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Showing posts from 2007

Difference between Response.Write and Response.Output.Write

From classical ASP days if we want to print some string with formatting we used to make use of Response.Write and some function to do the string formatting for us. But in .NET we have Response.Output.Write which is equal to Response.Write + String.Format features. Find below the basic sample explaining this feature! private void Page_Load (object sender, System.EventArgs e) { DateTime dtTwoDays = DateTime.Now; // Get the current date dtTwoDays = dtTwoDays.AddDays(2); // Add 2 days to it Response.Write(”Classical way of doing the same thing”); string strMessage = dispMessage(dtTwoDays); // Call a method which would return the formatted string. Response.Write(strMessage); // Print that formatted string Response.Write(”.NET way of doing the same thing:”); Response.Output.Write(”{0} from today is {1:d}”, “Two days”, dtTwoDays); } Private string dispMessage(DateTime dtMVP) { // {0} and {1:d} are the place holders which would take up the values passed as parameters // {0} will take “Two days

2007 Internet Quiz.

I scored 100% in the 2007 internet quiz @ http://www.justsayhi.com/bb/internet I need to admit I used google for one question as I wasn't clear on the answer. So you can count me as 99% :) What's your score?

Get TIME alone from a given date

I see this to be very frequently asked question in dotnetspider.com! Solution to this is to make use of CONVERT function in SQL Server. --Query will fetch the time portion alone Select Convert(Varchar, Getdate(), 108) --Query will fetch the date portion alone. Select Convert(Varchar, Getdate(), 101) The last parameter of Convert function is StyleId. Go through books online to know the complete list of parameters and its corresponding output format.

Should we upgrade to SQL 2005 or wait for SQL Server 2008?

To my knowledge, there are companies which still works on SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000. But in the last quarter of 2005, Microsoft released SQL Server 2005. Though I have been using that product personally since that time and officially for more than one year now. I am not too sure whether everybody has migrated to SQL Server 2005! That being a case SQL Server 2008 (code named: Katmai) is around the corner now :) Hmm we need to wait and see how many of them migrate immediately.

List tables which are dependent on a given table - SQL Server 2005

Option 1: Right-click on a table and choose 'View Dependencies'. Option 2: For some reason if you want to do it programmatically check out the below code snippet Select S.[name] as 'Dependent_Tables' From sys.objects S inner join sys.sysreferences R on S.object_id = R.rkeyid Where S.[type] = 'U' AND R.fkeyid = OBJECT_ID('Person.StateProvince') here, replace Person.StateProvince with your table name.

List the modified objects in SQL Server 2005

For viewing the modified date of Stored Procs and UDF alone: Select Routine_name, Routine_Type, Created, Last_altered From Information_schema.routines Where Routine_type in ('PROCEDURE', 'FUNCTION') Order by Last_altered desc, Routine_type, Routine_name For viewing the modified date of Stored Procs, UDF and Views: We can query 'Sys.Objects' table and find out the list of Stored procs, UDFs, Views etc., which have got modified. Code snippet: Select [name] as 'Object Name', [type] as 'Object Type', create_date, modify_date From sys.objects Where [type] in ('P', 'FN', 'TF', 'V') Order by Modify_Date desc, [type], [name] The above query will list all 'SPs', 'UDFs' and 'Views' in the current database with its 'Created date' and 'Modified date'. We can further finetune this code to match our exact need! For triggers Check out create_date and modify_date columns in sys.triggers. sel

Codd's Rule and Current RDBMS Products ...

I was discussing with few of my friends on the topic 'Codds rule'. I heard them say that 'SQL Server' and 'Oracle' supports all of the 12 codd's rule but DB2 doesn't support few of them!! I was surprised and then later got confused myself :) Actually to my knowledge there is no RDBMS product (be it, Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle or DB2) which satisfies all of the 12 rules of CODD. Hopefully in few days i will write about my knowledge on this subject and leave it open for others comments :)

SQLCMD -- Part IX (Batch files)

Using SQLCMD to execute script files easily in different environments Assume we have few script files (.sql) which needs to be run in multiple SQL Servers. Hope you would accept that's real pain to connect into different servers from SQL Management Studio and then execute the scripts one after the other. One of the easiest ways of doing it is by making use of the SQLCMD utility of SQL Server 2005. Step 1: Lets create few dummy script files for demo purpose. File1: 01TableCreation.sql Create table tblTest ( Sno int identity, FName varchar(20) ) Go File2: 02InsertRecords.sql set nocount on Insert into tblTest (Fname) values ('alpha') Insert into tblTest (Fname) values ('beta') File3: 03StoredProcedures.sql Create proc usp_GetAllTblTest as Select sno, fname from tblTest go Step 2: Create a batch file and call these .sql files in order. File4: DBInstallationScripts.bat sqlcmd -U %1 -P %2 -S %3 -d %4 -i "C:\Vadivel\SQL Related\Scripts\sqlcmd1\01TableCreation.s

Happy Birthday Bill Gates ...

