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Microsoft ®

™
SQL Server 2005
Express Edition
FOR

DUMmIES
‰

by Robert Schneider
Microsoft ®

™
SQL Server 2005
Express Edition
FOR

DUMmIES
‰

by Robert Schneider
Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2005 Express Edition For Dummies®
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
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Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
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About the Author
Robert D. Schneider has more than 15 years of experience developing and
delivering sophisticated software solutions worldwide. He has provided data-
base optimization, distributed computing, and other technical expertise to a
wide variety of enterprises in the financial, technology, and government sec-
tors. Clients have included Chase Manhattan Bank, VISA, HP, SWIFT, and the
governments of the United States, Brazil, and Malaysia.

He is the author of Optimizing Informix Applications, Microsoft SQL Server:

Planning and Building a High Performance Database, and MySQL Database Design
and Tuning. He has also written numerous articles on technical and professional
services topics. He can be reached at [email protected].
Dedication
In memory of Saul Weiss.

Author’s Acknowledgments
The author wants to acknowledge the following people for their invaluable
assistance in creating and publishing this work: Nicole Sholly, Tiffany
Franklin, Damir Bersinic, Rebecca Senninger, Terri Varveris, Nancy L.
Reinhardt, and the folks in Composition Services. And last but certainly not
least: Lynn Z. Schneider, Danielle Jolie Schneider, and Nicole Sierra Schneider
for their unswerving support and encouragement.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
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located at www.dummies.com/register/.
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(www.the5thwave.com)

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
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Publishing for Consumer Dummies
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Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
 Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................1
About This Book...............................................................................................1
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................1
Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2
What You Don’t Have to Read ........................................................................2
How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................3
Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express ......................................3
Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System ................3
Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005
Express Database................................................................................3
Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm ........................................4
Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming
with SQL Server 2005 Express...........................................................4
Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications ..................4
Part VII: The Part of Tens ......................................................................4
Part VIII: Appendixes .............................................................................5
Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................5
Where to Go from Here....................................................................................6

Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express ...................7

Chapter 1: SQL Server 2005 Express Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Jumping on Board the SQL Server Express ..................................................9
The SQL Server 2005 Express Environment ...............................................12
Where Does SQL Server Express 2005 Work Best? ....................................15
Small office/Home office (SOHO) .......................................................15
Distributed enterprise .........................................................................16
Independent Systems Vendor/Original Equipment
Manufacturer (ISV/OEM) .................................................................17
Getting Down to Business with SQL Server 2005 Express ........................17
Planning your database .......................................................................18
Building SQL Server 2005 Express applications ...............................19
Configuring, managing, and monitoring
SQL Server 2005 Express .................................................................20

Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing SQL Server 2005 Express

on Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23
Getting a Copy of SQL Server 2005 Express................................................23
Before You Install ...........................................................................................25
Installing SQL Server 2005 Express..............................................................26
Testing Your Installation ...............................................................................31
viii Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

Points to Ponder During Installation ...........................................................35
Keeping a Low Profile ....................................................................................36
Configuring surface area for services and connections..................36
Configuring surface area for features ................................................38
Is Anyone Out There? ....................................................................................39
Connecting to Your Server............................................................................43
Connecting with SQLCMD ...................................................................43
Connecting with SQL Server Management Studio Express.............44
Connecting with ODBC ........................................................................46
Connecting with Visual Studio Express .............................................49

Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005

Express System............................................................53
Chapter 4: Putting SQL Server 2005 Express to Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Planning For Tomorrow as Well as Today...................................................55
Estimating database usage and growth.............................................56
Deciding when to graduate .................................................................56
Administering Your SQL Server 2005 Express System ..............................58
Using character-based utilities...........................................................59
Using SQL Server Management Studio Express ...............................60
Using third-party database administration tools .............................60
Creating a Database and Table .....................................................................60

Chapter 5: Maintaining a SQL Server 2005 Express System . . . . . . . .69

Master of the Database Domain ...................................................................69
Setting SQL Server 2005 Express Parameters.............................................70
How to configure your server.............................................................70
Common server parameters ...............................................................72
Picking Up the Pace .......................................................................................74
Monitoring performance .....................................................................75
Enhancing your computer...................................................................79
Speeding up the database ...................................................................81

Chapter 6: Distributing Your Data with Replication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Determining When and Why to Replicate ...................................................84
Discovering the Types of Replication..........................................................85
Understanding Replication Limitations ......................................................85
Replication Concepts.....................................................................................86
Components for publishing ................................................................86
Components for subscribing ..............................................................87
Setting Up Replication ...................................................................................87
 Table of Contents ix
Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005
Express Database ........................................................91
Chapter 7: Planning Your Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93
What Can You Store in a Database? .............................................................93
Designing Your Database ..............................................................................96
Logical design .......................................................................................96
Physical design .....................................................................................97
Using Database Diagram Tools in SQL Server Management
Studio Express ............................................................................................98
Normalization ...............................................................................................100
First normal form................................................................................100
Second normal form...........................................................................101
Third normal form..............................................................................103
When not to normalize ......................................................................104

Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships . . . . . . . .107

Using SQL Server Management Studio Express .......................................108
The Object Explorer...........................................................................108
The Query window.............................................................................110
Creating Key Database Objects ..................................................................111
Databases ............................................................................................111
Tables...................................................................................................113
Relationships ......................................................................................119
Enforcing relationships......................................................................120
Constraints..........................................................................................120
Creating a relationship ......................................................................121
Changing or removing a relationship...............................................123

Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125

What Is Transact-SQL?.................................................................................125
SQL: The start of it all ........................................................................126
Transact-SQL: SQL on steroids .........................................................126
Accessing Information.................................................................................127
Storing Information in Your Database .......................................................131
Bulk Inserts ...................................................................................................134
The BULK INSERT statement ............................................................134
The bcp utility ....................................................................................135
Format file ...........................................................................................135
Finding Information in Your Database.......................................................136
The SELECT statement ......................................................................136
Filtering your results..........................................................................138
Sorting your results............................................................................140
Built-in functions ................................................................................140
Renaming output columns ................................................................142
Joining tables ......................................................................................142
Subqueries...........................................................................................145
Speeding up your queries .................................................................146
x Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

Changing Data...............................................................................................150
Deleting Data.................................................................................................152
Removing all rows from a table ........................................................153
Removing some of the rows from a table........................................154

Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .157

Advanced Data Definition ...........................................................................157
Constraints..........................................................................................157
Views ....................................................................................................161
Using XML ...........................................................................................165
Indexing .........................................................................................................168
Deciding what to index ......................................................................168
Creating an index................................................................................169
Searching, Grouping, and Summarizing Data ...........................................170
GROUP BY ...........................................................................................171
ROLLUP................................................................................................172
CUBE ....................................................................................................172
HAVING ................................................................................................173
TIMESTAMP.........................................................................................173

Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm ................175

Chapter 11: Securing Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
Why Bother with Security? .........................................................................177
Insufficient security: When bad things happen to good data.......178
Should you secure your database? ..................................................178
What Can You Secure? .................................................................................178
Who Can You Let Use Your Database? ......................................................180
What Can You Let Users Do? ......................................................................181
Who gets to use the database? .........................................................181
Choosing from the permissions menu.............................................183
Implementing Security.................................................................................183
Getting a list of authorized users .....................................................183
Granting access ..................................................................................185
Setting permissions by securable ....................................................189
Modifying or revoking permissions .................................................190

Chapter 12: Keeping It Together: Using Transactions

to Maintain Data Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193
What Is Data Integrity? ................................................................................193
Shocking tales of lost integrity .........................................................194
Passing the ACID test.........................................................................194
Key Transaction Structures ........................................................................196
Isolation Levels.............................................................................................196
Using Transactions ......................................................................................198
 Table of Contents xi
Chapter 13: Preventing Data Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201
Transactions: Your Data’s Best Friend ......................................................201
What are transactions?......................................................................202
How do transactions work? ..............................................................202
Synchronizing Memory and Disk Storage .................................................203
Backing Up Your Data: Inexpensive Insurance You Can’t
Afford to Skip! ...........................................................................................204
Choosing the right backup strategy.................................................204
Recovery models................................................................................205
Best practices for protecting your data ..........................................206
Types of backup available in the simple recovery model.............207
Using the simple recovery model to backup your data ................208
Why you should also export information .......................................210
Restoring Data: Time for the Insurance to Pay Off ..................................210

Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming

with SQL Server 2005 Express....................................213
Chapter 14: Using Stored Procedures and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . .215
Introducing Stored Procedures and Functions ........................................215
Examples of stored procedures and functions...............................217
When not to use a stored procedure or function...........................218
Differences between stored procedures and functions ................219
System stored procedures and functions .......................................219
Getting a list of stored procedures and functions..........................220
Some useful system stored procedures and functions .................221
Writing a Stored Procedure or Function ...................................................223
Using Transact-SQL ............................................................................223
Using the SQL Common Language Runtime (SQLCLR) .................225
Calling a Stored Procedure or Function ....................................................226

Chapter 15: Understanding Triggers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227

Triggers: Actions Awaiting an Event ..........................................................227
Trigger scope ......................................................................................228
Trigger programming languages.......................................................228
How do triggers work?.......................................................................229
Types of Triggers .........................................................................................229
Data Definition Language (DDL) triggers ........................................229
Data Manipulation Language (DML) triggers..................................230
To Trigger, or Not to Trigger? .....................................................................230
Triggers to the rescue! .......................................................................231
Don’t be trigger happy.......................................................................231
Using Triggers...............................................................................................232
Discovering already-existing triggers ..............................................232
Writing new triggers...........................................................................233
Invoking triggers.................................................................................237
xii Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

Disabling triggers ...............................................................................237

Modifying triggers ..............................................................................238
Deleting triggers .................................................................................239

Chapter 16: Going Beyond Transact-SQL: Using the SQL Common

Language Runtime (SQLCLR) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .241
Finding Out How SQLCLR Works................................................................242
The .NET framework ..........................................................................242
Why use SQLCLR? ..............................................................................243
What can you build with SQLCLR?...................................................243
Determining Whether You Should Use SQLCLR .......................................244
Using SQLCLR ...............................................................................................245
Example 1: Customer classification stored procedure..................246
Example 2: Insurance risk function ..................................................248

Chapter 17: Sorry, I’ll Try That Again: Adding Error Handling
to Your Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
Don’t Just Ignore It: Why You Should Care About Errors .......................251
How to Handle Errors ..................................................................................252
Information about errors...................................................................252
Built-in system functions...................................................................254
Handling errors in the database .......................................................254
Handling errors in the application ...................................................256
Error Examples .............................................................................................257
Syntax error.........................................................................................258
Database schema issue......................................................................258
Data conversion problems ................................................................259
Referential integrity violation ...........................................................259
Trigger interception ...........................................................................260
Defining Your Own Errors with RAISERROR .............................................260

Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services . . . . . . . . .263

Deciding to Use the Advanced Services Edition ......................................264
Installation Considerations.........................................................................264
Full-Text Searching.......................................................................................267
Special SQL Server full-text enhancements ....................................268
How full-text search works................................................................269
Using full-text searching ....................................................................270
Full-text predicates versus full-text functions ................................273
Examples .............................................................................................273
Performance tips ................................................................................276
Reporting Services.......................................................................................276
Creating your report ..........................................................................278
Publishing your report ......................................................................284
Maintaining your report ....................................................................286
 Table of Contents xiii
Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express
Applications .............................................................287
Chapter 19: Building a Simple Desktop Application
with Visual Basic Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .289
Laying the Groundwork for an Application ..............................................290
Creating a project ...............................................................................290
Creating a new database....................................................................291
Connecting to an existing database .................................................292
Creating new tables............................................................................294
Building the User Interface .........................................................................296
Making Your Program Functional...............................................................298
Adding application logic....................................................................298
Debugging............................................................................................301
Packaging and shipping.....................................................................301

Chapter 20: Building a Simple Web Application

with Visual Web Developer Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .303
Laying the Groundwork for an Application ..............................................304
Creating a Web site.............................................................................304
Creating a new database....................................................................306
Connecting to an existing database .................................................307
Creating new tables............................................................................309
Building the User Interface .........................................................................311

Chapter 21: Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express . . . . . . . . . . .317
What Is This Thing Called XML? ................................................................317
XML advantages .................................................................................318
XML structure .....................................................................................318
Other important XML concepts .......................................................321
When should you use XML?..............................................................322
Placing XML into Your SQL Server 2005 Express Database....................323
Operating on XML-based Information .......................................................326
Searching for XML data .....................................................................327
Modifying XML data ...........................................................................328
Formatting relational data as XML...................................................328

