How a little code can help with support.

Chris Barba – Developer at Cimarex Energy Blog: LinkedIn:

Provide some tools for your SQL toolbox. Some scripts to help with development and some help with support (some help with both). All of these scripts can be found on my blog. It’s where I put stuff I don’t want to lose. Items discussed today: SQL Server 2008 Intellisense not correct SQL Server 2008, can’t save changes to tables How to tell which version of SQL you’re running How to find out the last time your database was restored How to tell what SQL objects have been added/updated recently Record count of all tables in a database Search for string across all fields in all tables in a database SQL Server Keyword search across Stored Procedures, Functions, Triggers Track Changes to objects in your database

Intellisense info gets populated and stored in a cache. Sometimes it gets out of sync with reality For ex, If the query window was opened before the table was created How to fix Ctrl+Shift+r Warning: Be sure SSMS is the active window, this keyboard shortcut is used in other applications. Link to blog

SQL 2008 Management Studio can’t save changes to tables Microsoft recommends you script out all table changes Here is what you can’t do Change the Allow Nulls setting for a column Reorder the columns Change the column data type Add a new column How to fix Tools -> Options -> Designers -> Tables and Designers Uncheck the Prevent Saving Changes that require table re-creation Warning: This will conflict if you have Change Tracking turned off. With this option off, if you change a table all tracking changes will also be delete. Link to blog

The features available to you depend on the version of SQL Server you are running. Why does this matter: Asked to develop functionality that might not be available on the DB version. People might not actually know what version they have. Demo Script Super quick and easy method: Select Link to blog

When in an environment other than production you might not know how new the data is. You can see the last time a database was restored. Demo Script Link to blog

There are times when it helps to know what db objects have been added/updated recently. Track changes in production Know what changed during development Demo Script Link to blog

This helps to get an idea about what’s normal in terms of the volume of data. Sometimes you need a take a row count before and after doing something Demo Script Link to blog

There are times when you have data, but you don’t know where it is stored. This script will search every field in every database for a value. This helps when you have data and you don’t know where it’s stored. Demo Script Link to blog

There are times where you don’t know what proc, etc. is updating your table. Also you may need to know if a string is hard coded. Demo Script Link to blog.

This script will allow you to track when/what/who makes changes to DB objects. It creates an audit table and puts triggers on the database. More Warning: I don’t know where this triggers get created in the database. You need permissions to create a table in a database. Demo Script Link to blog.