Decisions decisions..

So I inherited some SSRS reports that need some updating - mostly appearance stuff.. the boss wants the reports to all have a similar look and feel.. BUT yesterday in the staff meeting it turns out he also wants me to convert the PROC datasources all into table valued functions.. because they're cooler.. (which, well, they are, but anyway..) So I open up the source of the proc and inside I find a whole bunch of #temp tables. The original author filled a series of #temp tables and them hooked them all together with unions at the end. So I am now faced with a decision - do I convert these #temp tables into: - table variables - views or - subqueries Table variables - I like doing this because it's the most similar. I don't like doing this because I have to figure out what the column datatypes all are in order to declare the table variable, and that's just tedious. Views - These are nicely reusable! BUT I highly doubt they will ever get reused, and it creates a bunch of otherwise useless objects cluttering up the list of views. Subqueries - grab the query and stick it in parenthesis where the #temp table is currently called. Gets the job done, no risk of changing the results, quick and easy, I like it. Downside is .. well, it feels kinda cheesy, plus there's a chance that one of the #temp tables may be called more than once, and a there's a few of them. I'm not an "elegant code" kind of guy, I prefer to get the job done as quickly as possible and move on. Variables have the lowest impact with the fewest chance of the unexpected. Subqueries are risky but super quick implementation if everything goes right. Views would be quick too.. probably the quickest. Clutter is less of a concern to me personally than time is, but there are other DBA's and developers here and I don't have the slightest idea how someone else might react.. making objects in a database feels like bumping somebody's shoulder in a hallway on accident. Overall though, I think views is the way to go. They're super quick both to create and to implement into the rest of the new table function, PLUS I may end up being able to reuse one later, which would be a great bonus. Views it is

Here's some SQL code to change any date into the date for a particular day of that week. I'm making a report in which the business wants to see values aggregated by week-ending date (aka Friday). So all the dates have to be change dinto the friday of that week. The DATEADD formula below will do that.

DECLARE @sunday AS SMALLDATETIME
 SET @sunday = '8/26/2012'
DECLARE @friday AS SMALLDATETIME
 SET @friday = '8/31/2012'
DECLARE @saturday AS SMALLDATETIME
 SET @saturday = '9/1/2012'

SELECT 
 DATEADD(day, (DATEPART(dw, @sunday)-6)*-1, @sunday),
 DATEADD(day, (DATEPART(dw, @friday)-6)*-1, @friday),
 DATEADD(day, (DATEPART(dw, @saturday)-6)*-1, @saturday)

I updated my previous entry as a stored procedure with error catching and rollback. usage: EXEC dbo.usp_CloneDBData @srcdb, @dstdb -- Source and Destination database names respectively. This version does not work using linked servers, but could easily be modified to do so.

 CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.usp_CloneDBData -- table schemas must be identical  
  @srcdb AS VARCHAR(1000),  
  @dstdb AS VARCHAR(1000)  
 AS  
 --DECLARE @srcdb AS VARCHAR(1000)  
 --DECLARE @dstdb AS VARCHAR(1000)  
 --SET @srcdb = '[_test1]'  
 --SET @dstdb = '_test2'  
 DECLARE @allsql AS NVARCHAR(4000)  
 SET @srcdb = '[' + REPLACE(REPLACE(@srcdb,'[',''),']','') + ']'  
 SET @dstdb = '[' + REPLACE(REPLACE(@dstdb,'[',''),']','') + ']'  
 IF (@srcdb = @dstdb)   
 BEGIN  
     RAISERROR ('Source and Destination Databases cannot be the same', 16, 1)  
     RETURN  
 END  
 SET @allsql = '  
 -- truncate and refill from an identical table in another database  
 EXEC '+@dstdb+'.dbo.sp_msforeachtable ''ALTER TABLE ? NOCHECK CONSTRAINT all''  
 DECLARE cur CURSOR FOR  
   SELECT table_name, table_schema  
   FROM '+@srcdb+'.INFORMATION_SCHEMA.tables tab   
   WHERE table_type = ''BASE TABLE''  
 OPEN cur  
 DECLARE @tablename VARCHAR(255) ,@tableschema VARCHAR(255)  
 FETCH NEXT FROM cur INTO @tablename, @tableschema  
 WHILE ( @@FETCH_STATUS <> -1 )   
 BEGIN   
   IF ( @@FETCH_STATUS <> -2 )   
   DECLARE @sqltxt NVARCHAR(4000)  
     DECLARE @columnlist VARCHAR(4000)  
     Select @columnlist = ISNULL(Stuff(  
             (  
             Select '', '' + C.COLUMN_NAME  
             From [_Test1].INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS As C  
             Where C.TABLE_SCHEMA = T.TABLE_SCHEMA  
                 And C.TABLE_NAME = T.TABLE_NAME  
             Order By C.ORDINAL_POSITION  
             For Xml Path('''')  
             ), 1, 2, '''') ,'''')  
     From [_Test1].INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES As T  
     WHERE T.TABLE_NAME = @tablename  
  SET @sqltxt = N''''  
 EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @sqltxt  
  SET @sqltxt = N''  
 use '+@dstdb+';  
 DELETE ['' + @tableschema + ''].['' + @tablename + ''];  
 IF ((SELECT OBJECTPROPERTY( OBJECT_ID(N''''['' + @tableschema + ''].['' + @tablename + '']''''), ''''TableHasIdentity'''')) = 1) SET IDENTITY_INSERT ['' + @tableschema + ''].['' + @tablename + ''] ON;  
 INSERT INTO ['' + @tableschema + ''].['' + @tablename + ''] (''+@columnlist+'') SELECT ''+@columnlist+'' FROM [_Test1].['' + @tableschema + ''].['' + @tablename + ''];  
 IF ((SELECT OBJECTPROPERTY( OBJECT_ID(N''''['' + @tableschema + ''].['' + @tablename + '']''''), ''''TableHasIdentity'''')) = 1) SET IDENTITY_INSERT ['' + @tableschema + ''].['' + @tablename + ''] OFF;  
 ''  
 EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @sqltxt  
 FETCH NEXT FROM cur INTO @tablename, @tableschema  
 END  
 CLOSE cur  
 DEALLOCATE cur  
 exec '+@dstdb+'.dbo.sp_msforeachtable ''ALTER TABLE ? WITH CHECK CHECK CONSTRAINT all''  
 '  
 BEGIN TRY  
     BEGIN TRAN  
         EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @allsql  
     COMMIT TRAN  
 END TRY  
 BEGIN CATCH   
   DECLARE @ErrorMessage NVARCHAR(4000);  
   DECLARE @ErrorSeverity INT;  
   --DECLARE @ErrorState INT;  
   SELECT   
     @ErrorMessage = ERROR_MESSAGE(),  
     @ErrorSeverity = ERROR_SEVERITY()  
     --,@ErrorState = ERROR_STATE();  
   RAISERROR (@ErrorMessage, -- Message text.  
         @ErrorSeverity, -- Severity.  
         1 -- State.  
         );  
     ROLLBACK TRAN  
 END CATCH  

SQL Server TSQL script to clone a database's tables and data

the following script will create two dissimilar databases for demonstration purposes, insert different data into them, identify the schema differences, drop the tables that are different out of the destination database, create and execute scripts to create all missing tables, truncate the tables in the destination database, then insert all data from all tables in the source into the tables in the destination. to do a find replace: _test1 is the source, _test2 is the destination you do not need the last 6 select statements or anything above the comment "-- find any schema differences between tables and drop"

 USE master  
 go  
 CREATE DATABASE [_Test1]  
 go  
 CREATE DATABASE [_Test2]  
 go  
 USE [_Test1]  
 go   
 CREATE TABLE tbl1  
 (  
    col1 INT NULL,  
    col2 VARCHAR(1) NULL,  
    col3 bit NULL,  
    col4 float NULL,  
    col5 NUMERIC(18,5) NULL   
 )  
 GO  
 CREATE TABLE tbl2  
 (  
    col1 INT NULL,  
    col2 INT NULL,  
    col3 INT NULL,  
    col4 INT NULL,  
    col5 INT NULL   
 )  
 GO  
 CREATE TABLE tbl3  
 (  
    col1 INT NULL,  
    col2 INT NULL,  
    col3 INT NULL,  
    col4 INT NULL,  
    col5 INT NULL   
 )  
 GO   
   
