Bulk Data Load Using OLEDB Template Libraries
New Author! This is a fairly article that looks at how to do bulk data loading at a very (very) low level. You'll need to be able to read code to make use of this.
2003-10-23
5,888 reads
Miscellaneous
For SQL Server, XML Is One Answer
New author! Nick discusses why 'XML is One Answer', outlining some of what he believes are key points about using XML with SQL Server. This is a follow up (and sort of counter point) to another great article we had here on the site a couple weeks ago by Don Peterson. Good stuff!
2003-10-22
5,784 reads
Convert IP address to numeric equivalent
This script converts string-based IP addresses to their numeric equivalents so that it is easy to do arithmatic on them such as find an IP address that is within a range.NOTE: This function calls the split function which is included in the post.
2003-10-20
1,597 reads
Is XML the Answer?
New Author! Don Peterson writes his first article for us and explores why he considers XML to be...bad! There are some interesting points made here and if you've haven't thought about what XML means to you as a DBA, it's a subject worth spending some time on.
2008-05-02 (first published: 2003-10-07)
64,859 reads
REVISED Dynamic Crosstab Query
Here is a revised version of the crosstab query I submitted last week. This new version avoids the WHILE loop (which was used in my pervious version) and is thus COMPLETELY SET-ORIENTED for better performance.
2003-10-03
822 reads
Selecting XML out
I have a table with multiple rows for Description belonging to one Heading. For each row of data I need a .The xml should look like this: A heading 234567890123456789010 234567890123456789010 234567890123456789010 ...(to ) A heading 234567890123456789010 234567890123456789010 ...(to )
2003-10-03
335 reads
White Board, Flip Chart, or Notepad?
Andy discusses the low tech tools he uses at the office to convey problems and describe solutions. He also provides some interesting links you will want to browse.
2003-10-02
4,667 reads
2003-10-01
476 reads
Add carriage return every nth char
This script will take a string (8000) and add a carriage return at the closest space to nth char. e.g. You only want 50 characters per line. This will add carriage return at the closest space before the 50th character.
2003-09-30
274 reads
Creating a Dynamic Crosstab Query
Crosstab queries (also called "pivot tables") in which you know beforehand the number of column values to aggregate by, can easily be performed in T-SQL using CASE statements wrapped in the SUM function. Where things get tricky, however, is when you don't know how many aggregation values exist, and you are required to write a […]
2003-09-26
3,799 reads
Blogs
T-SQL Tuesday #203: Risk and Reward
By Steve Jones
This is timely, as I’m currently on a boat in the Adriatic taking a...
dataMinds Connect 2026 – Slides & Scripts
You can find the slides and SQL scripts for my session “Spice up your...
How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later)
By SQLPals
How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later) Updated...
Forums
Using CHOOSE()
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Using CHOOSE()
Re-Seeding a Broken Log Shipping Secondary (Without Touching the Primary)
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Re-Seeding a Broken Log Shipping...
The DBA is Dead! Long Live the !
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The DBA is Dead! Long...
Question of the Day
Using CHOOSE()
We have this code that sets some status values and then queries them using the CHOOSE() function in SQL Server 2025.
CREATE TABLE Status
(
StatusID INT,
StatusDescription VARCHAR(20)
);
GO
INSERT dbo.Status
(
StatusID,
StatusDescription
)
VALUES
(0, 'Uncategorized'),
(1, 'Active'),
(2, 'Inactive'),
(3, 'Temp');
GO
SELECT CHOOSE(StatusID, 'Unknown', 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Temporary')
FROM Status;
When the SELECT runs, what is returned? See possible answers