How to Install SQL Server 2005 Client Tools?

Further to my earlier post  SQL Server Client Tools Setup Fails due to MSXML 6 , in which I mentioned a solution for SQL Server Client Tools setup failure, if you are still unable to install them then following steps may help you.

1. Navigate to \Tools\Setup folder of your SQL Server Setup CD
2. Launch SqlRun_Tools.msi

It will launch the installation wizard directly and in 90% percent of the cases you will be able to install the client tools successfuly.

How to Query Active Directory (AD) from SQL Server

There can be a scenario where you will want to query Active Directory, directly from your stored procedure. This can be achieved by creating a linked server to your target Active Directory and then querying it through OPENQUERY functionality. Following is an example to achieve this:

Step 1: Add Linked Server for Active Directory

sp_addlinkedserver 'ADSI', 'Active Directory Service Interfaces', 'ADSDSOObject', 'adsdatasource'

Step 2: Query the Active Directory

SELECT * FROM OpenQuery
(
ADSI,   --Name of the linked server for Active directory, created in step 1
'SELECT title, displayName, sAMAccountName, givenName, telephoneNumber, facsimileTelephoneNumber, sn   --Fields you want to retreive
FROM ''LDAP://DC=TestDomain''    --Name of your Active Directory Domain
where objectClass = ''User'''         --Type of objects you want to query e.g. User, Person etc...
)

NOTE: The order in which columns will return will be exactly reversed of what you mentioned in your query. For example, in above query we have mentioned 
title, displayName…….,facsimileTelephoneNumber, sn but the resultset will return as
sn,facsimileTelephoneNumber……,displayName,title.
There is no reason of this behaviour and it is just how Active Directory OLEDB Provider works.

SQL Server Client Tools Setup Fails due to MSXML 6

If you are trying to install SQL Server 2005 client tools and continuously getting failure message because of MSXML 6 installation which already exists on your machine then it may be due to the corrupted installation of MSXML 6 which blocks the installation of client tools. You can fix it as follows:

Go to Control Panel-> Administrative Tools->Add Remove Programs and try to remove it. If it removes smoothly then just install the Client Tools as before and you are done. 

OR

If you found that you are unable to uninstall the MSXML 6 because of some wiered error then you need a tool called Windows Install Clean up from here

Donwload it and remove the corrupt installation of MSXML 6. Once removed, you can now install the Client tools as usual.

How to create Custom Database Role and Manage its permissions

Custom database roles is the best way to manage object permission for the given database in structured way. Following script will demonstrate the steps necessary to create a new role and manage object permissions through it

--- Step 1 -------- Create Role ------------
USE [MyTestDB]
GO
CREATE ROLE [TestRole1] AUTHORIZATION [dbo]
Go

--- Step 2 -------- Assign Permissions to role  ------------
USE [MyTestDB]
GO
GRANT ALTER,EXECUTE, SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE
ON SCHEMA ::dbo
TO TestRole1
Go

USE [MyTestDB]
GO
GRANT BACKUP DATABASE,BACKUP LOG To [TestRole1]
Go

--- Step 3 ---- Add user to our role --------------
USE [MyTestDB]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'TestRole1', N'SPUser7'
GO

-- ******  Create user *********************

--- Step 1 ---- Create Windows Login For SQL Server ------------
USE [master]
GO
CREATE LOGIN [TestDomain\SPUser7] FROM WINDOWS WITH DEFAULT_DATABASE=[MyTestDB]
GO

--- Step 2 ---- Create Database User for our database --------------
USE [MyTestDB]
GO
CREATE USER [SPUser7] FOR LOGIN [TestDomain\SPUser7]
GO

TSQL Function to encode HTML Text

While browsing through the Sharepoint content database, I found a very useful TSQL utility function which can be used in any application. This function encodes the given html so that it can be safely used in XML tags and other html rendering requirements.

Please note,  this function is originally provided in Sharepoint content database and I have just copied it because of its usefulness. PLEASE DO NOT CALL it directly from Sharepoint database as it is not recommended and supported by Microsoft. Just create this function in your own database and modify it as per your requirement.

set ANSI_NULLS ON
set QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
 go

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_HtmlEncode](
     @Value nvarchar(1023),
     @PreserveNewLine bit)
 RETURNS nvarchar(4000)
AS
BEGIN
     DECLARE @Result nvarchar(4000)
     SELECT @Result = @Value
     IF @Result IS NOT NULL AND LEN(@Result) > 0
     BEGIN
         SELECT @Result = REPLACE(@Result, N'&', N'&')
         SELECT @Result = REPLACE(@Result, N'<', N'&lt;')
         SELECT @Result = REPLACE(@Result, N'>', N'&gt;')
         SELECT @Result = REPLACE(@Result, N'''', N''')
         SELECT @Result = REPLACE(@Result, N'"', N'&quot;')
         IF @PreserveNewLine = 1
             SELECT @Result = REPLACE(@Result, CHAR(10), CHAR(10) + N'<br>')
     END
     RETURN @Result
END


TSQL Function to convert decimal to Hex, Octal or any other base

Frequently I see the questions in newsgroups about a function to convert integer value to other bases like base 2 (binary), base 8 (octal) and base 16(hex). Following TSQL function, which was orginally mentioned by Itzik Ben-Gan in his book Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005:TSQL Querying, provides you the ability to convert a given integer into any target base. I have just updated the function with more meaningful names and added some comments to clear the logic.