 INSERT dbo.tbl1 (col1,col2,col3,col4,col5) VALUES (1,2,3,4,5)  
 INSERT dbo.tbl2 (col1,col2,col3,col4,col5) VALUES (1,2,3,4,5)  
 INSERT dbo.tbl3 (col1,col2,col3,col4,col5) VALUES (1,2,3,4,5)  
 go  
 USE [_Test2]  
 go   
 CREATE TABLE tbl1  
 (  
    col1 INT NULL,  
    col2 VARCHAR(1) NULL,  
    col3 bit NULL,  
    col4 float NULL,  
    col5 NUMERIC(18,5) NULL   
 )  
 GO  
 CREATE TABLE tbl2  
 (  
    col1 INT NULL,  
    col2 INT NULL,  
    col3 INT NULL,  
    col4 INT NULL  
 )  
 GO  
 ----CREATE TABLE tbl3  
 ----(  
 ----   col1 INT NULL,  
 ----   col2 INT NULL,  
 ----   col3 INT NULL,  
 ----   col4 INT NULL,  
 ----   col5 INT NULL   
 ----)  
 ----GO   
   
 INSERT dbo.tbl1 (col1,col2,col3,col4,col5) VALUES (1,2,3,4,6)  
 INSERT dbo.tbl1 (col1,col2,col3,col4,col5) VALUES (1,2,3,4,7)  
 go  
   
 -- tables are different  
 SELECT * FROM [_test1].dbo.tbl1  
 SELECT * FROM [_test2].dbo.tbl1  
   
 SELECT * FROM [_test1].dbo.tbl2  
 SELECT * FROM [_test2].dbo.tbl2  
   
 SELECT * FROM [_test1].dbo.tbl3  
 --SELECT * FROM [_test2].dbo.tbl3 -- this one produces an error. the table does not exist  
 go  
 USE [_Test1]  
 go  
   
   
 -- find any schema differences between tables and drop  
   
 DECLARE @sqltxt NVARCHAR(4000)  
   
 SELECT @sqltxt = STUFF((  
 SELECT DISTINCT ';DROP TABLE [_Test2].[' + t2.TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + t2.TABLE_NAME + ']'  
 FROM [_Test1].information_schema.COLUMNS c1  
 LEFT JOIN [_Test2].information_schema.tables t2 ON c1.TABLE_SCHEMA = t2.TABLE_SCHEMA AND c1.TABLE_NAME = t2.TABLE_NAME  
 FULL OUTER JOIN [_Test2].information_schema.COLUMNS c2 ON   
       c1.TABLE_SCHEMA = c2.TABLE_SCHEMA  
    AND c1.TABLE_NAME = c2.TABLE_NAME  
    AND c1.COLUMN_NAME = c2.COLUMN_NAME  
 WHERE   
 (   ISNULL(c1.COLUMN_NAME,'') != ISNULL(c2.COLUMN_NAME,'') or   
    ISNULL(c1.IS_NULLABLE,'') != ISNULL(c2.IS_NULLABLE,'') or  
    ISNULL(c1.DATA_TYPE,'') != ISNULL(c2.DATA_TYPE,'') or  
    ISNULL(c1.NUMERIC_PRECISION,99) != ISNULL(c2.NUMERIC_PRECISION,99) or   
    ISNULL(c1.NUMERIC_SCALE,-1) != ISNULL(c2.NUMERIC_SCALE,-1) or  
    ISNULL(c1.CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH,-1) != ISNULL(c2.CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH,-1) or  
    ISNULL(c1.COLUMN_DEFAULT,'') != ISNULL(c2.COLUMN_DEFAULT,'') )  
 AND t2.TABLE_NAME IS NOT NULL  
 FOR XML PATH('')), 1, 1, '')  
   
