Journey to SQL Authority with Pinal Dave

SQLAuthority News – Request SQLAuthority.com Stickers and SQL Server Cheat Sheet

July 10, 2009 by pinaldave

I have been overwhelmed with the request for SQL Server Cheat Sheet recently. I absolutely think it is tremendously useful; its hand written form is adorning my wall since a long time. Having realized its usefulness I got it done professionally and distributed it at TechEd in Hyderabad, TechEd in Ahmedabad, and TechEd on Road in Trivendrum. Now, they are very much in demand.

Every morning when I wake up and check my email, I receive 50+ requests for SQL Server Cheat Sheets. Just a few days back I got few SQLAuthority.com stickers done and I now am getting so many requests for the same. Thank you very much for your great support and response. It gives me great pleasure to come with something innovative and useful for you all!

I have SQL Server Cheat Sheet already available online where its soft copy can be downloaded easily.

Download SQL Server Cheat Sheet from here.

So far, I have been giving away SQL Server Cheat Sheet to everyone who has been requesting me. However, now only a few copies are left with me. It has been very expensive for me to send out this to everybody nationally and internationally.

As I have limited piece of stickers and cheat sheet at this moment. I have just come up with an idea. Send me your physical address with 3 of your most favorite articles of SQLAuthrority blog. I have created a list of top 10 articles. If the 3 articles selected by you is a part of my top 10 articles, I will right away send you SQL Server Cheat Sheet with SQLAuthority.com stickers. Make sure that you have your physical address included along with your email address where you would prefer get informed if you are selected.

I just hope this way I will be able to send these to my every dedicated fan. Follow me on twitter.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology | Tagged SQL Cheat Sheet, Stickers | Leave a Comment »

SQLAuthority News – Authors Visit – K-MUG TechEd Trivandrum on June 27, 2009

July 9, 2009 by pinaldave

K-MUG organized TechEd Trivandrum on 27th June, 2009. They even launched an official PASS Chapter in Trivandrum. The complete report of this event is here. This event like TechEd in Ahmedabad, was a huge success and saw a huge number of attendees from all over India. Jacob Sebastian and Pinal Dave had presented two solid SQL Sessions and created lots of buzz about Microsoft. The event saw many wonderful speakers.I really appreciate the state-of-the-art facility at K-Mug and the amazing crowd brimming with enthusiasm. You can check out K-MUG event page for further information.

I really want to thank two people in particular for making the very first TechEd Trivandrum a grand success – 1) Sreejumon – the Founder and the President of Kerala Microsoft User group and 2) Binoy K – the Vice President of K-MUG.

Let us go over few interesting details about the event.

Pinal Dave explained about PASS Chapters and its benefits. He gave a memorable welcome note to New PASS chapter leaders and the attendees.
Jacob Sebastian inaugurated K-Mug PASS chapter.
Pinal Dave commenced the event with the very first SQL Session of ‘SQL Server Best Practices’.
Jacob Sebastian gave a brilliant session on ‘SQL Logical Query Execution and Optimization Tips’
Pinal Dave was called again to give a Demo on ‘Windows 7′ – which came as a surprise to everyone including Pinal. But Pinal made it a real fun by making people laugh while he smoothly and quickly covered all the features of Windows 7 unbelievably in 10 mins!
Jacob Sebastian gave away his book “The art of XSD” to the best participant of the event.
Some of the renowned speakers from all around India were present at the event.

Swami Vivekanand has always been my inspiration and I have always wanted to go to that place where he practiced meditation. I was lucky enough to visit Vivekanand Rock at Kanya Kumari during this trip to Kerala. One more interesting thing which I managed to do in this trip was reading a very useful book The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities (Rational Guides) (Paperback) by Greg Low..

Here are few more photos of the same event.

: Pinal Dave at TechED on Road Trivendrum

: Pinal Dave Presenting SQL Server Best Practices

: Pinal Dave Presenting

: Jacob Sebastian

: Pinal Dave

: Pinal and Jacob

: Pinal, Binoy and Jacob

: K-Mug Speakers and Leaders

: Vivekanand Rock at Kanya Kumari

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in MVP, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL User Group, SQLAuthority Author Visit, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology | Tagged TechEd, TechEdIn | 1 Comment »

SQLAuthority News – Book Review – Murach’s SQL Server 2008 for Developers

July 8, 2009 by pinaldave

Murach’s SQL Server 2008 for Developers (Murach: Training & Reference) (Paperback)
by Bryan Syverson, Joel Murach

Link to Amazon

Short Summary: Murach’s SQL Server 2008 for developers is an ideal book for all developers, and particularly, it is an excellent book for training and reference. If you are new to SQL, no problem! This book is the best reading material to start with.

