Probably the answer being looked for was "query the Excel file and compare to the table". Most people would, I think, make the same mistake Sean did and assume...

By search for a string, do you mean search for a word within the XML, or search for a substring within the XML?

If words, then Full Text Indexing can work...

If you're not on Enterprise, it's not an option.

But a warehouse type solution would be, regardless of SQL edition.

Snapshot's definitely a great idea if...

I know how it goes on not being able to post because of IP policies, security, et al. I was just hoping you could, because we could probably help.

Instead...

Sean Lange (1/27/2012)

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Not sure what answer the interviewer was looking for but a couple of things come to my mind. First open the spreadsheet and compare row count from the...

If the spreadsheet had a checksum for each row, it would be easy to check that against the imported data by checksumming what comes in vs that.

Pretty much anything else...

You're welcome.

I'd need a lot more than just the script to begin fixing that, as already mentioned.

Table and UDF definitions, definitely, and some insert statements to generate sample data, would start.

I...

Sorry about that. I have a Numbers table that includes integer values from 0-10,000. Comes in handy for dozens of uses.

You probably only need a limited scope for...

There are a couple of ways to do that. Best (if you're in SQL 2005 or later), is the Output clause:

insert into dbo.MyTable (column list)

output inserted.*

values (value list);

If you're...

Brandie Tarvin (1/27/2012)

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GSquared (1/27/2012)

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Brandie Tarvin (1/27/2012)

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So, question of the day. How do you help people who refuse to be helped? People who are resistant to your suggestions of "test it"...

Foreign keys can only reference tables in the same database. They can't reference functions, views, et al.

You might be able to compensate for that with a trigger on the...

I understand the temptation, truly do.

Just don't succumb to it.

Or...

Brandie Tarvin (1/27/2012)

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So, question of the day. How do you help people who refuse to be helped? People who are resistant to your suggestions of "test it" or "try this".

I'm...

GilaMonster (1/27/2012)

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My favourite 'not enough information' recently was at SQLTeam. Question basically stated "The following code throws an error. Please help

Dim CPDHourUpdate As SqlDataSource = New SqlDataSource() CPDHourUpdate.ConnectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings("Application").ToString()...