Part VII: The Part of Tens...........................................331

Chapter 22: Ten Sources of Information on
SQL Server 2005 Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .333
Microsoft SQL Server Web Site...................................................................333
Microsoft Developer Network ....................................................................334
Wikipedia.......................................................................................................334
Newsgroups ..................................................................................................334
xiv Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

Magazines......................................................................................................335
User Groups ..................................................................................................335
Books .............................................................................................................335
Database Design Tools ................................................................................336
Administrative Tools ...................................................................................336
Data Generation Tools .................................................................................336
Blogs ..............................................................................................................336

Chapter 23: Ten SQL Server 2005 Express Troubleshooting Tips . . .337
Show Me How I Can Get the Product.........................................................337
I Can’t Install It!.............................................................................................338
I Can’t Connect to the Database! ................................................................338
Show Me How to Administer My Database...............................................339
I Can’t See My Data!......................................................................................339
My Data Is Messed Up!.................................................................................340
I Want to Automate Some Operations .......................................................340
I Want to Simplify My Data ..........................................................................341
I Want to Build Good Software....................................................................341
My Database Server Is Too Slow! ...............................................................342

Part VIII: Appendixes ................................................343

Appendix A: Upgrading to SQL Server 2005 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .345
Why Migrate? ................................................................................................345
Coming Up with a Good Migration Plan ....................................................346
Delivering on the Migration ........................................................................347

Appendix B: Migrating to SQL Server 2005 Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353

Getting Ready to Migrate ............................................................................353
Proper planning prevents poor performance.................................353
Safeguarding your existing information ..........................................354
Completing a Successful Migration............................................................355
Microsoft Access ................................................................................355
Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) .........................................................360
Text files ..............................................................................................360
Wrapping Up Your Migration ......................................................................361

Appendix C: Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .365

Appendix D: About the CD-ROM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .373

System Requirements ..................................................................................373
What You’ll Find ...........................................................................................374
If You Have Problems (Of the CD Kind).....................................................375

Index........................................................................377
 Introduction
A lthough once derided as a provider of relatively low-end relational data-
base products, Microsoft has turned its flagship SQL Server database
into a platform that can compete with any database servers on the market.
Ironically, the downside of all this power is that some now find SQL Server to
be too complex and feature-rich.

In an effort to reclaim the more entry-level segments of the market, Microsoft

has created several different versions of SQL Server. Known as editions, each
of these products addresses a different class of database environment. However,
they’re all built on the same underlying technology platform, which means that
they share many, but not all, of the same features. SQL Server 2005 Express
is the most entry-level of these offerings. Even though Microsoft doesn’t charge
for it, this product has much in common with its more powerful, pricier siblings.

About This Book

This book is designed to help you get productive with SQL Server 2005
Express as quickly as possible. Chances are that you already have enough on
your plate, and wading through reams of database architecture and theory
before figuring out how to use the product just isn’t in the cards.

Here are some of the things you can do with this book:

⻬ Correctly choose the right version of SQL Server.

⻬ Quickly install the product in your environment.
⻬ Rapidly design a database, and then communicate with it.
⻬ Efficiently monitor, maintain, and protect your important data.
⻬ Construct a solid, robust application to work with your information.

Foolish Assumptions
You don’t need a PhD from MIT to derive value from this book. On the contrary:
Any exposure to the items on the following list goes a long way towards helping
2 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

you make the most from the book. And if you don’t currently have any experi-
ence, you will soon:

⻬ Relational database management systems (RDBMS): This category

includes products such as Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Oracle, DB2,
Microsoft Access, and so on.
⻬ Relational database design theory: If you’re light in this area, don’t
worry: I show you how to quickly design your own relational database,
as well as some best practices to follow when doing so.
⻬ Structured Query Language (SQL): Even if you’re not familiar with SQL,
or Microsoft’s flavor (Transact-SQL), I show you how to construct
queries and data modification statements.
⻬ Software development tools: During the chapter on building SQL Server
2005 Express-based applications, I make the assumption that you have
some familiarity with modern software development environments. If
you don’t, you can still get some good ideas on how to employ tools
such as Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express and Visual Web Developer
2005 Express in partnership with the database server.

Conventions Used in This Book

As you peruse the book, you’ll probably notice several typographical tips
along the way. Designed to help you quickly orient yourself, they include
bold for user entry, monofont for code and other computer output, and italic
for new terms.

What You Don’t Have to Read

You don’t necessarily need to read this book from cover-to-cover, although I
sure hope you want to. The reason that you can skip around is that all the
chapters are designed to stand alone: They don’t require you to build a foun-
dation of knowledge obtained from other chapters.

However, if you’re an absolute newbie with SQL Server who is building a new
application, you’ll probably want to look at the early chapters on the prod-
uct’s architecture and infrastructure first before moving onto the develop-
ment section.

Also, if you’re not the type of person who pops the hood of your car to see
how the motor works, you’ll likely find yourself skipping the information
called out by the tech stuff icons. Just as your car still runs without you mem-
orizing the workings of its transmission, you can still derive a lot of value from
SQL Server 2005 Express even if you don’t know its internal architecture.
 Introduction 3
How This Book Is Organized
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies is split into eight
parts. You don’t have to read it sequentially, and you don’t even have to read
all the sections in any particular chapter. You can use the Table of Contents
and the index to find the information you need and quickly get your answer.
In this section, I briefly describe what you find in each part.

Part I: Welcome to SQL Server

2005 Express
This part introduces you to this entry-level, yet very capable database
server. I review its features and restrictions, and then show you how to
obtain, install, and configure your very own copy. You also see how to deter-
mine the right kind of applications to use with this database, as well as how
to tell when to upgrade to one of the more feature-rich siblings of SQL Server
2005 Express.

Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005

Express System
Don’t be fooled by the low (actually, free) price point of SQL Server 2005
Express. Aside from a few capacity and feature restrictions, it works exactly
the same as its more powerful siblings. They’ve all been built on the mainline
SQL Server 2005 database platform. However, all this power comes with sig-
nificant administrative responsibilities. Helping you quickly and effectively
perform these managerial tasks is what this part is all about.

Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL

Server 2005 Express Database
Unless you’re the type of person who installs software just for the pleasure
of it, you’re probably hoping to get some value out of your new SQL Server
2005 Express installation. This part shows you how to create a SQL Server
2005 Express database, and then begin filling it with data. If you’re new to
relational databases, don’t worry: I give you a quick tour of database design
theory and SQL Server’s internal language, Transact-SQL. On the other hand,
if you’re a database wizard, you’ll want to check out the chapter on advanced
Transact-SQL concepts.
4 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

Part IV: Keeping Your Data

Safe from Harm
Unfortunately, all sorts of nasty problems can afflict your important informa-
tion, even when it’s safely stored in a database like SQL Server 2005 Express.
Never fear: You have some powerful tools at your disposal. In this part, I
show you how to secure your database from unauthorized manipulation, how
to back up your data, as well as how to use transactions to increase the
integrity of your information and software applications.

Part V: Putting the Tools to Work:

Programming with SQL
Server 2005 Express
You may be using SQL Server 2005 Express in conjunction with pre-built
applications and office productivity tools; you won’t need to do any program-
ming, and you can probably safely skip this part. On the other hand, if you’re
constructing your own solutions, you can derive a lot of value from seeing
how to use stored procedures and functions, interacting with the Common
Language Runtime (CLR), as well as gracefully dealing with any errors that
might arise along the way.

Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005

Express Applications
SQL Server 2005 Express is tightly coupled with an entire line of easy-to-use
software development technologies from Microsoft. This part shows you how
to quickly get productive with programming tools such as Microsoft Visual
Basic 2005 Express and Visual Web Developer 2005 Express in conjunction
with your new database server. You also find out how to leverage and incor-
porate XML into your SQL Server 2005 Express-based applications.

Part VII: The Part of Tens

I hope that you find this book contains all that you need to get your work
done with SQL Server 2005 Express. However, if you’re interested in finding
out even more about the product, this part contains a list of ten excellent
 Introduction 5
resources for additional data. Because problem solving comes with the terri-
tory with any robust software application, you’ll also want to check out the
list of ten troubleshooting tips.

Part VIII: Appendixes

This part begins with two migration appendixes. The first helps you decide
when to upgrade to a higher capacity version of SQL Server, including an
explanation of how to use the excellent Import and Export Wizard to make
the migration a snap. The next appendix looks at migration from the point of
view of uploading data from Microsoft Access and flat files into your SQL
Server 2005 Express database. You also find out how to install the software
from the CD that accompanies the book, as well as get a comprehensive list
of key relevant SQL Server 2005 Express and relational database terms.

Icons Used in This Book

What’s a For Dummies book without icons pointing you in the direction of
really great information that’s sure to help you along your way? In this sec-
tion, I briefly describe each icon I use in this book.

This icon highlights the new features you find in this latest version of SQL
Server Express.

This icon marks a general interesting and useful fact — something that you
may want to remember for later use.

When you see this icon, you know that techie stuff is nearby. If you’re not
feeling very techie, you can skip this info.

The Tip icon points out helpful information that is likely to make your
job easier.

The Warning icon highlights lurking danger. With this icon, I’m telling you to
pay attention and proceed with caution.
6 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

Where to Go from Here

To help you navigate quickly, I list here some common tasks, along with
where you can get more details:

Task Look At
Installation requirements and guide Chapter 2
Upgrading to SQL Server 2005 Express Appendix B
Common problems Chapter 23
SQL Server 2005 Express functionality limitations Chapter 1
Converting to a more powerful SQL Server version Appendix A
Pairing the database with the right applications Chapter 1
Enabling the right network protocols Chapter 3
Creating databases and tables Chapter 8
Best practices for database design Chapter 9
Transact-SQL syntax Chapter 10
Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express Chapter 21
Writing your own stored procedures Chapter 14
Using views Chapter 9
Configuring the SQL Server 2005 Express engine Chapter 5
Integrating transactions to your application Chapter 12
Taking advantage of replication Chapter 6
Using SQL Server Management Studio Express Chapter 4
Intercepting calls to your database Chapter 15
Protecting your information Chapter 11
Backing up your database Chapter 13
Using other languages to build stored procedures Chapter 16
Graceful error handling Chapter 17
Building applications with Express editions Chapters 19 and 20
Reporting services Chapter 18
Key terms and concepts Appendix C
 Part I
Welcome to SQL
Server 2005 Express
 In this part . . .
B efore you can start making the most of your SQL
Server 2005 Express database server, you need to do
a few simple — yet important — tasks. That’s what this
part is all about: Helping you figure out if SQL Server 2005
Express is right for you, and then getting going as quickly
as possible.

First, you find out all about SQL Server 2005 Express,
including its major features, as well as where it differs
from its bigger (and more expensive) siblings. With that
background out of the way, you’re ready to see how to get
your own, free copy of SQL Server 2005 Express. Next, I
tell you about some common situations in which you use
this product, as well as some scenarios where you should
choose another edition. Finally, the part closes out with
some basic steps that you can follow to get your database
up and running.
 Chapter 1

SQL Server 2005 Express

Overview
In This Chapter
䊳 Introducing SQL Server 2005 Express (SSE)
䊳 Determining whether SSE is right for you
䊳 Discovering the features of SSE
䊳 Understanding how SSE works
䊳 Getting going with SQL Server 2005 Express

F rom the developer’s or user’s perspective, SQL Server 2005 Express

strikes a nice balance between price (free) and performance (powerful).
In this chapter, I offer up some insight into this new product.

To begin, I give you some context to understand how this capable, yet entry-
level product came about, along with how it fits in with the rest of the SQL
Server product family. Next, you see who the ideal user is for SQL Server 2005
Express, along with a list of some of the product’s most compelling features
(as well as what’s not present). Finally, I show you the kind of tools that you’ll
want to acquire so you can get started building applications and working
with your SQL Server 2005 Express data.

Jumping on Board the SQL Server Express

Once upon a time, if you wanted to store information on a computer, you had
to write your own low-level, highly specialized program that organized this
data, and also allowed you to update and retrieve the data. This was very
cumbersome, time-consuming, and error-prone. Eventually, a host of special-
ized companies sprang up to provide standardized, industrial-strength prod-
ucts known as databases.