   
 EXECUTE [_Test2].dbo.sp_executesql @sqltxt  
 go  
   
   
 -- generate script to create any missing tables  
 DECLARE @sqltxt NVARCHAR(4000)  
   
 SELECT @sqltxt = STUFF((  
 select ';create table [_Test2].[' + so.TABLE_SCHEMA + '].[' + so.TABLE_NAME + '] (' + o.list + ')' + CASE WHEN tc.Constraint_Name IS NULL THEN '' ELSE 'ALTER TABLE ' + so.TABLE_NAME + ' ADD CONSTRAINT ' + tc.Constraint_Name + ' PRIMARY KEY ' + ' (' + LEFT(j.List, Len(j.List)-1) + ')' END  
 from  INFORMATION_SCHEMA.tables so  
 JOIN (  
 SELECT t1.TABLE_SCHEMA, t1.TABLE_NAME  
 FROM [_Test1].information_schema.tables t1  
 LEFT JOIN [_Test2].information_schema.tables t2 ON t1.TABLE_SCHEMA = t2.TABLE_SCHEMA AND t1.TABLE_NAME = t2.TABLE_NAME  
 WHERE t2.TABLE_NAME IS NULL  
 ) list ON so.TABLE_SCHEMA = list.TABLE_SCHEMA AND so.TABLE_NAME = list.TABLE_NAME  
 cross apply  
   (SELECT   
     '['+column_name+'] ' +   
     data_type + case data_type  
         when 'sql_variant' then ''  
         when 'text' then ''  
         when 'decimal' then '(' + cast(numeric_precision_radix as varchar) + ', ' + cast(numeric_scale as varchar) + ')'  
         when 'numeric' then '(' + cast(numeric_precision as varchar) + ', ' + cast(numeric_scale as varchar) + ')'  
         else coalesce('('+case when character_maximum_length = -1 then 'MAX' else cast(character_maximum_length as varchar) end +')','') end + ' ' +  
     case when exists (   
     select id from syscolumns  
     where object_name(id)=so.TABLE_NAME  
     and name=column_name  
     and columnproperty(id,name,'IsIdentity') = 1   
     ) then  
     'IDENTITY(' +   
     cast(ident_seed(so.TABLE_NAME) as varchar) + ',' +   
     cast(ident_incr(so.TABLE_NAME) as varchar) + ')'  
     else ''  
     end + ' ' +  
      (case when IS_NULLABLE = 'No' then 'NOT ' else '' end ) + 'NULL ' +   
      case when information_schema.columns.COLUMN_DEFAULT IS NOT NULL THEN 'DEFAULT '+ information_schema.columns.COLUMN_DEFAULT ELSE '' END + ', '   
   
    from information_schema.columns where table_name = so.TABLE_NAME  
    order by ordinal_position  
   FOR XML PATH('')) o (list)  
 left join  
   information_schema.table_constraints tc  
 on tc.Table_name        = so.TABLE_NAME  
 AND tc.Constraint_Type = 'PRIMARY KEY'  
 cross apply  
   (select '[' + Column_Name + '], '  
    FROM    information_schema.key_column_usage kcu  
    WHERE   kcu.Constraint_Name   = tc.Constraint_Name  
    ORDER BY  
     ORDINAL_POSITION  
    FOR XML PATH('')) j (list)  
 FOR XML PATH('')), 1, 1, '')  
   
   
 EXECUTE [_Test2].dbo.sp_executesql @sqltxt  
   
 go  
   
   
 -- truncate and refill from an identical table in another database  
 DECLARE cur CURSOR FOR  
   SELECT table_name, table_schema  
   FROM [_Test1].INFORMATION_SCHEMA.tables tab   
   WHERE table_type = 'BASE TABLE'  
   
 OPEN cur  
   
 DECLARE @tablename VARCHAR(255) ,@tableschema VARCHAR(255)  
   
