Temporary Stored Procedures in SQL Server 2008

 Today I discovered a small feature of Temporary Stored Procedures in SQL Server.

Temporary Stored Procedures are similar to normal Stored Procedures, but as their name suggests, have a fleeting existence. There are two kinds of temporary Stored Procedures, local and global. Temporary Stored Procedures are created just like any other SP but the name must be prefixed with a hash (#) for a local temporary SP and two hashes (##) for a global temporary Stored Procedure.

A local temporary Stored Procedure is available only in the current session and is dropped when the session is closed or for a different session.

For Example: I have created a temporary Stored Procedure in a query window with session Id: (75).



When I execute the same session then the output is as below:



When I execute a different session the error is shown below:



A global temporary Stored Procedure is visible to all sessions and is dropped when the session of the user that created it is closed. 

For Example: I have created a temporary Stored Procedure in the query window with session Id: (68).




When I execute the same session the output is as shown below:



When I execute a different session the output is as shown below:



If there are any executing versions of the global Stored Procedure when the creator session is closed.

Apart from local and global temporary Stored Procedures, you can also create a regular stored process in the system database tempdb.

You should see this in Management Studio:



This picture displays a Stored Procedures in the tempdb database while the session is active. Notice the long postfix that SQL Server automatically adds to the local temporary Stored Procedure. SQL Server adds some postfixes to local temporary objects to differentiate objects with the same name from different sessions.
 

SQL Server 2012 SSIS Enhancements

SQL Server 2012 Undo and Redo Features

Parameters can be defined at 2 different levels:

Project. These type of parameters are available to all packages within the SSIS project. Think about them as global parameters. They come handy as it makes really easy to share a given value, such as the path to a file share or the name of a server, across all packages in a project.

         Package. These type of parameters are meant to affect only the package on which they were defined.

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Very often I had difficult a time creating SSIS packages.  Unfortunately, when I did something wrong and wanted to revert the last change, I was unable to do so.  It was very frustrating.   As an example, sometimes I unintentionally deleted a task, which I wanted to get back. At times, I had to revert back to the SSIS package version in the VSTF version store. This was all because we did not have any way to undo or redo our changes. Now with SQL Server 2012, we have this feature in the SSIS designer.

As you can see in the image above, you can now use Undo or Redo commands using the menu bar, toolbar or by pressing CTRL+Z for "undo" and by pressing CTRL+Y for "redo".

The designer now tracks all the actions that you perform, which you can see in the image above and below.  You have the ability to Undo or Redo as many actions as you want.

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SQL Server Integration Services Toolbox Enhancements

Now the components inside the toolbox have been placed in few more categories (Favorites and Common) for ease of use.  These categories are not fixed and you can customize it as per your need. For example, you can place all your frequently used components inside "Favorites" section which appears at the top of the Toolbox as shown below:

To move a component to some other location/category, right click on the component and click on the location where you want that component to be placed as shown below.

On a final note, one really good aspect of the enhanced toolbox is the information section on the bottom of the toolbox.  This area displays details about selected component and provides an option to directly jump to the documentation for that selected component. This is really useful for someone new to SSIS development and/or someone that does not have prior knowledge about the component.

SQL Server Integration Services Solution Explorer Enhancements

There are some noticeable changes in the SSIS Solution Explorer. Deployment of SSIS packages has been a challenge as we had to deploy each SSIS package individually. There was no way to create a deployment package containing all the SSIS packages similar to some of the SSRS and SSAS functionality to deploy all objects. SQL Server 2012 now supports a new project deployment model as well as the legacy deployment model. Discussion about new Project Deployment Model in itself is a big topic, so check out the SSIS Package Deployment Model in SQL Server 2012 (Part 1 of 2) and SSIS Package Deployment Model in SQL Server 2012 (Part 2 of 2) tips.  In a nutshell, the Legacy Deployment Model lets you deploy each individual package separately whereas the new Project Deployment Model lets you create deployment packet (which is an *.ispac file) from the SSIS project. Each SSIS project which you create in SQL Server 2012, by default gets created in Project Deployment Model which you can change if needed as shown below:

As previously indicated the new SSIS projects get created in the Project Deployment Model. When you right click on the project you will notice two more options. The "Project Parameters" let's you define the parameters in the project and the "Deploy" option let's you create the deployment package or deploy to the Integration Services Catalog database.

