You're right Andy.  It probably would be better to replace

SELECT @db = MIN( name ) FROM master.dbo.sysdatabases

 WHERE name NOT IN ('master', 'tempdb', 'msdb', 'model')

with

SELECT @db = MIN(CATALOG_NAME)

FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.SCHEMATA...

USE ?

The ? is a placeholder for different databases so USE ? switches from one to another.

If you want to make use of the database name within some code here...

lots of different ways of doing this.  Heres a sample:

EXEC sp_MSforeachdb "USE ?  IF db_name() NOT IN ('tempdb', 'model', 'master', 'msdb')

  SELECT db_name(), name FROM dbo.sysusers WHERE islogin = 1...

Here's a sample:

CREATE table COMpanies (COMPANY varchar(20),CONTACT varchar(15), VALUE varchar(10))

Insert into Companies (COMPANY, CONTACT, VALUE)

Values ('TAN', '*CMPY*', NULL)

Insert into Companies (COMPANY, CONTACT, VALUE)

Values ('TAN', 'Smith', NULL)

Insert into Companies (COMPANY, CONTACT,...

MS SQL Profiler is a tool that you can use to do traces on your system and see exactly what commands are being passed to SQL Server.  For example if...

My understanding is that when you perform a transaction log backup from the SQL Server Enterprise Manager Backup Database dialog box, if the 'Remove inactive entries from transaction log' checkbox...

See http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/20030627c.asp for sample code on passing XML to stored procs

Use the COLUMNS_UPDATED() function.  Be careful, this function will tell you what was updated , not necessarily what changed.  If col2 was = 1 and I write an update statement...

If your users can understand xls they probably can handle T-SQL.  But have you considered MS English Query for the users?  or else some visual SQL building tool.

For EBNF conventions try:

http://www.garshol.priv.no/download/text/bnf.html

http://cui.unige.ch/db-research/Enseignement/analyseinfo/AboutBNF.html

Personally I think using 2 underscores is difficult to see and therefore is very prone to error.  __ is not obviously different from _  I can see how developers will...

What about using @@error as in:

IF @@ERROR = 2601

   print "A index constraint violation occurred" 

I'd favour box A for the SQL test bed.  If you are going to use per server licencing though A is more expensive though.  The developers will appreciate the extra...

Way to go David.  I think this is a best practice as it improves the performance of the stored procedures by reducing the network traffic.

From http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/deploy/rsdepgd.mspx

Configuring E-Mail Delivery

Report Server includes an e-mail delivery extension for report delivery. Initial e-mail configuration takes place during setup. To make changes after setup, you will need to...