Long Summary:
SQL Server has emerged as the leading database and nowadays there are a number of books available on this subject. However, it is important to select the right book to imbibe proper, thorough understanding. Murach’s SQL Server 2008 for Developers is an upgrade from an earlier version that was written for SQL Server 2005. As the title clearly suggests, this book deals with SQL Server skills that are very useful for application developers. It primarily focuses on 2008 edition of Microsoft’s SQL Server and introduces you to the new features added to SQL Server 2008. This book is a great training resource for developers who are just starting out using Microsoft SQL Server. But this book is equally useful for experienced developers as it provides comprehensive information on SQL, which even they are not even aware of.

In sharp contrast to the usual database or SQL Server books, the first 8 chapters of this book provide information on how to use the Select, Insert, Update, and Delete statements with the Management Studio to work with an existing database. This information develops good understanding of learners regarding how a database works. In section3, the three chapters illustrate how to design and implement a new database using either SQL statements or the Management Studio. Further, in section 4 you can learn how to use advanced features such as views, stored procedures, functions, triggers, cursors, transaction, locking, database security, XML integration, and the new FILESTREAM feature for handling BLOB data. Finally, section 5 contains three chapters on how to use SQL Server’s CLR integration feature to create database objection C# or Visual Basic code.

This latest edition intends to make a developer’s job easier by appropriately covering 2008 features, helping them reach a higher level of competence and professionalism. The FILESTREAM storage feature is useful for working more proficiently with binary large objects (BLOBs) such as image, sound, and video files. The MERGE statement allows using a single statement to make multiple updates and insertions. The date, time, datetime2, and datetimeoffset data types provide better flexibility and accuracy for working with dates and times. The user-defined table type allows passing a table as a parameter to a stored procedure or a function. Also, the SPARSE attribute helps in working with NULL values more efficiently, and filtered indexes allows retrieving data more rapidly. Moreover, the code given in this book has been meticulously updated and tested against SQL Server 2008.

This book is an excellent technical reference for SQL Server 2008 and is characterized by a great format, making it thoroughly user friendly. It has Murach’s unique paired-pages layout style where each subject is given two pages of description. The left hand page is a technical description regarding what a particular function does, while the right hand page is an illustration of that feature being used; it shows the critical details, using syntax, code, screen shots, and how-to notes. This way, tutorial and reference formats have been presented in a single book, which makes it very convenient for both beginners and developers to focus on the information they need.

One drawback about this book is that it does not have answers to exercise questions. However, if you can get Instructors CD along with this book, you will find all the answers and other vital information. If you are new to SQL Server 2008, you must purchase this book.

Ratting: 5 Starts

Summary:
This book will not only introduce you to the new features but will also serve as an excellent reference guide. This book will become an integral and prized part of your collection!

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority Book Review, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology | 1 Comment »

SQLAuthority News – Authors Visit – DotNet Buzz Delhi TechEd Delhi on July 11, 2009

July 7, 2009 by pinaldave

DotNet Buzz Delhi is organizing TechEd Delhi on July 11, 2009. Not just this, they are launching an official PASS Chapter in Delhi. The Agenda of the event is here and if you are around Delhi do not miss the opportunity to be a part of this upcoming great event. If you are keen to know what this event holds in store for you then read about TechEd in Ahmedabad, which saw a huge number of attendees and was a grand success. Jacob Sebastian and Pinal Dave had presented two solid SQL Sessions and created lots of buzz about Microsoft.

I will be at TechEd and will present a session on ‘SQL Server Best Practices’. This session will mainly focus on SQL Server best practices that are not commonly known. There is a huge gamut of information which can drastically enhance the performance of a system, but these are not widely known to users. I will share with you all those brilliant tips through demo to help to develop clear idea.

Jacob Sebastian, my friend and a SQL Server MVP, will also be there to support this event. He will present a session on ‘Logical Query Execution Flow’ where he will discuss how a given T-SQL Query is processed and executed. A comprehensive understanding of the query execution flow will help you solve several common problems and will help you answer a number of baffling questions that you often come across.

Again, those of you who have requested for SQL Server Cheat Sheet, I will have one copy for all of you who will attend this event.

Register for this grand event by clicking here.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

SQL SERVER – Languages for BI – MDX, DMX, XMLA

July 6, 2009 by pinaldave

Today, we have a very basic thing to go over. Few days back, I was discussing with one of my friends regarding BI. He told me that he knows that BI stands for Business Intelligence but he would like to know what languages BI uses to achieve the goal. The reason I found this question very interesting was because I was asked the same question two weeks back at TechEd on Road Ahmedabad. I had promised one of the attendees that I will reply to his question soon. This question, which my friend asked recently, reminded me of the same. Let us go over the languages of BI very quickly. Again, these are just definitions and there is much more to learn. Moreover, to master each language it may take years.

MDX – Multidimensional Expressions. This language is used for retrieving data from SSAS cubes. It looks very similar to T-SQL, but it is very different in the areas of conceptualization and implementations.

