How to store queries in SQL Server database? - sql-server

I manage a mini database and I write procedures for complex transactions and data cleansing. I also do a lot of ad-hoc querying and I save all of my queries in a folder. Is there any way I can save these queries in the database so that some of my peers can review my SQL queries?
In my search, I understand that I can write a procedure for smaller queries too. But I want to know if there is another method to do this?

For a select statement use a view:
CREATE VIEW MyView
AS
SELECT Columns FROM TABLE
Now you can select from that
SELECT * FROM MyView
and join to it:
SELECT * FROM MyView
INNER JOIN SomethingElse
ON MyView.ID = SomethingElse.ID
For scripts that update/delete/insert or do procedural things in order, use a stored procedure instead.

You can have queries (views) persisted in the database itself. You can use the CREATE statement to create views, stored procedures, table value functions etc. which will be accessible through intelisense and show up in the database object tree

You can create a new folder in the Template Browser and add code in new templates. If you want to share these ACROSS your team using SSMS, you can also do the following: You DO have to store the code elsewhere, but it can be accessed within SSMS by all users when set up this way on their machines:
See: https://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/ssms-shared-sql-templates
Short synopsis:
Store code examples in central location and re-point SQL templates folder on each user machine to the central location, by using mklink to create new link to SQL folder under the following location so that the SQL folder will no longer point to it, but to the alternate central location path specified:
C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\SQL Server Management Studio\11.0\Templates
To do this open the command prompt and:
go to user path above and rename SQL folder found under there: ren Sql Sql_Old
create symbolic link: mklink /D Sql C:\ss\Internal\Code\TSQL\SSMS_Templates
if successful, you will see:
symbolic link created for Sql <<===>> path of central code
Afterwards, the template browser will link to the central location and show whatever is in there.

Related

How Do I Initialize an Existing Microsoft SQL Server Database?

I have a database which has users assigned against it. I want to initialize the database (as though I'd just created it) rather than creating a new one, naming it appropriately, and re-adding all of the users.
Is it possible to completely reinitialize/reset a database?
Is it possible to do (1) whilst retaining the users and their permissions?
Thanks for looking :)
You can use generate script to create SQL file with Schema and user information.
Rename the existing db and run the script to create new one. Generate script provides lot of options to customize the script according to your needs
Right click on db -> Tasks -> Generate script -> Click next on the
wizard
Enable 'script logins' in Choose script options section of
the wizard
Select the users
Generate the script

Scripting FileTables

Scenario:
I have 3 environments that I am using, Dev, UAT and Live. Each of which having it's own database, MyDb_Dev, MyDb_UAT, MyDb_Live.
Then I have a VS2012 Database project in my solution that contains all my scripts. This works nicely when I make changes to my model database (MyDb_Model) that is located locally.
What I want to do:
I want to use the FileTables in SQL 2012 (which I understand how to set up), however I don't know how to script them to be able to configure the options to handle my environments. When I generate the scripts, it will hard code the name to be MyDb_Model as the FileGroup. Also, that said, when I do try and publish to my Dev database, it's complaining about the database options not being able to take the new scripts. When I script include the options of the Model database, it'll complain when I try to publish to my Dev database because of duplicating names.
Question:
Can you script FileTables (with the database options) using the database project in V2012 to be configurable or do I need to manually make my own scripts?
Prefered:
Compare MyDb_Model to Database project.
Publish to MyDb_Dev as a newly created database.
Sounds like you'll want project variables to handle this where the variable contains the environment-specific text for each. You'd then use that variable in your objects instead of the hard-coded paths. The following would create a FileTable called "DocumentStore" and use the value for a variable called "FileTableDirectoryVariable" that you set up in your Project Properties - SQLCMD Variables. Set each of those in your Publish Profiles to use the correct directory, and you should be good. If you're using different filegroups for these tables, you should be able to tweak the FileGroup setting in a similar manner using a SQLCMD Variable.
CREATE TABLE DocumentStore AS FileTable
WITH (
FileTable_Directory = '$(FileTableDirectoryVariable)',
FileTable_Collate_Filename = database_default
);
GO

Update SQL Server 2005 view with new database name?

I have approximately 100 SQL views that are a variation of this:
select * from RTC.dbo.MyTable
...now I find I need to change the name of the RTC table to something else. Rather than edit one view at a time, is there a way to script out all their drop/create statements to a text file so that I can do a global replacement?
In SSMS right click the database, go to Tasks and select there 'Generate Scripts...'. Select 'Views', select the views you want exported, export.
I'd use PowerShell. If you're not using SQL 2008 Client Tools, install them. Then get the PowerShell client, add the registered snapins (plenty of information out there on how to do that), and then use the directory structure to get to the folder representing your Views.
Then script them using something like:
Get-ChildItems | % {$_.Script()}
Use ScriptOptions to tell it to use an Alter script.
And replace "RTC." with the new database name... and run them using sqlcmd.
PowerShell actually becomes a really nice deployment option too.