Bill Gates turns 52 today :) Happy Birthday BillG.

SQLCMD -- Part VIII (:r and about concatenating string with spaces)

Theory: :r -- parses additional T-SQL statements and sqlcmd commands from the file specified by into the statement cache. In this article we would see the usage of :r as well as handling spaces in SQLCMD. In SQL Mgmt Studio: Step 1: 01VariableInitialization.sql :setvar filepath "C:\Vadivel\SQL Related\Scripts\sqlcmd" :r $(filePath)\02TableCreation.sql Step 2: 02TableCreation.sql Create table tblTest ( Sno int identity, FName varchar(20) ) Go :r $(filePath)\03InsertScripts.sql Step 3: 03InsertScripts.sql Insert into tblTest (Fname) values ('alpha') Explanation of each file: 01VariableInitialization.sql -- In this file we create a scripting variable 'filePath' which will hold the path of the .sql files which we use for this demo. Then it executes 02TableCreation.sql. 02TableCreation.sql -- In this, we create tables of our choice. Also we make use of the scripting variable created in the previous file here to call another .sql file to insert records into th

SQLCMD -- Part VII (Concatenating string with a Scripting Variable)

This example demonstrates the way to create a variable and make use of it for multiple purpose. Actually in this example we would see how to create a variable and append strings into it. Lets create two Database with slight difference in the name. For example, DB1 and DB2. Then create a table in each DB and populate few records into it. ---Code snippet which needs to be run in Mgmt Studio starts here--- Use master go Create Database DB1 go Use DB1 go Create table t1 (a int) go insert into t1 values (1) insert into t1 values (2) insert into t1 values (3) go Create database DB2 go Use DB2 go Create table t2 (Num int) go insert into t2 values (4) insert into t2 values (5) insert into t2 values (6) go --Code snippet to be run in Mgmt studio ends here--- Now open command prompt and connect into the DB. Step 1: SQLCMD -U sa -P hot -S VADIVEL Step 2: Press Enter Now lets create a variable by name "dbname" and assign 'DB' as the string to it. Step 3: :setvar dbname DB Now l

Reclaiming the table space after dropping a column [without clustered index]

If we drop a column it gets dropped but the space which it was occupying stays as it is! In this article we would see the way to reclaim the space for a table which has a non-clustered Index. Create a table with non-clustered index in it: Create Table tblDemoTable_nonclustered ( [Sno] int primary key nonclustered, [Remarks] varchar(5000) not null ) Go Pump-in some data into the newly created table: Set nocount on Declare @intRecNum int Set @intRecNum = 1 While @intRecNum <= 15000 Begin Insert tblDemoTable_nonclustered (Sno, Remarks ) Values (@intRecNum, convert(varchar,getdate(),109)) Set @intRecNum = @intRecNum + 1 End Check the fragmentation info before dropping the column: DBCC SHOWCONTIG ('dbo.tblDemoTable_nonclustered') GO Output: DBCC SHOWCONTIG scanning 'tblDemoTable_nonclustered' table... Table: 'tblDemoTable_nonclustered' (1781581385); index ID: 0, database ID: 9 TABLE level scan performed. - Pages Scanned................................: 84 - Extent

Reclaiming the table space after dropping a column - [With Clustered Index]

If we drop a column it gets dropped but the space which it was occupying stays as it is! In this article we would see the way to reclaim the space for a table which has a clustered Index . Create a table with clustered index in it: Create Table tblDemoTable ( [Sno] int primary key clustered, [Remarks] char(5000) not null ) Go Pump-in some data into the newly created table: Set nocount on Declare @intRecNum int Set @intRecNum = 1 While @intRecNum <= 15000 Begin Insert tblDemoTable (Sno, Remarks ) Values (@intRecNum, convert(varchar,getdate(),109)) Set @intRecNum = @intRecNum + 1 End If it's SQL 2000 or earlier: DBCC SHOWCONTIG ('dbo.tblDemoTable') -- Displays fragmentation information for the data and indexes of the specified table Go Output: DBCC SHOWCONTIG scanning 'tblDemoTable' table... Table: 'tblDemoTable' (1717581157); index ID: 1, database ID: 9 TABLE level scan performed. - Pages Scanned................................: 80 - Extents Scanned.......