DMX – Data Mining Extensions. This is again used for SSAS but rather than cubes it is used for data mining structures. This language is more complicated than MDX. Microsoft has provided lots of wizards in its BI tools, which further reduced experts for learning this language which deals with data mining structures.

XMLA – XML for Analysis. This is mainly used for SSAS administrative tasks. It is quite commonly used in administration tasks such as backup or restore database, copy and move database or learning meta data information. Again, MS BI tools provide lots of wizards for the same.

After writing the above definitions, I feel my information is incomplete as these are just very basic information and do not provide much value. I will cover interesting aspects of these languages in near future. In SQL Server Management Studio, you can write the queries in the desired languages using top menu bar.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in Business Intelligence, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology | 2 Comments »

SQLAuthority News – FIX : Error : HP OfficeJet Scanning and Printing Gray or Pink Shades

July 5, 2009 by pinaldave

Unlike my usual articles today’s article is not at all related to SQL Server but something drove me to include it on my blog. This issue snatched away my precious few hours. It took me over 2 hours to resolve it yesterday, which barred me from doing research on SQL Server. I am sure many people must have faced this issue and the sad part is no solution has been proposed so far.

Let us understand the problem first. I got a brand new printer HP Officejet J4580 All-in-One printer. Support Engineer came along to install it. Fax, Printing, Photocopy – all the functions just worked fine. However, when we tried to scan anything the scanned copy had gray or pink shade on it. No matter what I did, the scanned copy still contained gray/pink shade. The support engineer worked for almost an hour on it but had no clue how to resolve it. We called up HP Support online but to my disappointment they replied with uncooperative attitude- we have never faced this issue so you should never face it. I contact several global HP Support and they suggested re-shipping the complete printer to them so that they can look at it.

The most annoying part was that I kept on telling them that Photocopy worked fine, and only scanning was the issue; it seemed to be a software issue. It was very strange that no one from HP support knew how to fix it. Anyway, I decided to use every search engine available on planet to look for the solution for the same. To my surprise, I was not the only one who was facing this issue; this is quite common but there is no real answer to this problem. Most of the time annoyed users keep on changing computer, ink cartridges or ultimately printer, but no one really talks about its solution.

I was determined to solve this software problem. After attempting nearly every possible setting available on software, I finally found the solution. Please pay attention to the checkbox in the image below. Once it is checked, the saved image will appear as follows:

After the setting was changed, the image came out neatly, without any pink or gray shade.

Hopefully, this article will save some time of those who are trying to make this work and who are not able to find time to read SQL Server due to this issue.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Error Messages, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology | Tagged HP | Leave a Comment »

SQL SERVER – Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices

July 4, 2009 by pinaldave

Disk partition alignment is a powerful tool for improving SQL Server performance. Configuring optimal disk performance is often viewed as much art as science. A best practice that is essential yet often overlooked is disk partition alignment. Windows Server 2008 attempts to align new partitions out-of-the-box, yet disk partition alignment remains a relevant technology for partitions created on prior versions of Windows. This paper documents performance for aligned and nonaligned storage and why nonaligned partitions can negatively impact I/O performance; it explains disk partition alignment for storage configured on Windows Server 2003, including analysis, diagnosis, and remediation; and it describes how Windows Server 2008 attempts to remedy challenges related to partition alignment for new partitions yet does not correct the configuration of preexisting partitions. The following topics are also included: background information, implementation, vendor considerations, two essential correlations, valid starting partition offsets, and the simple protocol to align partitions, define file allocation unit size, and assign drive letters. It includes results from tests that show how partition alignment can affect performance for SQL Server 2008.

Download Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for SQL Server

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Documentation, SQL Download, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL White Papers, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology | Leave a Comment »

SQLAuthority News – Book Review – The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities (Rational Guides)

July 3, 2009 by pinaldave

The Rational Guide to Building Technical User Communities (Rational Guides) (Paperback)
by Greg Low

Short Review : A Great, one-of-its-kind book for everybody who is interested in building technical user community. There is no other book written on this subject but after this comprehensive book no further reading will be required.

Link to Amazon

Detailed Review :

This is for the first time in my book review, instead of talking about the book or author, I will introduce myself in a couple of lines to explain why and how this book is helpful to those interested in building community. I am a Microsoft MVP and the founder of SQLAuthority.com. I am actively involved with Technical User Group Community all over the world and have been helping many user groups to start, grow and continuously expand successfully. I am helping user groups in capacity of their mentor to overcome any obstacles they face while running the user group.

Author Greg Low is the most experienced person when it comes to community and people. He is a Microsoft Regional Director as well as mentor for Solid Quality Australia. For over a decade, he organized several Queensland User Groups. Greg is looked upon for guidance when User Groups are in need of the most appropriate advice. He is a very renowned person in technical community and does not need any further introduction.

