(William Pearson) In this article, we will extend our examination of MDX functions to concentrate upon the basic, but useful, Distinct() function. We will discuss the straightforward purpose of the function, to return a set without duplicates from a set we specify within the function, as well as the

(Adam Machanic) A seemingly never-ending battle in online database forums involves the question of whether or not database application development should involve the use of stored procedures. A popular article on the Simple-Talk Web site (To SP or Not to SP in SQL Server) discussed various pros and

SQL Server Integration Services (formerly Data Transformation Services) provides a comprehensive solution for transferring and transforming data between diverse data sources. The architecture of SSIS has been redesigned to separate package-control flow from data flow. Two engines have been int

When you install Microsoft SQL Server 2005, you may receive the following error message: Beta components detected.

(Don Schlichting) This article, the last in the Stored Procedure series, will focus on RETURN parameters. The first article in this series explained the benefits of using stored procedures as well as an example demonstrating a data grid being populated from one. The DOT NET aspx web page develop

Bulk-import and bulk-export operations allow you to move data easily between Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and heterogeneous data sources. For example, you can export data from a Microsoft Excel application to a data file and then bulk import the data into a SQL Server table. Bulk exporting refers to co

(Jagadish Chaterjee) This article mainly focuses on the new concept of “Common Table Expression” introduced in Microsoft SQL Server 2005. I shall emphasize simple code. I will use different approaches not seen in any of the previous versions of SQL Server, together with several examples covering a v

The new features of SQL Server 2005 are well worth the upgrade effort, but how do you upgrade your existing systems painlessly? Microsoft’s Jennifer Perret drills into the necessary upgrade planning: preparing to upgrade, choosing the best upgrade strategy, and identifying incompatibility issues. Yo

(Tim Chapman) Most iterative language compilers have built-in error handling routines (e.g., TRY…CATCH statements) that developers can leverage when designing their code. Although SQL Server 2000 developers don’t enjoy the luxury that iterative language developers do when it comes to built-in tools,

(Rushi Desai) One of the prime use cases of the CLR integration in SQL Server 2005 is to make outbound HTTP requests to web applications or web services. But how do you do that reliably given the large number of failures that need to be handled ranging from network unavailability, server timeouts,