A database is a special kind of software application whose main purpose is

to help people and programs store, organize, and retrieve information. This
10 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

frees up application developers to focus on the business task at hand, rather

than being responsible for supervising the intricacies of data management.

As more time passed, a new breed of database companies arose. With names
like Oracle, Informix, and Sybase, these vendors (and many others) developed
a particular kind of database, known as a relational database. Relational data-
bases are particularly well designed for storing information in tabular format,
which further helped software developers as they built a whole new class of
enterprise applications.

Microsoft also entered the relational database fray some years back with the
SQL Server database. Once thought of as a relatively lightweight database
vendor, Microsoft has continually refined SQL Server to the point where it
can compete for the largest and most complicated database-driven applica-
tions. Of course, all these capabilities and power have made the SQL Server
database platform somewhat intimidating and confusing for many developers
and users, especially those that are building and using simpler solutions.

To address this problem, beginning with the SQL Server 2005 product family,
Microsoft has created several different versions of SQL Server. Known as edi-
tions, each of these versions addresses a different class of database environ-
ment. Despite this segmentation, all editions are built on the same underlying
technology platform. The main difference among the editions is that the sim-
pler, less far-reaching versions don’t have all the features and storage capac-
ity that you find in their larger (and more complex) siblings. Here’s a list of all
the SQL Server 2005 editions:

⻬ Enterprise: This is the most robust edition of SQL Server 2005. It

includes a host of features that make it a good choice for a 24/7, mission-
critical database server platform. Just a few of these features include
• Advanced business intelligence analytics
• Robust data transformation logic
• High availability capabilities
This product also has two developer-focused versions, which contain all
the Enterprise features but are licensed differently. These are SQL Server
2005 Developer Edition and SQL Server 2005 Evaluation Edition.
⻬ Standard: With much of the feature set of its big brother, this edition is
fine for the vast majority of database applications. The main difference
is that this edition is somewhat lighter in both its business intelligence
and high availability feature sets.
⻬ Workgroup: Aimed at smaller, departmental applications, this
still-powerful edition of SQL Server 2005 introduces some limitations
 Chapter 1: SQL Server 2005 Express Overview 11
that are not likely to be issues for these smaller computing environ-
ments. Some of these restrictions include
• Hardware and database size constraints
• Diminished high availability
• Reduced business intelligence
⻬ Express: Now it’s time to look at the star of this show. This is the sim-
plest and easiest to use database offering in the SQL Server 2005 prod-
uct family. On top of that accolade, it’s also free to download and
redistribute (with some licensing restrictions).
This is the right edition for you if any of the following describe you:
• A software developer (seasoned or brand-new) wanting to learn
about relational databases.
• A packaged application provider looking to embed a free, yet
sturdy database with your solution.
• An end user with a lot of information to store, but not a lot of cash
to buy a database.

To get the lowdown on the differences among each SQL Server 2005 edition,
go to

www.microsoft.com/sql/prodinfo/features/compare-
features.mspx

As you evaluate potential uses for SQL Server Express 2005, note that you can
use it for all sorts of applications, from traditional, desktop-based rich client
software as well as browser-based solutions that are available over the Internet.

SQL Server 2005 Express is just one component of a larger collection of entry-
level products aimed at helping developers and hobbyists use Microsoft’s tech-
nologies to deliver powerful and flexible computing solutions. These products,
all of which are part of Visual Studio 2005 Express include the following:

⻬ Visual Web Developer 2005 Express

⻬ Visual Basic 2005 Express
⻬ Visual C# 2005 Express
⻬ Visual C++ 2005 Express
⻬ Visual J# 2005 Express

All these products work seamlessly with SQL Server 2005 Express. If you’re inter-
ested in taking advantage of these products, have a look at Chapters 19 and 20.
12 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

The SQL Server 2005

Express Environment
Although it’s the most junior member of the family, SQL Server 2005 Express
has more than enough capabilities and power to support the majority of
database-driven applications. You should be aware of these key features —
along with some limitations — as you build your solution:

⻬ Robust technology platform: SQL Server 2005 Express is built on the

same underlying technology platform as all the Microsoft SQL Server
products. This significantly increases this product’s effectiveness and
stability.
⻬ Interoperability and upgradeability: Because SQL Server 2005 Express
is built on the underlying SQL Server 2005 platform, you can easily
develop solutions that work with any SQL Server 2005 edition. In addi-
tion, you can straightforwardly migrate from this entry-level edition to a
more full-featured edition without changing your database design or
altering any application or stored procedure/trigger code.
⻬ Memory: With memory costs dropping significantly over time, many
administrators now stock their computers with large amounts of RAM.
However, regardless of how much memory you have, SQL Server 2005
Express doesn’t take advantage of any more than 1GB of RAM.
⻬ Automatic performance tuning: This is one feature that SQL Server
2005 Express shares with the other database editions. It lightens the
administrative load by automatically updating the database’s configura-
tion based on system activities and other profiling data.
However, no automation can free you from the performance implications
of an inefficient database or application construction: You are still
responsible for designing your database structure and software logic
with speed in mind.
⻬ Database size: This is probably the most significant limitation of SQL
Server 2005 Express, because any given database can’t be bigger than
4GB. Although this limitation won’t be a problem for many applications,
certain data-intensive solutions can test it. Of course, you are free to
have multiple databases that are each 4GB.
⻬ Full security capabilities: Here’s another area where this edition and the
more costly versions of SQL Server 2005 basically have no differences.
This means that you can take advantage of a broad band of security fea-
tures as you go about developing your solutions. These range from
authentication and auditing all the way through public key management
and encryption.
 Chapter 1: SQL Server 2005 Express Overview 13
⻬ Multi-processors: Running a computer with more than one central pro-
cessing unit (CPU) is a great way to increase performance and through-
put. However, SQL Server 2005 Express only takes advantage of one CPU,
regardless of how many are available.
⻬ Administrative tools: Microsoft offers the excellent SQL Server
Management Studio Express graphical tool to help you monitor and
manage your database. It’s available for free download from Microsoft’s
Web site.
⻬ Visual Studio integration: Although SQL Server 2005 Express is consid-
ered an entry-level product, you’re free to use the full power of Microsoft’s
flagship development platform, Visual Studio. This product is fully inte-
grated with all the SQL Server 2005 database offerings, including Express.
Figure 1-1 shows you what this looks like, in the context of building a C#
class file.
⻬ Full-text searching: This feature helps you index and then query large
blocks of text-based information. Although it’s not present in SQL Server
2005 Express, you will find it in SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced
Services. Regardless of which version you use, your application can still
store and work with this kind of information; the method you use might
vary, however.

