xp_backup_database takes parameters.  Why are you building a string?

EXEC master.dbo.xp_backup_database @database = @p_database, 

                 @filename = @YourFileNameParameter, @threads = @YourThreadsParm....

Bill and Mohammed:  Wrong and wrong.

The number of concurrent connections is not licensed in any way.

(edit: the following link is no longer good...)

http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/c/a/ecafe5d1-b514-48ab-93eb-61377df9c5c2/SQLServer2005Licensing.doc

(As of the release of SQL Server...

The only OS exam for MCDBA is Windows Server; no desktop exam is part of it.  The 2000 Pro or XP Pro could be used as an elective, but it's...

The ISS T-SQL Querying book concentrates on writing efficient queries, the programming book looks at other components of programming - datatypes, xml, etc., etc., etc.

Before digging in to the development...

> Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

Upgrade to SQL Server 2005 and join the table-valued function using CROSS APPLY or OUTER APPLY.

You must pass a constant (or constant...

Predictive queries are the domain of data mining.  Analysis Services and DMX are the keys here, not a multiple self-join of a large data set.

As far as digging up a...

O.L.A.P.  That's what it's all about - aggregating loads of data for this kind of stuff.

Not sure what you're using this for, and OLAP (a.k.a. SQL Server Analysis Services) is...

Calvin:

> I don't want to restore from last night backup.

  Unfortunately, that's what you have to do.  When restoring the log backups, use the STOPAT switch and specify a...

ActiveX and COM are pre-.Net and pre-SQL 2005.  "ActiveX" with SQL Server 2000 only showed up in DTS.  You could instantiate and manipulate COM objects with sp_OA procs.  But all that...

> Since the only duplicate field is the join field, and I really only want to have that field show up once in the result set, is there some way...

Do not use Enterprise Manager for important tasks.

The command to shrink files is DBCC SHRINKFILE(fileid, newsize).

Take a look in BOL for more info.  You can get the fileid from the...

The number of transaction log files does not matter to a transaction log backup.  Just run your job like you would if there were only one file.

-Eddie

SELECT COUNT(*) AS MainCount, 

       Sum(CASE WHEN A.InspectionUID LIKE '00076_0000001481'

                THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS SubCount

  FROM tbl_NSP_QuestionTree AS Q LEFT OUTER JOIN

       tbl_NSP_Answer AS A...

When you create a view, an entry is made in the syscolumns table for each column in the view.  This is true even if you write the view with SELECT...

Why are you shrinking the database every month?  If it's just going to grow again, then stop shrinking it.  You are just forcing your users to wait for the database...