Hi all,

I agree with all the posts above. But I also think that probably a simple typo was made when entering the question in the database, for the following reasons:

1. The...

Hi Adrian,

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't have that luxury. I am well aware of how much some third-party DBs suck, and how awful it can be to be stuck...

Hi David,

I am aware that Books Online calls CASE a "function". This is incorrect, though, for the following two reasons.

1. Functions always take the form functionname(argument, ...). The CASE expression...

Hi Thomas,

"the example given in the question" - Huh? I just went back and checked the question to make sure, but there is no example at all given in the...

Since SQL does not have a CASE statement, but does have a CASE expression, the answer depends on the interpretation of the question.

Are we supposed to assume that the question's...

Hi Bonnie,

Usage of bitmasks was very common and useful up until the seventies, when memory footprint off applications and data came at a premium. If you have to run a...

Hi Adrian,

Try to visualize a life without bitmasks instead.....

Remember the rules for first normal form - every column should only hold atomic values. Clearly, a bit mask violates that rule....

The question is okay (though I'd personally prefer to ignore the bitwise operators - too much people with a string backgroun in procedurall programming and a weak level of DBMS...

Hi Noel,

(I hope this doesn't show up double - I repost because my previous reply appears to be vanished)

The question reads: "You (...) are concerned that your developers might change...

Hi Steve,

I just checked the revised version of the answers and I agree that this should solve the issue for future visitors. I'd personally change the wording of the third...

Hi Steve,

It is of course still crystal clear that answers 1 and 2 ("need to apply _all_ hot fixes since ...") are wrong.

But answer 3 ("only apply the latest hot...

Hi all,

The answer labeled as "correct", is, in fact, NOT correct. Recently, Microsoft has changed it's policy regarding hotfixes. There are now two parallel tracks, the GDR track (containing fixes...

Hi Stewart,

The timestamp (or, as I prefer to call it, rowversion) datatype is intended to be used for optimistic concurrency control.

Imagine an application that reads a row, displays the data...

Hi Roy,

I'd say that the opposite is true. None of the answers is correct.

The value in a timestamp column is not a date, a time, or a datetime. Neither is...

For completeness' sake, it should be added that:

1. It's actually the DUMP TRANSACTION command that backups the transaction log. DUMP DATABASE backups the database.

2. The DUMP command is deprecated.

3. SQL...