Here it is:

USE [AdventureWorks]
GO;

IF EXISTS
(
SELECT * FROM sys.objects
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'[dbo].[fn_decToBase]')
AND type in (N'FN', N'IF', N'TF', N'FS', N'FT')
)
DROP FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_decToBase]
Go
Create function [dbo].[fn_decToBase]
(
@val as BigInt,
@base as int
)
returns varchar(63)
as
Begin
/* Check if we get the valid base */
If (@val<0) OR (@base < 2) OR (@base> 36) Return Null;

/* variable to hold final answer */
Declare @answer as varchar(63);

/* Following variable contains all
possible alpha numeric letters for any base
*/
Declare @alldigits as varchar(36);
Set @alldigits='0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ'

/* Set the initial value of
final answer as empty string
*/
Set @answer='';

/* Loop until your source value is greater than 0 */
While @val>0
Begin
Set @answer=Substring(@alldigits,@val % @base + 1,1) + @answer;
Set @val = @val / @base;
End

</code>

<code>/* Return the final answer */
return @answer;
End

Search all columns of all tables for a particular value

Several times I have came across with the question that how can I search all columns of all tables in a SQL Server database for a particular value. Unfortunately, you can not perform this query directly by any already provided system table or object. 

There are some fundamental points to remember:

 

1. You have to iterate the list of tables and for each table you have to iterate each column and perform an exist query against it. 
2. You will need three types of queries due to the data types i.e. string, number and date and time.

I have found an excellent article here which provides a good explanation along with the necessary sql script. I would recommend every reader to read this article.

 

How to find relationship between tables

As a DBA or even as a SQL Server Programmer, you may need a quick script to find relationship between tables. I found a useful script to do that in a SQL Server newsgroup. With some minor update, here is the script which lists the name of the parent table, child table, Referred table, foreing key table and name of the foreign key constraint. I hope you will find it useful. All credit goes to original author.

Select

object_name(rkeyid) Parent_Table,

object_name(fkeyid) Child_Table,

object_name(constid) FKey_Name,

c1.name FKey_Col,

c2.name Ref_KeyCol

From

sys.sysforeignkeys s

Inner join sys.syscolumns c1

on ( s.fkeyid = c1.id And s.fkey = c1.colid )

Inner join syscolumns c2

on ( s.rkeyid = c2.id And s.rkey = c2.colid )

Order by Parent_Table,Child_Table

Two quickest ways to find file information of a given database

If you want to check the name of the files and their respective sizes for the given database then following are two quick tsql scripts:

1. Use sp_helpfile

This stored procedure returns the file information for the selected database e.g.

USE AdventureWorks;

GO

EXEC sp_helpfile;

GO

It will return the resultset similar to following

By default, this view returns a column called size but this is actually the size in 8KB pages therefore, to get the exact size in KB, as returned by sp_helpfile, multiply it by 8 as mentioned in above query.

Deleting ununsed primary keys

Sometimes we need to make sure that all keys in the primary key table has atleast one corresponding row in child table or in other words every key has been used atleast once as a foreign key. This is a typical scenario we face during data import where data integrity can not be guarnteed 100% due to various reason. Following script demonstrate a simple technique to delete all those rows in the master table which are not used in child table.

Use tempdb;

/* Create sample tables and insert sample data */

Create table tblMaster

(

masterId int,

masterName varchar(50)

)

Go

Create table tblChild

(

childId int NOT NULL IDENTITY (1, 1),

masterId int,

childName varchar(50)

)

Go

Insert into tblMaster (masterId,masterName) values (1,‘Master 1′);

Insert into tblMaster (masterId,masterName) values (2,‘Master 2′);

Insert into tblMaster (masterId,masterName) values (3,‘Master 3′);

Insert into tblMaster (masterId,masterName) values (4,‘Master 4′);

Go

Insert into tblChild (masterId,childName) values (1,‘Child 1′);

Insert into tblChild (masterId,childName) values (1,‘Child 2′);

Insert into tblChild (masterId,childName) values (1,‘Child 3′);

Insert into tblChild (masterId,childName) values (2,‘Child 4′);

Go

/* Master table before deletion */

Select * from tblMaster

Go

/* Delete unused rows */

Delete tblMaster

where

not exists

(

Select masterId

from tblChild

where

tblChild.masterId=tblMaster.masterId

)

Go

/* Master table after deletion */

Select * from tblMaster

Go

/* Clean up */

drop table tblMaster;

Go

drop table tblChild;

Go