SQLCMD -- Part VI (Scripting Variables)

To list all available SQLCMD Scripting variables, do the following: Step 1: Go to DOS prompt and open up SQLCMD Step 2: type :listvar which would list all SQLCMD scripting variables. In the screenshot you can see that the SQLCMDEditor and SQLCMDINI variable which we overwrote in the previous posts here and here are displayed. Almost all of the other variables are self-explanatory :) Creating our own local variables: :setvar DB1 testBed :setvar DB2 Adventureworks use $(DB1) go Select getdate(); go use $(DB2) go select top 5 city from person.address go Point to note: 1. If you execute :listvar again you can find these newly created variables getting listed there now. But please note that these local variables would be alive only till the life of the current session. i.e., If you exit out of SQLCMD once and come back and type :listvar these variables would be missing there. 2. Always the variables which we create will be in Uppercase only . Just try creating something like this: :s

SQLCMD -- Part V (setting startup scripts)

There are instances where we might need to run some default scripts on a specified server once SQLCMD gets connected. It can be achieved in just three steps as explained below: Step 1: Create a script file which you wanted to fire when SQLCMD gets connected to your SQL Server. For keeping the example simple, I used the following line and saved it as SqlCmdStartUpScripts.sql print 'Welcome today''s date is: ' + (convert(varchar, getdate())) Step 2: Open DOS prompt and type set sqlcmdini=c:\vadivel\sql related\scripts\SqlCmdStartUpScripts.sql Step 3: Then type SQLCMD and press Enter . Refer the below screenshot for the sample output.

SQLCMD -- Part IV (set your favourite editor)

From my previous posts one can understand that it is possible to write SQL queries directly in command prompt with the help of SQLCMD utility. Now let's assume we have typed a 'big' query and there is a typo there! Instead of going back and forth to edit it in command prompt won't it be easy if we are able to open the query in an editor and make the corrections there? Yes its possible in SQLCMD. All we need to do is type ed and it will open up the last command/query in a text editor. FYI the default editor is Edit (the command line editor of MS DOS). Step 1: Open up SQLCMD and connect to your SQLServer Step 2: type any query of your choice Step 3: type ed Step 4: The query would have opened in the 'EDIT' utility of DOS. Once you are done with the change, save and exit from that. Step 5: type go and press enter Can I make 'ed' to open up notepad or any editor of my choice? Yes it's possible. Step 1: Open DOS prompt Step 2: Type set sqlcmdedito

SQLCMD -- Part III (Non-Interactive or batch Mode)

If you haven't gone through the first two posts about SQLCMD I would strongly recommend to go over it here and here before proceeding further :) 1. Executing a script file from SQLCMD... i. Create a script file by typing in the following line and save it as Message.sql print 'Welcome today''s date is: ' + (convert(varchar, getdate())) ii. Now goto command prompt and type: SQLCMD -i Message.sql here, -i is the switch to specify the input file name. 2. Executing series of script files (sample) Lets create couple of .sql files and then see how to execute them in order from command prompt. Please note that i am just showing an example here :) there are better methods of doing the same which I would explain later in the series! i) Copy paste the below script and name it as 01TableCreation.sql Create table tblTest ( Sno int identity, FName varchar(20) ) Go ii) Copy paste the below script and name it as 02InsertRecords.sql Insert into tblTest (Fname) values ('a'

SQLCMD -- Part II (Interactive Mode)

First get connected into the DB Server using SQLCMD using either the windows authentication or SQL authentication as explained in the previous post . Then on the prompt you can type in the TSQL queries directly and press enter. In the next line, say Go and press enter to execute the query and see the result. See below an example to display the current datetime. After displaying the result the cursor would stand on the prompt expecting for further queries from us :) Once you are done you can 'exit' out of sqlcmd utility like shown below: By default, it get's connected to the default database of that login only. One can make use of -d switch to connect to a DB of their choice . Please refer the below sample where I make use of Adventureworks DB and query a table. What is the difference between -q and -Q switch? -q is for running queries from SQLCMD. -Q is for exitting from SQLCMD immediately after executing a given query. SQLCMD -q "Select getdate()" This query

SQLCMD -- Part I (Basics, Connectivity)

