Technical Article

Function to Split a Delimited String into a Table

This function splits a delimited string (up to 4000 characters long) into a single column table. The delimiter can be specified at the time of execution. If not specified, the delimiter defaults to a comma. The default length of each value is 100, but that can easily be changed.An example for usage:DECLARE @string NVARCHAR(4000)DECLARE @instruments […]

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2007-05-25 (first published: )

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Technical Article

Drop a Column and its Constraints and Indexes

Drops the specified column from the specified table as well as any constraints and indexes that depend on the column. By default the script will just find the corresponding column, constraints, and indexes.Comes in handy for patching databases.

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2007-01-24 (first published: )

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Technical Article

Backup any/all Databases (Native AND LiteSpeed friendly)

This script can run backups for any/all databases using both SQL native and Quest's SQL LiteSpeed product. It includes options for Complete (Full), Differential, and Transaction Log backups (File and File Group backups will be coming soon). It will also clean up old backups and the msdb tables accordingly.See script for a full parameter list.NOTE: […]

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2006-10-25 (first published: )

5,182 reads

Technical Article

Function to return the SQL Build Number

This function returns the SQL Build Number as a nvarchar(20) string. i.e. '8.00.760' @@Version is great, but super long, and the formatting of the string has changed over the years. This helps me find out what build of SQL I'm working on in a quick and efficient manner. The script includes the drop statement as […]

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2006-08-09 (first published: )

1,060 reads

Technical Article

Function to return the SQL Version Number

This function returns the SQL Build Number as an int. i.e. 7, 8, or 9. @@Version is great, but super long, and the formatting of the string has changed over the years. This helps me find out what version of SQL I'm working on in a quick and efficient manner. The script includes the drop […]

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2006-08-08 (first published: )

1,275 reads

Technical Article

Stored Procedure to get Job History (with Steps)

This procedure returns the job history for any jobs run on a given day. The parameter should be entered in mm/dd/yyyy format surrounded by single quotes. I use it to produce a report of any jobs that failed on any given day.It should be created on the MSDB database.Example: EXEC usp_job_history '10/02/2004' This is my […]

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2004-10-04

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Question of the Day

Symmetric Key Encryption

If I run this statement in SQL Server 2025, how is the password encrypted?

CREATE SYMMETRIC KEY MySymmetricKey
WITH ALGORITHM = AES_256,
KEY_SOURCE = 'My secret key source passphrase',
IDENTITY_VALUE = 'My secret identity value'
ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'S&perS#cretP@ssword7';
GO

See possible answers