How can I use a SQL Scripts in a Database Project with the System.Data.SQLite data provider?

I've got a project where I'm attempting to use SQLite via System.Data.SQLite. In my attempts to keep the database under version-control, I went ahead and created a Database Project in my VS2008. Sounds fine, right?
I created my first table create script and tried to run it using right-click->Run on the script and I get this error message:
This operation is not supported for the provider or data source you are using.
Does anyone know if there's an automatic way to use scripts that are part of database project against SQLite databases referenced by the databases, using the provider supplied by the System.Data.SQLite install?
I've tried every variation I can think of in an attempt to get the script to run using the default Run or Run On... commands. Here's the script in it's most verbose and probably incorrect form:
USE Characters
GO
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sysobjects WHERE type = 'U' AND name = 'Skills')
BEGIN
DROP Table Skills
END
GO
CREATE TABLE Skills
(
SkillID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT,
SkillName TEXT,
Description TEXT
)
GO
Please note, this is my first attempt at using a Database, and also the first time I've ever touched SQLite. In my attempts to get it to run, I've stripped any and everything out except for the CREATE TABLE command.
UPDATE: Ok, so as Robert Harvey points out below, this looks like an SQL Server stored procedure. I went into the Server Explorer and used my connection (from the Database project) to get do what he suggested regarding creating a table. I can generate SQL from to create the table and it comes out like thus:
CREATE TABLE [Skills] (
[SkillID] integer PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
[SkillName] text NOT NULL,
[Description] text NOT NULL
);
I can easily copy this and add it to the project (or add it to another project that handles the rest of my data-access), but is there anyway to automate this on build? I suppose, since SQLite is a single-file in this case that I could also keep the built database under version-control as well.
Thoughts? Best practices for this instance?
UPDATE: I'm thinking that, since I plan on using Fluent NHibernate, I may just use it's auto-persistence model to keep my database up-to-snuff and effectively in source control. Thoughts? Pitfalls? I think I'll have to keep initial population inserts in source-control separately, but it should work.
I built my database using an SQLite SQL script and then fed that into the sqlite3.exe console program like this.
c:\sqlite3.exe mydatabase.db < FileContainingSQLiteSQLCommands
John
Well, your script looks like a SQL Server stored procedure. SQLite most likely doesn't support this, because
It doesn't support stored procedures, and
It doesn't understand SQL Server T-SQL
SQL is actually a pseudo-standard. It differs between vendors and sometimes even between different versions of a product within the same vendor.
That said, I don't see any reason why you can't run any (SQLite compatible) SQL statement against the SQLite database by opening up connection and command objects, just like you would with SQL Server.
Since, however, you are new to databases and SQLite, here is how you should start. I assume you already have SQLite installed
Create a new Windows Application in Visual Studio 2008. The database application will be of no use to you.
Open the Server Explorer by pulling down the View menu and selecting Server Explorer.
Create a new connection by right-clicking on the Data Connections node in Server Explorer and clicking on Add New Connection...
Click the Change button
Select the SQLite provider
Give your database a file name.
Click OK.
A new Data Connection should appear in the Server Explorer. You can create your first table by right-clicking on the Tables node and selecting Add New Table.

How to version control SQL Server databases?