“SQLCMD” is a command line tool which was shipped by Microsoft along with SQL Server 2005. Previously SQL Server was having ISQL and OSQL as its command line utility. SQLCMD is replacing both of them (i.e., ISQL is not there in SQL Server 2005 RTM version. OSQL would also be eventually removed!!). When “SQLCMD” is run from the MS-DOS command prompt, it uses the OLE DB provider to execute the given queries. SQLCMD has batch and interactive modes. 'Batch mode' can be used mainly for scripting and automation tasks, while 'Interactive mode' is for firing ad-hoc querys. i) To list all the parameters supported by SQLCMD utility, run the following in command prompt SQLCMD /? ii) To connect to SQL Server using SQL Authentication SQLCMD -U username -P yourpassword -S Servername Once we press the enter key. If the UID/PWD is valid it would prompt you to enter the t-sql query to execute. If at all the UID/PWD combination is wrong it would throw an error similar to the one shown be

NEWID vs NEWSEQUENTIALID

Some pointers: 1. NewSequentialID() and NewID() both generates the GUID of datatype of uniqueidentifier. 2. NewID() generates the GUID in random order 3. NewSequentialID() generates the GUID in sequential order. 4. NewSequentialID() can be used ONLY in default clause of a table. 5. NewSequentialID() is easily predictable 6. So if security is a major concern then go for NewID() instead of NewSequentialID(). Example to demonstrate NEWSEQUENTIALID(): Create table #tblDemoSequentialID ( Column1 uniqueidentifier default NewID(), Column2 uniqueidentifier default NewSequentialID(), Fname varchar(30) ) Pump-in few dummy records: Insert into #tblDemoSequentialID (Fname) values ('Vadivel') Insert into #tblDemoSequentialID (Fname) values ('Rajinikanth') Insert into #tblDemoSequentialID (Fname) values ('Sivaji') In this query 'Column1' would demonstrate that the 'NEWID' has generated GUID in random fashion. Also 'Column2' would contain GUID in Sequen

Finding missing indexes in SQL Server 2005

There are quite a lot of DMV's which have been introduced along with SQL Server 2005. One such is sys.dm_db_missing_index_details. Using this DMV we can identify what all indexes SQL optimizer is expecing in our tables. Query: select * from sys.dm_db_missing_index_details Fields to note: equality_columns, inequality_columns, included_columns, statement So by querying this DMV and having a look at these 4 columns we can decide on the types of indexes which needs to be created for our tables. Each of this column has a meaning. Either find it yourself :) or drop a line in the comment section. One important point to keep in mind is the result you see out of running the above DMV is just a 'suggestion' on the way to improve the performance of your query. But its not 100% guaranteed that on creating all these indexes would help. We cannot access the DMV using accounts which doesn't have permission for 'View Server State'. I would write more on these in upcoming post

Query to find out indexes created dynamically by SQL Server 2000

When queries / SP's hits those tables where appropriate indexes are not there then the database engine would automatically create indexes to be used by its execution plan. The hitch is those dynamic indexes would not be reused by the engine the next time when it hits the same table / column. i.e., it would create another dynamic index each time when it hits the same table / column. That said, normally till SQL Server 2000 I used to execute the below statement to list down those dynamically created indexes. So that i can analyze and create indexes appropriately. Select [name] from sysindexes where [name] like '_WA_%' I would write more on this shortly.

Ctrl + Alt + Del in remote desktop

If you are connected to a remote desktop (Using Remote Desktop Connection) and for some reason you want to use "Ctrl" + "Alt" + "Del" it would open up the local machines dialog box only. In order to initiate the dialog box of the remote machine to which you are connected to make use of "Ctrl" + "Alt" + "End" Hope this helps!

How to find out recently run queries in SQL Server 2005?

Prior to SQL Server 2005 if we want to find out the list of recently run queries we need to depend on SQL Profiler. Now in SQL Server 2005 the life has become more easier(!). With the help of of an Dynamic Management Views (DMV) and a table valued function we can list the required result. Points to note: 1. sys.dm_exec_query_stats -- This DMV returns aggregate performance statistics for cached query plans. The view contains one row per query statement within the cached plan, and the lifetime of the rows are tied to the plan itself. When a plan is removed from the cache, the corresponding rows are eliminated from this view. 2. sys.dm_exec_sql_text -- This table valued function returns the text of the SQL batch that is identified by the specified sql_handle Solution: Select dmStats.last_execution_time as 'Last Executed Time', dmText.text as 'Executed Query' from sys.dm_exec_query_stats as dmStats Cross apply sys.dm_exec_sql_text(dmStats.sql_handle) as dmTex

GRANT permission to ALL stored procedures

This is one of the other very common question which I get from many of my blog readers / dotnetspider users. Hi Vadivel, I have created a fresh login in my SQL Server 2005 database. Now I want to grant that newly created login permission to execute any / all stored procedure within that database. Can you tell me how to do this in one shot? As of now, I am writting GRANT statement for all individual Stored procedures name manually :( Regards xxxxxx Find above one of the recent mail which I received from one of dotnetspider user. I thought I would write a sample and blog it for benefit of all those people who are having similar requirement. So is this post :) Solution: Declare @strUserName sysname Set @strUserName = 'Support' Select 'Grant exec on [' + Routine_Schema + '].[' + Routine_Name + '] TO [' + @strUserName + ']' from Information_Schema.Routines Where Routine_Type = 'Procedure' Now in the result pane the GRANT statement for all stor

Find the missing numbers (GAPS) within a table...

