SQL 2005 installs each instance to a numbered directory based on the order installed: MSSQL.1, MSSQL.2, etc. That makes scripting a little tricky. Fortunately, you can find them in the registry. The install path for the SQL 2005 database server is here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft...

When I was putting together the Data Dictionary Creator program, I needed to allow users to input a connection string. A lot of winform applications that require data connections give you a textbox and tell you to figure it out yourself, but I really wanted to show a prompt that let you test your connections...

If you've ever had to execute one or more SQL scripts from ADO.NET, you've likely run into the GO batch terminator issue. Any SQL script that does anything worthwhile has more than one batch, separated by a GO terminator. The problem is that "GO" isn't valid T-SQL, it's just...

The SQL Server Reporting Services Report Manager is functional, but it's not very customizable. The ASPX pages just reference compiled assemblies, so the only real way to modify them is via CSS. What makes that more difficult is that the SSRS HTML is poorly constructed so that the tags you'd most want...

Jeff Atwood recently asked " Is your database under version control? " Well, is it? It's not as easy as it sounds. Until now, there wasn't a good, scriptable solution to the problem. I'll run through a few of the options I've looked at in the past, but let's jump to to the punchline: The Database Publishing...

Barry Dorrans recently mentioned that you can force the database connection protocol by specifying np: or tcp: before the server name in your connection string . I've jumped through some hoops before using localhost to target tcp and (local) to target named pipes, but it looks like there's a much better...

Barry Dorrans recently mentioned that you can force the database connection protocol by specifying np: or tcp: before the server name in your connection string . I've jumped through some hoops before using localhost to target tcp and (local) to target named pipes, but it looks like there's a much better...

Jeff Atwood recently asked " Is your database under version control? " Well, is it? It's not as easy as it sounds. Until now, there wasn't a good, scriptable solution to the problem. I'll run through a few of the options I've looked at in the past, but let's jump to to the punchline: The Database Publishing...

The SQL Server Reporting Services Report Manager is functional, but it's not very customizable. The ASPX pages just reference compiled assemblies, so the only real way to modify them is via CSS. What makes that more difficult is that the SSRS HTML is poorly constructed so that the tags you'd most want...

If you've ever had to execute one or more SQL scripts from ADO.NET, you've likely run into the GO batch terminator issue. Any SQL script that does anything worthwhile has more than one batch, separated by a GO terminator. The problem is that "GO" isn't valid T-SQL, it's just...