This book focuses on the most important lessons learned by Greg over decades of involvement in technical communities. It provides practical advice on establishing, sustaining and growing these communities. This books is focused on helping user group leaders to deal with any potential pitfalls and contains workaround as well. The book is not limited to only user group leaders. In fact, this book is for everybody who is interested in community. If you are already a member of a community, this book is a perfect guide to help you get the most out of your membership.

The first chapter, which is appropriately named as – “People, Not Technology,” sets the pace and keeps up the concept live till the end of the book. In community, staying in focus is very important for people as everything revolves around it. No matter how knowledgeable or renowned a person is in the domain of technology, if he is not a people’s person, he cannot become an integral part of community and can never grow. For any technology to survive, support from people is required. Community provides combined power of people to lend strong support to community.Throughout the book, this key concept is cherished and explored.

Greg talks about two very important challenges for any technical community. 1) Finding Speaker and 2) Finding Operational Funds. If these two things are done appropriately the heart of any community, which is “Finding People,” comes to shape on its own. I run few User Groups and they are growing tremendously. Recently, we have been discussing about lots of legal issues. That was the prime reason why I chose to read this book. After reading this book through and through, I presented the valuable ideas from this book to my fellow leaders , and we all agreed on them right away. The rich experience that Greg shares with his readers can effectively solve their problems. Because of this book, we were no longer required to spend money on lawyer and instead we will now divert that fund toward our scholarship program.

Each chapter of this book is build to stand alone and it covers the subject with sufficient breadth. I really liked the real-life examples from Greg, where he talks about his friends, fellow MVPs, SQL Server Groups Leaders and other important people of community. As each chapter is written to have independent read, same topics have been covered twice. But what I liked about it is that same subject conveys different meaning when it is presented in a different consent. This particular aspect of the book, makes it a genuine must-read book.

One negative aspect of this book is that a very important checklist of the book is only given to those who will register online. If you have a friend who owns this book and has already registered online, you can ask that friend to pass this important stuff to you. One more thing, I would like to request Greg to include his latest learning from his experience as a Global Community Development of PASS, in the next version of his book. I am sure that more information about international technical user groups can be now included.

Rating : 5 Stars

Summary : A must-have book for everybody who is involved with technical community in any capacity. This is a unique book on this subject.

PS : I read this book while I was traveling from Kerala to Gujarat after attending a TechEd Event.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL User Group, SQLAuthority Book Review, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology | 1 Comment »

SQLAuthority News – MVP Award Renewed

July 2, 2009 by pinaldave

Year ago, it was a great, perhaps the proudest moment of my professional life. I was awarded Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for SQL Server by Microsoft.

Today, I received an email informing me that I have been re-awarded SQL Server MVP status by Microsoft in recognition of my community contributions. It’s yet another proud moment for me. I’m very happy and excited that my hard work is being recognized. I hope to work even harder and serve my community better!

Microsoft Thank You! There’s a huge list of people I would like to thank for this award. However, instead of listing their names here, I will be sending personal note to them to express my thanks.

Pinal Dave
SQL SERVER MVP
pinal “at” sqlauthority.com

Please feel free to contact me for any help.

Reference : Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)

Posted in About Me, Pinal Dave, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLAuthority News, T SQL, Technology | 20 Comments »

SQL SERVER – Difference between Line Feed (\n) and Carriage Return (\r) – T-SQL New Line Char

July 1, 2009 by pinaldave

Today, we will examine something very simple and very generic that can apply to hordes of programming languages. Let’s take a common question that is frequently discussed – What is difference between Line Feed (\n) and Carriage Return (\r)?

Prior to continuing with this article let us first look into few synonyms for LF and CR.

Line Feed – LF – \n – 0×0a – 10 (decimal)

Carriage Return – CR – \r – 0×0D – 13 (decimal)

Now that we have understood that we have two different options to get new line, the question that arises is – why is it so?

The reason is simple. Different operating systems have a different way of understanding new line. Mac only understands ‘\r’ as new line, while Unix and Linux understand ‘\n’ as new line character. Our favorite OS windows needs both the characters together to interpret as new line, which is ‘\r\n’. This is the reason why a file created in one OS does not open properly in another OS and makes it messy.

Now, let us see how we can create a new line in SQL Server. It is a very simple script yet very useful when we have to do run print something or generate scripts. I have illustrated two examples below that are very easy to understand. In the first example, there are no new line chars inserted and for the same, everything is displayed in a single line. However, in the second example, new line char is inserted and the lines are separated with a new line.

Example 1: No new line feed char

DECLARE @NewLineChar AS CHAR(2) = CHAR(13) + CHAR(10) PRINT ('SELECT FirstLine AS FL SELECT SecondLine AS SL' ) GO