In this post I have given one of the way to find out the missing numbers within a table. Please note the you need SQL Server 2005 to execute this example and test it yourself. Sample table creation Create table tblFindGaps ( Sno int not null ) Go Populate dummy records in the table: Insert tblFindGaps values (1) Insert tblFindGaps values (10) Insert tblFindGaps values (3) Insert tblFindGaps values (5) Insert tblFindGaps values (9) Insert tblFindGaps values (11) Insert tblFindGaps values (15) Insert tblFindGaps values (18) Insert tblFindGaps values (22) Insert tblFindGaps values (100) Go Solution to find the missed out numbers: Declare @intMaxNum int Select @intMaxNum = max(Sno) from tblFindGaps; With tempData (result) as ( Select distinct FG.Sno + 1 from tblFindGaps FG where not exists ( Select 1 from tblFindGaps FGP where FGP.Sno = FG.Sno + 1 ) and FG.Sno < @intMaxNum Union All Select TD.result + 1 from tempData TD where not exists ( Select 1 from tblFindGaps FGP where FGP.Sno = TD

Database 'msdb' cannot be opened due to inaccessible files or insufficient memory or disk space.

I am working on SQL Server 2005 for quite sometime now. For past couple of weeks I am facing a strange error often but not always!! Refer the screenshot below to know the actual error: Database 'msdb' cannot be opened due to inaccessible files or insufficient memory or disk space. See the SQL Server errorlog for details. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 945) My system configuration: I am using Windows XP Media center edition with SP2 and 1 GB RAM. I have SQL Server 2005 (version 9.00.1399.00) What's the solution? I came across this KB article - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899436 . As per the KB article it looks like this error occurs because of a ACL issue here. If it's an ACL issue I presume that SQL 2005 should not work for me always. I am wondering how it works for me once I restart my laptop couple of times. Bottomline is I haven't yet found a solution for this. If at all you have run into this issu,e and have solved it, do write back to me.

Workaround for 'Divide by zero error encountered'

Today I just want to write a sample explaining the workaround for 'Divide by zero error encountered.' error in SQL Server. Sample Table Structure for demo purpose Create Table dbo.TestDivideByZero ( WebSite varchar(50), NumOfHits int, Income int ) Go Insert dummy records Insert into dbo.TestDivideByZero values ('a.com', 100, 20) Insert into dbo.TestDivideByZero values ('b.com', 10, 0) Insert into dbo.TestDivideByZero values ('c.com', 300, 25) Insert into dbo.TestDivideByZero values ('d.com', 1300, 225) Go Query to produce 'Divide by zero error encountered.' error Select WebSite, NumOfHits / Income from dbo.TestDivideByZero Go This would throw the below error: Msg 8134, Level 16, State 1, Line 1 Divide by zero error encountered. Workaround Make use of NULLIF function. Like, if the value is 0 then return NULL. For better understanding execute the below query and see it for yourself. Select WebSite, NumOfHits / NullIf(Income,0) as ColumnNam

Arithmetic overflow error converting expression to data type int.

Today I was trying to join two table each having approximately 5 Lakhs records in one of my SQL Server 2005 database. I was trying to find the count of some field when this arithmetic overflow error was thrown. Arithmetic overflow error converting expression to data type int. I understood that the calculation has exceeded the maximum INT range. For better understand on this error check out this SQL Books online article and/or this KB article . The work around which did the trick for me is, instead of "Count" I changed it as "Count_big".

Top 20 things programmers say to testers!

I was going through the "Top 20 things Programmers says to Testers!" . Its really funny and brought back lot of memories. Out of the 20, i need to admit I use these excuses very often :) 18. "It worked yesterday!" 12. "You must have a wrong version" 1. "It works on my machine" The other excuses which I use or heard people using it are: 1. The issue isn't reproducable. 2. It's designed to work that way! 3. You know we have done it as a value add ourself! there is no spec for this. 4. It's been fixed long time back. May be you are looking into a wrong version! 5. You know its not because of our layer! It's an error in the "Service Layer" which another team needs to look at. 6. I don't think its a show stopper. How about fixing it in the next release? Do you have a say on this?