If you right click on the package in the Solution Explorer, you will notice one more option (Entry-Point Package). This option is helpful in the scenario when you have a parent package which calls child packages. You can set the Entry-Point Package option for the parent package.

Certifications for SQL 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2008

No new certifications for SQL 2008 R2

Some of you may be wondering if you should get the SQL Server 2008 certifications or wait for new SQL Server 2008 R2 certifications. There's no point in waiting, because there will not be any new exams for R2. See the blog below for the reasons why. If you want to get a SQL Server certification, go ahead and prepare for the SQL Server 2008 exams.

Why the SQL Server 2008 Certifications Don’t Cover R2http://blogs.msdn.com/gerryo/archive/2010/05/03/why-the-sql-server-2008-certifications-don-t-cover-r2.aspx

Bellow are BI Certifications for SQL Server 2008

MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2008:
Set of 2 exams:
1.)Exam 70-448- SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance
2.)Exam 70-452- PRO: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Suppose, if you complete "MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2008" certification exam. If you want to upgrade to MCSE: Business Intelligence 2012 then you have to write only one exam i.e is 70-460.

70-460

Transition Your MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2008 to MCSE: Business Intelligence

SQL Server 2012 BI Fresh Path Certifications:

The common exams for both tracks will be:
70-461: Querying Microsoft SQL Server 2012
70-462: Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases
70-463: Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012


The MCITP level exams for Business Intelligence will be:
70-466: Implementing Data Models and Reports with Microsoft SQL Server 2012
70-467: Designing Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2012

What is codename to a software..?

Source for this topic is :

At the 2011 Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) summit on October 11, Microsoft announced that the next major version of SQL Server (codenamed "Denali"), would be SQL Server 2012.




In software and hardware terminology, a codename is a name given to a project to identify it while it is still in development. Once the project has been completed, just before it is released to the public and retail channels in its final packaged version, the developing company will release its commercial name for the product and the the codename will no longer be used.

One Variable for more than one Parameters in ExecuteSQL Task

I have multiple UPDATE statements inside my ExecuteSQL Task. Each one is dependent on one Vairiable e.g. MyId

UPDATE TABLE_A SET COL_A={Something} WHERE ID=?
UPDATE TABLE_B SET COL_B={SomeTHing} WHERE ID=?

This Query takes MyId Variable as Parameter.
Do i need to have as many parameters as my Update Statements are OR there is a way to Have one shared parameter defined inside my ExecuteSQL Task


Answers

Try this:

DECLARE @id int

SELECT @id = ?

UPDATE TABLE_A SET COL_A={Something} WHERE ID=@id
UPDATE TABLE_B SET COL_B={Something} WHERE ID=@id

SSIS: File System Task Move and rename files in one step

In some ETL scenarios, when processing files, it is necessary to rename the already processed files and move them to a different location. In SSIS you can accomplish that in a single step using the File System Task. The example I have prepared assumes the package will process a set of files using a ForEach Loop container; then for each file, using the 'Rename' operation in File System Task will do both; rename and move the file.

Here are some screen shots and notes about the package:

First of all, the big picture. The control flow has a ForEach Loop Container with a File System Task inside. Notice that the DataFlow task is empty and it is intended to show where the real ETL work should go; but this can be different or not required at all.


























Then details about the ForEach Loop container. Basically ,this container is configured to process all *.txt files in C:\Temp\Source folder, where all the files 'to be processed' are expected to be.










































Now the trick, few variables, some of them using expressions:









The expressions are:

in FullSourcePathFileName:
@[User::SourcePath] + @[User::MyFileValue]

in FullArchivePathFileName:
@[User::ArchivePath] + SUBSTRING( @[User::MyFileValue] , 1 , FINDSTRING( @[User::MyFileValue],".",1) - 1 ) + "-" + (DT_STR, 2, 1252) Month( @[System::StartTime] )+ (DT_STR, 4, 1252) Year( @[System::StartTime] )+ SUBSTRING( @[User::MyFileValue] , FINDSTRING( @[User::MyFileValue],".",1) , LEN( @[User::MyFileValue] ) )

Notice that SourcePath and ArchivePath variables hold only the origin and destination paths of the files.
Note: Make sure you set EvaluateAsExpression property of the variable as TRUE.

Lastly, the File System Task should be configured like this:

I am pretty sure there are different ways of accomplishing this simple task; but I like this one because it does not require writing custom code and relies on expressions.

You can download the sample package from here: