Scripts

Technical Article

zPad() - add leading zeros to a number

This user-defined function converts a number to character format and adds leading zeroes to pad the field to a specified length.  useful for displaying SSNs or other numeric fields where the leading 0's are significant but the field is stored as numeric.To use:select dbo.zPad(, )make sure your length includes an extra column for the sign.  […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2002-12-05

425 reads

Technical Article

Convert a number to words

This is a handy function that converts a  number (integer) into its word format.  This might be handy if you need to print a check formatted number in words.  Currently it supports an integer but it would be almost nothing to convert to support a bigint or decimal.The components are1) a table named PlaceValue that […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2002-12-04

365 reads

Technical Article

Find SA password with public role-perm test DBA

Find SA Password (Brute Force) with Public RoleFindSApublic is a brute-force password cracker that requires only public role.Possibilities  returns how many different passwords are possible with 1 up to c characters from a universe of n different characters.Usage:FindSApublic nN is an integer which is the maximum length of the password to attempt cracking.Acknowledgmentsoriginal idea: David […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2002-12-04

962 reads

Technical Article

PACK() user defined function

Convert a decimal number to IBM EBCDIC packed decimal format.  If for some reason you need to export a number to IBM systems in native format, you can define a SQL Server field as binary(8) and Pack() your decimal number into it.  Then IBM mainframes and COBOL/CICS systems can read the numbers from your data […]

(1)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2002-12-04

545 reads

Technical Article

Script to determine backup finish times

SQL Server provides the RESTORE HEADERONLY command which helps users determine backup completion times.  What if you have the need to use this completion time for comparison, perhaps to set up a job that only restores the file if it is xx hours old.  This script can be used to determine the maximum backup finish […]

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2002-12-04

416 reads

Technical Article

Dependencies on a specific table column

SQL Server provides a built-in stored procedure, sp_depends, that returns object dependencies.  Recently, I discovered a need for determining dependencies on a table column, not just the table itself.  For example, a table may be referenced by many stored procedures and views, but a specific column in that table may only be referenced in a […]

(1)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2002-12-03

3,340 reads

Blogs

RANK() vs DENSE_RANK(): #SQLNewBlogger

By

I haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I saw an article recently...

Using CAT for Testing of Data Agents

By

In last months one of the scenarios where you can use AI has been...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance

25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral Meant to Me

By Brian Knight

Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years Later: What SQLServerCentral...

Doing Good at SQL Server Central

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Doing Good at SQL Server...

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Missing the Jaro Winkler Distance

I upgraded a SQL Server 2019 instance to SQL Server 2025. I wanted to test the fuzzy string search functions. I run this code:

SELECT JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE('tim', 'tom')
I get this error message:
Msg 195, Level 15, State 10, Line 1 'JARO_WINKLER_DISTANCE' is not a recognized built-in function name.
What is wrong?

See possible answers