 FETCH NEXT FROM cur INTO @tablename, @tableschema  
 WHILE ( @@FETCH_STATUS <> -1 )   
 BEGIN   
   IF ( @@FETCH_STATUS <> -2 )   
   DECLARE @sqltxt NVARCHAR(255)  
   SET @sqltxt = N'TRUNCATE TABLE [_Test2].[' + @tableschema + '].[' + @tablename + ']; INSERT INTO [_Test2].[' + @tableschema + '].[' + @tablename + '] SELECT * FROM [_Test1].[' + @tableschema + '].[' + @tablename + ']'  
   
   EXEC dbo.sp_executesql @sqltxt  
     
 FETCH NEXT FROM cur INTO @tablename, @tableschema  
   
 END  
   
 CLOSE cur  
   
 DEALLOCATE cur  
   
 go  
   
 --tables ARE identical  
 SELECT * FROM [_test1].dbo.tbl1  
 SELECT * FROM [_test2].dbo.tbl1  
   
 SELECT * FROM [_test1].dbo.tbl2  
 SELECT * FROM [_test2].dbo.tbl2  
   
 SELECT * FROM [_test1].dbo.tbl3  
 SELECT * FROM [_test2].dbo.tbl3  

C# parser for RDL files when using with ReportViewer control

The ASP.NET ReportViewer webcontrol is intended to be used with an RDLC file, which is a stripped down version of an RDL file. RDL files are for using with SSRS reporting services -- that is, where you keep the report on a SQL Server hosted website and can run the reports right there on the website. But if you want to embed an SSRS report into your ASP.NET application (I am doing in a few MVC applications, which is tricky too, but I never posted a blog entry about how to do it), anyway, if you want to include an SSRS report in your application, you use the ReportViewer control and when it loads you basically forcefeed it your connection and your parameters and all that. Well, that annoys me, since the RDL files already have the connection strings and parameters in them, it seems to me like you should be able to just use what's embedded in the report, so I'm working on building my own dynamic report viewer. The first step is to parse the report and get the connection string and parameters out of it. In order to efficiently transfer the parameters and the connection string as a unit, I made two classes. One holds parameter info, the other holds connection string info PLUS a collection of parameters.

//Parameter Class
    public class rptParam
    {
        public String ParameterName { get; set; }
        public String Datatype { get; set; }
        public String Prompt { get; set; }
    }

//Report Attributes Class
    public class rptAttributes
    {
        public List Parameters { get; set; }
        public String DataSourceName { get; set; }
        public String CommandText { get; set; }
    }



Then you can use this code wherever you want, it's uncommented, my apologies, but it's pretty straightforward anyway:

        private rptAttributes ReadFile(string filename)
        {
            rptAttributes rptAtt = new rptAttributes();
            List l = new List();

            // Create an XmlReader
            using (XmlReader reader = XmlTextReader.Create(filename))
            {
                reader.ReadToFollowing("DataSourceName");
                rptAtt.DataSourceName = "DataSourceName: " + reader.ReadElementContentAsString();

                reader.ReadToFollowing("CommandText");
                rptAtt.CommandText="CommandText: " + reader.ReadElementContentAsString();

                string temp = "";
                reader.ReadToFollowing("ReportParameter");
                reader.MoveToAttribute("Name");
                temp = reader.Value;
                reader.ReadToFollowing("DataType");
                if (reader.NodeType != XmlNodeType.None)
                {
                    rptParam rp = new rptParam();
                    rp.ParameterName = temp;
                    rp.Datatype = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
                    reader.ReadToFollowing("Prompt");
                    rp.Prompt = reader.ReadElementContentAsString();
                    l.Add(rp);
                }

                rptAtt.Parameters = l;

            }

            return rptAtt;
        }

Glimpses of Skiff: My Defense of Neuro-Diversity

Glimpses of Skiff: My Defense of Neuro-Diversity: I was running late as usual. I rushed into the meeting room, slightly out of breath, and found the closest chair. I sat back and obeserved...

SQLComplete is a great product

I have been using SQL Complete by dbForge for a couple years now, and I have to say - it is FANTASTIC! It speeds up my development time by at least double, and just generally takes the tedium out of typing in big scripts or debugging long old code written by others.

Download the free version here, tell 'em I sent ya!
http://www.devart.com/dbforge/sql/sqlcomplete/