A Saturday with Zoho Writer!

Today I thought of trying my luck with Zoho Writer and write my feedback about that. So is this post :) Just a thought: Actually I am surprised that almost all of zoho's product have different UI's. Won't it look good if they create a uniform look and feel across their products? Most of the Products have Single Sign On facility: It's really nice to see that they have done SSO (single sign on) authentication for their products. It means, previously I have registered with Zoho Sheets and now to work with Zoho Writer I can make use of the same login. How to enable SSO for a zoho product? 1. First login to any of their product (zoho sheet, zoho writer, zoho show, zoho project, zoho creator, zoho planner, zoho wiki and zoho chat). Yes you need to register once in any of their product. 2. In the header of the application you can see "My Account" link. Click on it to see a screenshot as shown below for your account information. 3. Now lets assume that you need to en

AutoEventWireup

<%@ Page language="c#" Codebehind="WebForm1.aspx.cs" AutoEventWireup="true" Inherits="Sample2003Application.WebForm1" %> AutoEventWireup -- It's a boolean field. By default in VS.NET 2003 it would be "false". More over this attribute is applicable only for applications which are created via VS.NET 2003. If it's set to "True", the ASP.NET runtime does not require events to specify event handlers like Page_Load etc., Once you create a new webform in VS.NET the 'AutoEventWireup' attribute of that page would be false. Open the code behind file and check out the 'InitializeComponent' it would be something like this: private void InitializeComponent() { this.Load += new System.EventHandler(this.Page_Load); } Within Page_Load even print a message into the screen. private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e) { Response.Write("We are in Page Load event."); } This message "We ar

Export data from SQL Server to Excel without using SSIS or DTS

Normally for exporting data from SQL Server to Excel one would use DTS (SQL 2k) or SSIS (SQL Server 2005). For some reason if at all you want to do it via query read on: Step 1: Execute the code snippet Exec sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1; Go Reconfigure; Go Exec sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1; Go Reconfigure; Go Step 2: Create the excel file and then add the headings in the .xls file. [Important] The heading should be the same as that of the table columns. Insert into Openrowset ('Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 'Excel 8.0;Database=c:\VadivelTesting.xls;' , 'Select * from [ProductInfo$]') Select ProductID, ProductName from dbo.tblProducts Points which might interest you: 1. As long as the file is within your C: drive this sample would work. If at all your database is in a different machine from that .xls file you need to change Database=c:\VadivelTesting.xls; to UNC path. For example, Database=\\Servername\shareName (And need

ToonDoo from Jambav ... 2

I came to know about ToonDoo from D. Rajendran (who is a Product Manager in Jambav) and I am glad he introduced this to me. I created couple of toons and have blogged about it here . I really liked this toonDoo concept and i am playing with it for past 2 days like a kid :) Actually I wanted to write about "Jambav" in June '06 itself. But as I was bit busy couldn't do that (believe me i was busy only lol). Now somebody has beaten me and has interviewed "Rajendran Dandapani" about him and Jambav . He has spoken about "What is Jambav and why that name?", "about the motivation to start Jambav", "About him and his responsibilities", "Key technologies used", "their business model" etc., I strongly recommend everybody to go through it without fail. That said, there are few things which I am not sure about this tool ... 1. How much load can their server take? Because very often I find that the server is down (more t

ToonDoo from Jambav ...

Jambav (backed by Adventnet ) has launched another cool tool few days back by name " ToonDoo " (Cartoon Strip Creator). You can check my really exciting works below :) [ Updated the copy: As usual there were lots of typo in my Indian Cricket toon which I have changed it now]. BTW, at present there is a contest at ToonDoo . Create any number of toon and show the world what you are thinkinng abt it. What are you waiting for? Go get registered and start playing with it. Techcrunch has a good write up on ToonDoo here Technorati tags: Jambav , Cricket , ToonDoo , Kids

Autocomplete features of ASP.NET

Most of us would be very much familiar with "Autocomplete" feature of various browsers. After turning on that feature if you try filling any textboxes the browser provides you with the values which you have already typed in that field before. What if the "autocomplete" feature is turned ON in the end users browser but you don't want the data to be catched by the browser? Its quite simple. All we need to do is make use of the attribute "autocomplete" within the pages form tag. Example 1: Disabling Autocomplete for the whole form 1. Create a sample web form and replace that default form tag with the code snippet below <form id="form1" runat="server" autocomplete="off"> <asp:TextBox ID="txtOne" runat=server></asp:TextBox> <asp:TextBox id="txtTwo" runat="server" ></asp:TextBox> <asp:Button ID="btnGo" runat="server" Text="Submit" />

Restarting a remote computer via Remote Desktop ...