Figure 1-1:
SQL Server
2005
Express
information
available
from inside
Visual
Studio.
14 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ High availability features: The entire SQL Server 2005 product family
offers numerous technologies to help keep your database up and run-
ning at all times. However, Express doesn’t offer these capabilities, all of
which reduce down time or help improve performance:
• Online restore
• Database mirroring
• Partitioning
• Failover clustering
• Online indexing
If you’re building a mission critical application and continual uptime is
of vital importance to you, you may want to deploy your solution on one
of the other SQL Server 2005 editions.
⻬ Rich programming language choices: The entire SQL Server 2005 prod-
uct line supports the Microsoft Common Language Runtime (CLR). This
means that you can develop internal database logic such as stored pro-
cedures and triggers in any one of a number of popular programming
languages, rather than in SQL Server’s internal programming language:
Transact-SQL.
⻬ Analysis services: The more advanced editions of SQL Server 2005 fea-
ture business analytic logic that you can use to help make sense of your
information. This is especially true if your environment sports massive
volumes of data that need to be crunched to come up with recognizable
patterns. The bad news is that this is not present in SQL Server 2005
Express. However, the good news is that chances are that if these kinds
of data are found in your organization, you’ll have already purchased
one of the many third-party business intelligence products.
⻬ Report server: Users always want more information out of their data-
base. With SQL Server 2005’s reporting services, you can set up a wide
range of developer-driven and user-driven reports. You can then inte-
grate and deliver these communiqués through a series of different pre-
sentation technologies. Happily, you’ll find these capabilities present in
SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services, which should help
please those finicky users. If you’re curious about how these features
work, take a look at Chapter 18 for the details.
⻬ Integration services: These features allow you to write powerful integra-
tion logic that can take information from a broad range of other data
storage locations and then store it inside SQL Server. The same holds
true for outbound data. Unfortunately, you won’t find these services pre-
sent in SQL Server 2005 Express. Luckily, this doesn’t mean that you
can’t integrate data among disparate systems; it just means that you
may have to do some more work to achieve the same results.
⻬ Notification services: This refers to the capability, found only in the
more feature-rich editions of SQL Server 2005, to build sophisticated
publish-and-subscribe applications. Once created, these applications
 Chapter 1: SQL Server 2005 Express Overview 15
can properly react to a wide variety of events, notifying all interested
parties that an event has occurred. SQL Server 2005 Express does let
you take advantage of replication, but only as a subscriber.
⻬ Backup/recovery options: Because backup and recovery are a vital part
of any data integrity and reliability plan, SQL Server 2005 offers adminis-
trators a choice among several different recovery models, each of which
has its own strengths and weaknesses. However, your data-archiving
choices are somewhat more reduced for SQL Server 2005 Express. You
can still set up a very robust backup and recovery strategy; it’s just not
as full featured as in the more advanced editions of SQL Server. In partic-
ular, because the SQL Server Agent is not present, you won’t be able to
schedule jobs or configure alerts and operators.

Where Does SQL Server Express 2005

Work Best?
SQL Server 2005 Express brings a lot to the table, but when does it make
sense to choose it as your data storage platform? I answer this question in
this section.

Small office/Home office (SOHO)

Small offices and home offices (SOHO) are often caught between a rock and a
hard place when dealing with software and solutions. Either the technology is
underpowered and simplistic, not quite meeting their needs, or it’s expen-
sive, overly complex, and resource intensive.

SQL Server 2005 Express strikes a nice balance between simplicity and
power, while holding the cost as low as you can possibly get. Plus, because
many small businesses one day find themselves morphed (or acquired) into
larger enterprises, making this database server the cornerstone of your data
storage architecture means that you never outgrow your database: You can
easily upgrade to SQL Server 2005 Enterprise.

On top of that, the fact that SQL Server 2005 Express is a true relational data-
base management platform means that you can store and track just about
anything in your database. Some particularly good applications include

⻬ Inventory details
⻬ Sales statistics
⻬ Financial metrics
16 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

When you have this information safely ensconced in your SQL Server 2005
Express database, you’re free to use all sorts of tools and technologies to
help make sense of your data. For example, you might store details about all
the individual transactions that your organization performs, and then use
business intelligence or other data analysis tools to help identify trends from
your sales results.

While you’re free to store anything you like in your SQL Server 2005 Express
database, be aware that any individual database has a maximum storage limit
of 4GB for your information. If you find yourself approaching that ceiling, you
need to archive some of your older data to make room for newer knowledge.

Distributed enterprise
With the rise of low cost, high-speed Internet connections, many more organi-
zations are realizing benefits from distributed computing. For the distributed
enterprise of any size, SQL Server 2005 Express offers a good balance
between the low maintenance requirements of an entry-level database like
Microsoft Access, and the capabilities of a robust, server-based database.

In addition to these features, you can administer multiple remote SQL Server
2005 Express sites from one location via the SQL Server Management Studio
Express.

Another useful capability of SQL Server 2005 Express is its ability to partici-
pate as a client in a replication architecture. This means that you could have
a single, high-end edition of SQL Server distributing its data among numerous
SQL Server 2005 Express clients. These clients could, in turn, support read-
only applications like reporting or business intelligence. This type of archi-
tecture spreads the processing load across multiple machines, and helps
eliminate bottlenecks.

Finally, another good illustration of distributed computing is to use SQL

Server 2005 Express as a local database and then aggregate its information to
a central server for safekeeping and analysis. For example, suppose that
you’re building a retail application that will support dozens of locations, none
of which will have a database administrator. You could install a traditional,
low-end database in each store, but you need to take advantage of a true rela-
tional database management system’s features, such as advanced security,
stored procedures, or triggers. You also need to gather and consolidate this
data for reporting purposes. This is a good use for SQL Server 2005 Express:
It offers enough power for enterprise-class applications without demanding
teams of highly trained administrators for its daily care and feeding.
 Chapter 1: SQL Server 2005 Express Overview 17
If you’re curious about all that you can do in a distributed computing envi-
ronment, check out Chapter 6.

