A Function Gotcha with the Use of an Asterisk
This article describes and demonstrates the problem of using asterisk to select all fields from a table within a table function. (from Apr 2008)
2009-09-11 (first published: 2008-04-30)
18,679 reads
Stephen Lasham
- Interests: Photography
Converting Hexadecimal String Values to Alpha (ASCII) Strings
In an interesting exercise in data conversion, Stephen Lasham brings us a nice article on basic manipulations.
2008-04-25 (first published: 2007-05-17)
12,860 reads
Finding Gaps in a Sequential Number Sequence
Do you use identity values? Do missing values ever cause problems? Maybe you need to look for missing invoices? Stephen Lasham brings us a technique for finding those missing values in a sequence.
2006-04-03
14,665 reads
Reporting a menu structure using a recursive UDF
Selecting a menu structure from a series of tables is pretty easy. If you bound the number of levels in the menu. However if you have potentially variable numbers of levels. Stephen Lasham brings us a new piece on using recursion to select the data.
2005-10-11
8,812 reads
Extracting a String Within Delimeters - Part 2
T-SQL can be a complex language to work within and code solutions with. Author Stephen Lasham brings us a twist on his last solution of extracting a string from within another string. Read about his method of working with strings in T-SQL.
2004-09-13
7,861 reads
Extracting a String From Between Two Delimiting Characters
String manipulation in SQL Server or T-SQL can be a challenage. There are multiple ways to accomplish every task and often learning a new one may spark some creativity in yourself or teach you a better way to accomplish an old task. New Author Stephen Lasham brings us his technique for extracting a string that is delimited from within a larger string. Something I'm sure we'll all have use for in the future.
2004-06-14
23,107 reads
Blogs
A New Word: Ecstatic Shock
By Steve Jones
ecstatic shock – n. a surge of energy upon catching a glimpse from someone...
The CDO’s Playbook for AI Driven Decision Making
By Chris Yates
The New Arena of Leadership The role of the Chief Data Officer is no...
sp_snapshot – The easy way to take database snapshots of one or more databases – V3.0
Presenting you with an updated version of our sp_snapshot procedure, allowing you to easily...
Forums
Lessons from the Postmark-MCP Backdoor
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Lessons from the Postmark-MCP Backdoor
Arc Enabled SQL Server
Just saw the "Azure Extension for SQL Server" Does anyone has experience with it?...
Recursive Select - What is this really doing
I've noticed several instances of what looks like a recursive insert with the format:...
Question of the Day
The Maximum Value in the Identity Column
I have a table with this data:
TravelLogID CityID StartDate EndDate 1 1 2025-01-01 2025-01-06 2 2 2025-01-01 2025-01-06 3 3 2025-01-01 2025-01-06 4 4 2025-01-01 2025-01-06 5 5 2025-01-01 2025-01-06I run this code:
SELECT IDENT_CURRENT('TravelLog')
I get the value 5 back. Now I do this:
SET IDENTITY_INSERT dbo.TravelLog ON
INSERT dbo.TravelLog
(
TravelLogID,
CityID,
StartDate,
EndDate
)
VALUES
(25, 5, '2025-09-12', '2025-09-17')
SET IDENTITY_INSERT dbo.TravelLog OFF
I now run this code.
DBCC CHECKIDENT(TravelLog)
GO
INSERT dbo.TravelLog
(
CityID,
StartDate,
EndDate
)
VALUES
(4, '2025-10-14', '2025-10-17')
GO
What is the value for TravelLogID for the row I inserted for CityID 4 and dates starting on 14 Oct 2025?
See possible answers