I have SQL Server databases and do changes in them. Some database tables have records that are starting records required my app to run. I would like to do version control over database and these records (rows). Is it possible to do this and bundle it to SVN version control I have for my source code or are there other solutions to this? I would like to accomplish this to be able to return to previous version of database and compare changes between database revisions. It would be nice if tools for this are free, open source or not very expensive.
My environment is Visual C# Express, SQL Server 2008 Express and Tortoise SVN.
Late answer but hopefully useful to other readers
I can suggest using the SSMS add-in called ApexSQL Source Control. By utilizing this add-in, developers can easily map database objects with the source control system via the wizard directly from SSMS. It includes support for Git, TFS, Mercurial, Subversion, TFS (including Visual Studio Online) and other Source Control systems. It also includes support for source controlling Static data (so you can version control records also).
After downloading and installing ApexSQL Source Control, simply right-click the database you want to version control and navigate to ApexSQL Source Control sub-menu in SSMS. Click the “Link database to source control” option and select the source control system and the database development model, for example:
After that, you may exclude objects you don’t want to be linked to source control. It is possible to exclude specific objects by owner or type.
On the next step, you will be prompted to provide the log-in information for the source control management system:
Once done, just click the “Finish” button and the “Action center” window will be shown, offering the objects that will be committed to the repository (this is by default, if the repository is empty).
Once the database has been linked to source control, all the operations that can be executed from a source control client will be available from the “Object Explorer” pane. Those include:
checking out with or without lock the versioned objects,
view history of that object and apply specific revision,
view changes on that object that were made and
place data from table to source control using the “Link static data”
You can read this article for more information: http://solutioncenter.apexsql.com/sql-source-control-reduce-database-development-time/
We've just started doing the following on some of our projects, and it seems to work quite well, for populating "static" tables.
Our scripts follow a pattern where a temp table is constructed, and is then populated with what we want the real table to resemble. We only put human readable values here (i.e. we don't include IDENTITY/GUID columns). The remainder of the script takes the temp table and performs appropriate INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE statements to make the real table resemble the temp table. When we have to change this "static" data, all we have to update is the population of the temp table. This means that DIFFing between versions works as expected, and rollback scripts are as simple as getting a previous version from source control.
The INSERT/UPDATE/DELETEs only have to be written once. In fact, our scripts are slightly more complicated, and have two sets of validation run before the actual DML statements. One set validate the temp table data (i.e. that we're not going to violate any constraints by attempting to make the database resemble the temp table). The other validate the temp table and the target database (i.e. that foreign keys are available).
Static data support is being added to SQL Source Control 2.0, currently available in beta. More information on how to try this can be found here:
http://www.red-gate.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=12298
There is a free microsoft product called Database Publishing Wizard which you can use to script the entire database (schema and data). It is great for taking snapshots of the current state of a DB and will enable you to recreate from scratch at any point
For database (schema) versioning we use custom properties, which are added to the database when the installer is ran. The contents of these scripts is generated with our build scripts.
The script to set the properties looks like this:
DECLARE #AssemblyDescription sysname
SET #AssemblyDescription = N'DailyBuild_20090322.1'
DECLARE #AssemblyFileVersion sysname
SET #AssemblyFileVersion = N'0.9.3368.58294'
-- The extended properties DatabaseDescription and DatabaseFileVersion contain the
-- AssemblyDescription and AssemblyFileVersion of the build that was used for the
-- database script that creates the database structure.
--
-- The current value of these properties can be displayed with the following query:
-- SELECT * FROM sys.extended_properties
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.extended_properties WHERE class_desc = 'DATABASE' AND name = N'DatabaseDescription')
BEGIN
EXEC sys.sp_updateextendedproperty #name = N'DatabaseDescription', #value = #AssemblyDescription
END
ELSE
BEGIN
EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty #name = N'DatabaseDescription', #value = #AssemblyDescription
END
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.extended_properties WHERE class_desc = 'DATABASE' AND name = N'DatabaseFileVersion')
BEGIN
EXEC sys.sp_updateextendedproperty #name = N'DatabaseFileVersion', #value = #AssemblyFileVersion
END
ELSE
BEGIN
EXEC sys.sp_addextendedproperty #name = N'DatabaseFileVersion', #value = #AssemblyFileVersion
END
GO
You can get a version of SQL Management Studio for SQL Server Express. I believe you'll be able to use this to produce scripts of the schema of your database. I think that will leave you to create scripts by hand for inserting the starting records.
Then, put all the scripts into source control, along with a master script that runs the individual scripts in the correct order.
You'll be able to run diffs using windiff (free with Visual Studio SDK), or else Beyond Compare is inexpensive, and a great diff/merge/sync tool.
MS Visual Studio Team System for Database Developers has functionality to easily generate create scripts for the whole schema. Only drawback is the cost!
Have you considered using SubSonic?
You should rather use DB specific versioning.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189050.aspx
When either the
READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT or
ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION database
options are ON, logical copies
(versions) are maintained for all data
modifications performed in the
database. Every time a row is modified
by a specific transaction, the
instance of the Database Engine stores
a version of the previously committed
image of the row in tempdb. Each
version is marked with the transaction
sequence number of the transaction
that made the change. The versions of
modified rows are chained using a link
list. The newest row value is always
stored in the current database and
chained to the versioned rows stored
in tempdb.
I use bcp for this (bulk loading utility, part of a standard SQL Server install, Express edition included).
Each table with data needs a control file Table.ctl and a data file Table.csv (these are text files that can be generated from an existing database using bcp). As text files, these can very easily be versioned.
As part of my generation batches (see my answer there for more information), I iterate through every control file like this :
SET BASE_NAME=MyDatabaseName
SET CONNECT_STRING=.\SQLEXPRESS
FOR /R %%i IN (.) DO (
FOR %%j IN ("%%~fi\*.ctl") DO (
ECHO + %%~nj
bcp %BASE_NAME%..%%~nj in "%%~dpsj%%~nj.csv" -T -E -S %CONNECT_STRING% -f "%%~dpsj%%~nj.ctl" >"%TMP%\%%~nj.log"
IF %ERRORLEVEL% GTR 0 (
TYPE "%TMP%\%%~nj.log"
GOTO ERROR_USAGE
)
)
)
A current limitation of this script is that the name of the file must be the name of the table, which may not be possible if the table name contains specific special characters.
This project has a good example of deploy and rollback

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