'm talking about, and you may not either."

Really neat. Thanks.

I appreciated the cut and paste script in the comments. The graphic image of the script in the article was frustrating.

-Robert

-- J.T.

"I may not always know what I'm talking about, and you may not either."

Got it ...

Thanks