If you want to restart a computer which you have connected via Windows Remote Desktop do this. Start >> Run >> shutdown -r -f The machine would be restarted after 30 seconds automatically There are lots of other options available with shutdown command. You can view all the available options by typing " shutdown /? " in the command window.

Server Application Unavailable

Error Message: The web application you are attempting to access on this web server is currently unavailable. Please hit the "Refresh" button in your web browser to retry your request. Administrator Note: An error message detailing the cause of this specific request failure can be found in the system event log of the web server. Please review this log entry to discover what caused this error to occur. Error in Event Viewer: aspnet_wp.exe could not be started. The error code for the failure is 80004005. This error can be caused when the worker process account has insufficient rights to read the .NET Framework files. Please ensure that the .NET Framework is correctly installed and that the ACLs on the installation directory allow access to the configured account. OR aspnet_wp.exe could not be launched because the username and/or password supplied in the processModel section of the config file are invalid. Solution: Check out this microsoft support article >> http://suppor

[Non Tech] Want to know the recipe for Omelette :)

Fed up with Bread - Jam and Curd Rice, today i wanted to eat Omelette. Interesting part is I wanted to cook it myself :) So in the first picture you see all the items which are needed for preparing an Omelette. When I had a closer look at the eggs I see that almost all the eggs are broken. But believe me when I bought it couple of days back it was in perfect condition! I was wondering whether the eggs have become rotten or pretty old to consume! I tried taking an egg and break it but couldn't break it at all :) Since I have kept in the freezer all the eggs have frozen and looked like a iron ball :) After trying for few minutes of trying i removed the shell of the egg and then kept that iron ball :) into a bowl and placed it within Oven. I heated it for 1 minute and checked. It melted only to a limit. So i just set it for another 2 minutes and checked it later. It has melted but the part of the egg white has become a Omelette :( I didn't leave it there. I took the bowl out of

Max limit of Varchar, nvarchar, varbinary datatypes ...

As you would be knowing by now in SQL Server 2005 they have enhanced varchar, nvarchar & varbinary as varchar(max), nvarchar(max) & varbinary(max). So now they can hold upto 2^31-1 bytes (it would come to approx 2 GB). That said, don't think that just because MAX has been introduced you can declare those datatypes for any arbitary number. If you want to specify a limit yourself for those datatype still the maximum is 8000 characters. When you think that you need to store content whose lenght would be more than 8000 characters then you need to declare it as MAX. For example, Try executing the below code snippet Create table testVarchar ( fName varchar(8001) ) Go It would throw an error something like this: The size (8001) given to the column 'fName' exceeds the maximum allowed for any data type (8000).

Calling Cards for India ...

For past 2 days I am using USP long distance phone Card to speak with my wife (Sai). The call time got over today morning. Most of the people here in the hotel said that they are using "Reliance India Calling Card". More importantly reliance is running an offer now and its named as "Valentine Offer". i.e., Pay USD 5 and talk for 120 minutes. It's a cool offer. So thought I would register in Reliance and get hold of that offer today. Their registration page is this https://www.relianceindiacall.com/US/fp_reg_step1.asp but one can't sign-up if we don't have a mobile /Land Line here in US! They themself say "Please do not register with a hotel/hostel/public phone numbers to avail Reliance India Call service. Instead you can use an auto-generated number for registration under Prepaid plan." . The last statement which talks about auto-generated number doesn't hold good till Feb 28th (thats when this offer ends!). I called up their customer care

Javascript: Proper case validation

I am just posting a Javascript sample which I created for answering a question in dotnetspider. <html> <head> <title>Proper Case Validation -- Sample by Vadivel</title> <script> <!-- function ConvertToProperCase() { strTemp = document.form1.txtString.value strTemp = strTemp.toLowerCase() var test="" var isFirstCharOfWord = 1 for (var intCount = 0; intCount < strTemp.length; intCount++) { var temp = strTemp.charAt(intCount) if (isFirstCharOfWord == 1) { temp = temp.toUpperCase() } test = test + temp if (temp == " ") { isFirstCharOfWord = 1 } else isFirstCharOfWord = 0 } document.form1.txtString.value = test } // --> </script> </head> <body> <form name=form1> <input size=50 name=txtString> <input type=button onClick=ConvertToProperCase() value="Convert It Now"> </form> </body> </html> Update: I have tested it with IE 6.0 alone. May be for working in other browsers y

Are you looking for loans in Chennai?

