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.  […]

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2002-12-05

429 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 […]

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2002-12-04

375 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 […]

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2002-12-04

972 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 […]

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2002-12-04

555 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 […]

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2002-12-04

418 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 […]

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2002-12-03

3,524 reads

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Question of the Day

Backing Up a DMK

In SQL Server 2025, I have a database with a Database Masker Key (DMK). I want to back up this key and keep a copy offline. When do I have to open this key before running the backup?

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