Independent Systems Vendor/Original

Equipment Manufacturer (ISV/OEM)
ISVs and OEMs have first-hand experience that the cost of embedded tech-
nology can eat into profits. That’s not a problem with SQL Server 2005
Express: Free generally doesn’t have much of an impact on margins. However,
don’t be fooled by the price: This is a full-featured database, built on the SQL
Server platform.

If you base your applications and solutions around SQL Server 2005 Express,
you’re not locked in: If your customers need extra horsepower and capabili-
ties, they can quickly and painlessly upgrade to a more powerful edition of
SQL Server.

The beauty of basing your solutions on a single relational database management

product family is that you can do your development on the more advanced edi-
tions of SQL Server, using robust tools like Visual Studio, and then easily deploy
your application onto the lightweight SQL Server 2005 Express.

As an added benefit to OEMs and ISVs, SQL Server 2005 Express lets you
store your data in a single, easily transferred file. Known as an .mdf file, this
structure combines the simplicity of a low-end flat file with the power of a
true relational database management system. You should note, however, that
you have to deploy the SQL Server Express 2005 server, even if you only
intend to deploy .mdf files with your solution.

Getting Down to Business with

SQL Server 2005 Express
In previous sections, I show you all that you get with your free download of
SQL Server 2005 Express Edition. If you’re wondering how you can get started
using the product, that’s what this section is all about. To begin, I point out
some things to ponder as you plan and deploy your database. Next, I talk
about all the programming tools at your disposal for building a SQL Server
2005 Express-based application. Finally, I show how you can configure and
monitor your database.
18 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

What happened to MSDE?

For those of you who have followed the entry- depending on who answers the phone in
level SQL Server database for some time, you’re Redmond), this database was more compli-
probably wondering what happened to the pre- cated to administer, less feature rich, and had
vious offering from Microsoft. smaller capacity than its replacement, SQL
Server 2005 Express.
Known as MSDE (which stands for Microsoft
Desktop Engine or Microsoft Data Engine,

Planning your database

The first thing to keep in mind as you contemplate what to keep in your SQL
Server 2005 Express database is that this is not a stripped-down, feature-
limited, stand-alone product. It’s true that Express does have significant limi-
tations to the amount of information you can store in the database (see “The
SQL Server 2005 Express Environment” earlier in this chapter for more details
about that), and that certain key high-volume features are not present.

Before you get heavily into using this edition, you should make sure that
none of these limitations are showstoppers for you. Remember that the
majority of these constraints shouldn’t impact you during development;
they’re only an issue at runtime.

Even though this edition has feature restrictions, SQL Server 2005 Express
works with all the same types of information as its more fully featured sib-
lings, and you can easily migrate to a more powerful edition. It also supports
all the same application programming interfaces (APIs), as well as the same
stored procedure and trigger capabilities.

This means that as a designer, you can build your SQL Server 2005 Express
database with confidence, knowing that you aren’t painted into a corner by
missing capabilities, nor the solution you design is forever consigned to this
entry-level database. This works the other way as well: You can design your
solution on a more powerful edition of SQL Server 2005, and then deploy it
onto SQL Server 2005 Express, as long as it doesn’t require any of the fea-
tures that are only found in the more expensive editions of the product.

One feature that’s particularly attractive for distributed application develop-

ers and vendors is the Xcopy deployment capability of SQL Server 2005
Express. This lets you easily bundle your application and database (.mdf)
file and then copy them to another machine. Because everything is already
pre-packaged, you don’t need to manually configure these other platforms, as
long as they have a running instance of SQL Server 2005 Express. When your
 Chapter 1: SQL Server 2005 Express Overview 19
application launches, the database server automatically attaches the .mdf
file to the local instance. This architecture results in an easily implemented
portability strategy.

Building SQL Server 2005

Express applications
You have a wide variety of electives when building a solution that stores its
information in this database. To begin, as I described earlier in this chapter,
Microsoft is making the Visual Studio Express products affordable and easy
to use to create database-driven applications. If you’re new to application
development, checking out these products is definitely worth your while. In
fact, take a look at Chapters 19 and 20, which cover Visual Basic 2005 Express
and Visual Web Developer 2005 Express, respectively. For a sneak preview,
Figure 1-2 shows how closely Visual Basic 2005 Express works with SQL
Server 2005 Express.

This tight integration can go a long way toward boosting your productivity. In
effect, with these products, Microsoft has broken down the traditional barrier
between application and database tools.

Figure 1-2:
Visual
Basic 2005
Express
and SQL
Server 2005
Express.
20 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

If you’re more inclined to use heavier-weight, more powerful tools, Visual

Studio 2005 makes a lot of sense to employ for application development. It’s
an extremely potent tool that contains a tremendous amount of functionality.
It’s also very well integrated with all SQL Server 2005 products, not only the
Express edition. Naturally, all this power comes with additional complexity
and a somewhat steeper learning curve, so you should decide if your applica-
tion requires all these capabilities.

Of course, Microsoft isn’t the only game in town when it comes to application
development technologies. You can use several third-party tools (including
open source and shareware) to construct a SQL Server-based solution.

Configuring, managing, and monitoring

SQL Server 2005 Express
With your database and application built, it’s natural to turn your attention to
setting configuration parameters and then monitoring the database. Here
again, you have no shortage of options.

To begin, SQL Server 2005 Express snaps into the standard Microsoft
Computer Management console. This lets you configure and run your data-
base services, which you can see in Figure 1-3.

Figure 1-3:
Configuring
SQL Server
2005
Express
services.
 Chapter 1: SQL Server 2005 Express Overview 21
For further configuring and managing your SQL Server 2005 Express server,
you can choose between graphical and character-based tools. As you might
expect, graphical tools provide more intuitive, easy-to-understand informa-
tion about your server.

When it comes to graphical tools, it’s hard to beat Microsoft’s free, excellent
graphical management environment known as SQL Server Management
Studio Express. Figure 1-4 shows a sample of what this product looks like.

SQL Server Management Studio Express can do much more than simply show
you tables and run queries. One handy tool is the activity monitor, which
opens a window onto all database-related activity for your server. Figure 1-5
shows a sample session; you can monitor a tremendous amount of informa-
tion using this tool.

