Congratulations Frank
A Longtime SQLServerCentral.com member and a very valued member of the community has just received a great honor in our field. Take a moment to read and add your congratulations.
Anatomy of an IT disaster: How the FBI blew it
Some FBI agents ruefully refer to the trilogy project, a massive initiative to modernize the FBI's aging technology infrastructure, as the "Tragedy" project. It certainly has all the earmarks of tragedy: the best intentions, catastrophic miscommunication, staggering waste.
More Portable DTS Packages
There have been a few articles over time on how you can build DTS packages in SQL Server 2000 that are easily moved from one server to another. New author Tito David brings us another technique that not only migrates packages easily between servers, but between your development and production environments.
SQL Server 2005 Editions and Integration Services
The SQL Server 2005 product family has now been announced, so with four editions available, what does this mean for SQL Server Integration Services? Starting from the bottom we have the free edition known as Express, and the entry level Workgroup edition, and neither include the full IS product. They have the Import/Export capabilities, but nothing more, so for simple loading and extraction of data this should suffice, but you will not be able to build packages.
Part 2: Mapping XML from SQL Server to a Single Cell in Excel 2003
In the second of this three-part series, learn how to map well-formed XML from a standard SQL Server query to a single cell in a worksheet. The resulting output is an XML tree with non-repeating elements.
BDS SQL Digger 2.0 Released
Have you ever needed to find something in a stored procedure or function and found yourself trying to wade through syscomments? Ever want to know which views reference a table, but you don't trust sysdepends? BDS has released SQL Digger 2.0, a utility designed to help you search through your schema and code to find what you need.
Flexible DTS Packages with Perl
SQL Server 2000 DTS was a revolutionary programming environment, but one that was not without a few quirks. As often found with many Microsoft products, there were sections in your packages where things were hard coded, making them less flexible. New author Jeremy Brown brings us a look at how you can build extremely flexible packages using Perl.
Part 1: Automating the XML Data Mapping Process in Excel 2003
In the first of a three-part series, learn how to use XML maps to customize Excel as a data input and display system.
Know Your Data
Or at least the types of your data. New author Roy Carlson was working in SQL Server 2000 to calculate some values based on row counts, sales amounts, etc. and discovered some interesting results. Without his sharp eye, a number of individuals would have been upset by the resulting lack of commissions, as may some of your clients. Read about some potential problems in your calculations if you are not careful with your data types.
Tableau Software Debuts
With it's VizQL, Tableau Software is revolutionizing the way that you will analyze data. Built to work with multiple data sources, including SQL Server databases and Analysis Services cubes, this software will amaze you.
Blogs
A New Word: los vidados
By Steve Jones
los vidados – n. the half-remembered acquaintances you knew years ago, who you might...
In-Person CISA Training – April 13-16, 2026
By Brian Kelley
I will be leading an in-person Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam prep class...
EightKB 2026
EightKB is back again for 2026! The biggest online SQL Server internals conference is...
Forums
query to track time spent on individual tasks in SSIS
Hi everyone I am looking at building a query to determine how much time...
SQL Server Transactional Replication from Always On Availability Groups to Azure SQL Database
Comments posted to this topic are about the item SQL Server Transactional Replication from...
Hidden Heroes
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Hidden Heroes
Question of the Day
Identities and Sequences I
When thinking of the Identity property for auto incrementing columns and sequences for the same action, which are explicitly linked to increment a number in a table when a new row is added?
See possible answers