My sister (Sumathi Maraimallai) was working with Citi Shelters for approx 3 years as a Manager for Personal Loans section. After that she moved to another company for better career growth and now she has become a DSA (Direct selling agent) of few MNC banks along with her friend Mr. Roshan (who was also working previously with Citi Shelters for approx 6 years). On the other day she was asking for some referals. I said, I don't want to put people in trouble by giving away their mobile numbers :) Rather I thought I would put a word across here for the benefit of others. If at all you are looking for Personal loans then you might want to make a note of their contact numbers [ Feel free to refer my name so that they would realize that I am also capable of giving them business lol ]: Mobile - 9841283226 Land Line - 664561901 / 02 /03 E–Mail : corporateloans (at) airtelbroadband.in Couple of questions which I thought people would ask by default: 1. What is the duration for getting a loa

Removing unwanted spaces within a string ...

Removing leading and trailling spaces is pretty easy. All you need to do is make use of Ltrim and Rtrim function respectively. But there are times when you want to remove unwanted spaces within a string. Check out the below code snippet to know how to do it. --Declaration and Initialization Declare @strValue varchar(50) Set @strValue = ' I Love you ! ' -- Here between each word leave as many spaces as you want. --Remove the leading and trailing spaces Set @strValue = Rtrim(Ltrim(@strValue)) --Loop through and remove more than one spaces to single space. While CharIndex(' ',@strValue)>0 Select @strValue = Replace(@strValue, ' ', ' ') --Final output :) Select @strValue

An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server.

Error Description :: An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server) Solution 1: Go to, Start >> Programs >> Microsoft SQL Server 2005 >> Configuration Tools >> SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration >> Surface Area Configuration for Services and connections. Within this check whether "Local and remote connections" is choosen. If not choose it :) Solution 2: Check this URL http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=192622&SiteID=1 :) Technorati tags: SQL Server 2005

Why isn’t there any official message from Microsoft?

Microsoft announced a “ BlogStar ” contest last year and the winners were announced in the first week of November 2006. How do I know that I am one among the winners? On November 5 or 6th I got a call from one Ms. Bharathi claiming to be working in Microsoft. The number from which she called is 91-80-65605725. She said that I have won a prize and needed my size and full contact address to ship a jerkin. As the line wasn't clear I couldn't hear properly for what exactly is this gift for? But at that time Blogstar was the only Microsoft competition I was participating so I presumed it to be that. So, you got a call from Microsoft employee and hope you have received your prize as well! What else are you asking for? Excuse me :) As the female's communication was not that professional I thought its some spam caller and asked her to mail me the reason for requesting my contact address so that I can communicate my address back to her official ID. That said, it’s almost two months

List tables that doesn't participate in any relationships

This query returns those tables which satisfy the below two conditions: 1. Tables that do not contain any Foreign Key referencing other tables. 2. Tables that are not referenced by other tables using foreign key constraints. Solution: Till SQL Server 2000 days we used to write the below scripts [This still works with SQL Server 2005 also]. Select [name] as "Orphan Tables" from SysObjects where xtype='U' and id not in ( Select fkeyID from SysForeignKeys union Select rkeyID from SysForeignKeys ) Solution which works only with SQL Server 2005: Method 1: Select [name] as "Orphan Tables" from Sys.Tables where object_id not in ( Select parent_object_id from Sys.Foreign_Keys union Select referenced_object_id from Sys.Foreign_Keys ) Method 2: Select ST.[Name] as "Orphan Tables" from Sys.Foreign_Keys as SFK Right Join Sys.Tables as ST On ST.object_id = SFK.parent_object_id Or ST.object_id = SFK.referenced_object_id Where SFK.type is null Technorati tags: SQ

How to find the number of days in a month

This seems to be one another frequently asked question in the discussion forums. So thought would write a small post on this today. With the help of built in SQL Server functions we can easily achieve this in one single T-SQL statement as shown below. Select Day(DateAdd(Month, 1, '01/01/2007') - Day(DateAdd(Month, 1, '02/01/2007'))) Generalized Solution: We can generalize it by creating a "User defined Stored Procedure" as shown below: Create Function NumDaysInMonth (@dtDate datetime) returns int as Begin Return(Select Day(DateAdd(Month, 1, @dtDate) - Day(DateAdd(Month, 1, @dtDate)))) End Go Test: Select dbo.NumDaysInMonth('20070201') Go Technorati tags: SQL Server , SQL Server 2005