Check out the ISNUMERIC() function. That will tell you what you want to know.

Strong advice: all tables, all databases, all the time, use appropriate data types. It really matters.

The best licensing answers are always going to come from Microsoft itself, not some Yahoo on the internet.

That said:

1. Microsoft is going to argue, and I'm pretty sure legal case...

I'd have one word:

Don't.

That's the best advice on how to store a file inside SQL Server.

Can you do this? Yes. The link provided above will give you the details. Should...

You can't just change the IP address locally. That has to go through however you're administering IP addresses within your system. Then, yes, once that IP address changes, you'll have...

You may not have...

I did a quick search and found this. It'll tell you if there's a disabled fk or one using WITH NO CHECK (untrusted). That should get you pretty far...

First, are all the FKs enforced on the primary database? Is it possible that you have data problems and the scripts are disabled or built using WITH NOCHECK and your...

Let's assume that you need nolock everywhere <sigh>, instead, use READ_UNCOMMITTED at the connection. That way, when you find that all the bad data being returned by nolock is causing...

It is possible though that the backup has more than one database inside of it. You can query the file to find out if there's an issue.

Sounds like you want to find the rows where a column (or columns) actually have data, meaning, they're NOT NULL. If that's what you're looking for, then that's the phrase...

I see nothing wrong with such a DDL trigger to detect when a new database was created... but I wouldn't rely on it to make sure backups are performed. ...

Much better would have been to create an SSMS server group(s) with all the relevant servers in it(them), then fire off the script for a given server group(s) whenever...

That's a great story, Grant, and I 100% agree that's was an appropriate use of PowerShell.  The question is, would you have been comfortable in letting someone who didn't...

This!

You're not going to be able to get around the need for a lock to perform DDL. No matter what. Again, it sounds like architecture is more of the problem....