For those of you who prefer a character-based configuration and manage-

ment utility, Microsoft continues to ship the SQLCMD utility, which allows for
direct entry of SQL statements. Because you find much of the administrative
capabilities for SQL Server embedded in stored procedures, you can run just
about any management operation from the rather bland SQLCMD interface.

Figure 1-4:
Viewing a
table in SQL
Server
Manage-
ment Studio
Express.
22 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

Figure 1-5:
The SQL
Server
Manage-
ment Studio
Express
Activity
Monitor.
 Chapter 2

Downloading and Installing

SQL Server 2005 Express
on Your Computer
In This Chapter
䊳 Getting your own copy of SQL Server 2005 Express
䊳 Laying the groundwork for installation
䊳 Installing SQL Server 2005 Express on your computer
䊳 Performing basic tests

T raditionally, getting a production-ready copy of a powerful relational data-

base management system has meant pulling out your (or the company’s)
checkbook and signing on the dotted line. However, this is not the case with
SQL Server 2005 Express. Instead, all you need is an Internet connection; you
can download the product and get started for free.

In this chapter, you find out what you need to do to get ready for SQL Server
2005 Express, along with how to download, install, and run some basic tests to
make sure everything went smoothly. After a successful installation, you still
have a few things to do before you can use the product to its fullest potential;
I show you those things in Chapter 3. If you have information stored in other
locations that you want to entrust to this database, take a look at Appendix B,
which describes how to import data into SQL Server 2005 Express.

Getting a Copy of SQL

Server 2005 Express
Microsoft has made it easy to get your own copy of SQL Server 2005 Express.
Here are just a couple ways that you can get your hands on the product:
24 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ Via the Internet: If you have a fast Internet connection, you can quickly
and easily download SQL Server 2005 Express. Here’s all you need to do:
1. Point your browser to http://www.microsoft.com/sql.
2. Click the Downloads link.
You should now see a link for SQL Server 2005 Express.
3. Review the System Requirements and Instructions before down-
loading your product.
I describe some of these system requirements in the next section.
You’ll be presented with a potentially bewildering array of SQL Server
2005 Express downloads on Microsoft’s Web site. Here’s a brief overview
of each of the available products:
• Baseline SQL Server 2005 Express: This is the standalone, entry-
level SQL Server database found in SQLEXPR.EXE.
• SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services: This is the
next level up in database power and capability, yet it’s still free! If
you’re interested in enhanced reporting services and full-text
searching, this might be the edition for you (see Chapter 18). It’s in
a file entitled SQLEXPR_ADV.EXE.
• SQL Server Management Studio Express: This is an excellent,
powerful, yet easy-to-use database administration and interaction
tool. I strongly recommend getting a copy; you won’t regret it.
• SQL Express toolkit: If you’re interested in developing reports with
SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services, the Business
Intelligence Development Studio contained in this toolkit is a
must-have.
If you can’t get to SQL Server 2005 Express via the preceding instruc-
tions, just use the Search feature on the Microsoft Web site to find it
quickly.
⻬ Via Visual Studio 2005: SQL Server 2005 Express is part of a larger
group of low-priced Microsoft offerings, known as the Express editions.
These products are aimed at a wide audience of developers that might
not have used these types of solutions before, and include
• Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition (which is conveniently on this
book’s CD)
• Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
• Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
• Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
• Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
Microsoft also bundles SQL Server 2005 Express with Visual Studio 2005,
which is available for purchase either stand-alone or via the Microsoft
Developer Network (MSDN).
 Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing SQL Server 2005 Express 25
⻬ Via the CD that ships with this book: To make things even easier for
you, a fully functional copy of SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced
Services is on the CD that comes with this book. You can read more
about it in Appendix D.

Before You Install

Although popping in the CD or pointing your browser at the Microsoft
Web site and then downloading and installing SQL Server 2005 Express is
tempting, you need to make sure that your computer meets some minimal
requirements. Otherwise, you could be faced with a long and frustrating
troubleshooting session, trying to figure out why things are running poorly
(or even not at all!).

Take the time to go through each of these major system readiness categories,
making sure that you meet or exceed each of these prerequisites. Also, if
you’re installing SQL Server 2005 Express on multiple machines, remember
that the machine that acts as a central server generally requires faster and
better hardware than one that primarily acts as a client. Finally, you need to
have administrative privileges on the computer where you’re installing SQL
Server 2005 Express.

⻬ CPU: For optimal performance, you want at least a 600 MHZ CPU,
although things might be kind of sluggish at that speed. Using a 1GHZ
CPU definitely makes things peppier and is recommended.
⻬ Memory: Because sufficient memory serves as the foundation of any
well-performing relational database, make sure that you provide 512MB
or more, as recommended by Microsoft. You could probably get away
with 192MB (minimum), but you’re pushing things at that level. In gen-
eral, just as you can’t be too rich or too thin, you can’t provide a rela-
tional database with too much CPU or memory, although SQL Server
2005 Express will not use more than 1GB of RAM.
⻬ Disk: Given that relational databases use disk drives as their primary
storage mechanism, recommending a hard-and-fast value for the right
amount of available disk capacity is difficult: Every installation is differ-
ent. Just the product and its related files take up more than 500MB of
disk space; you’ll likely want to add one or two gigabytes on top of that
for your data.
⻬ Operating system: Microsoft gives you a fairly wide choice of operating
systems that can run SQL Server 2005 Express. They include
• Windows Server 2003
• Windows Small Business Server 2003
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Windows XP Media Center Edition
26 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

• Windows XP Professional Edition

• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server
• Windows 2000 Professional Edition
• Windows 2000 Server
Be prepared to apply the latest service pack for your operating system;
in many cases, SQL Server 2005 Express depends on these patches.
⻬ Supporting software: Because it’s built on top of some of Microsoft’s
newer technologies, SQL Server 2005 Express requires that you install
some additional software technologies, specifically the Microsoft .NET
Framework 2.0. You also may be required to deploy the new Microsoft
Windows Installer software. In addition to facilitating software installa-
tion, this new product also checks whether your Windows software is
licensed correctly. Both of these products are free, and available for
download from the Microsoft Web site.
⻬ If you plan to use the Advanced Services edition, and are interested in
its reporting capabilities, make sure that you have Microsoft Internet
Information Services installed on your computer.

Installing SQL Server 2005 Express

Kudos to you if you took the time to read the previous section that described
the prerequisites for installing SQL Server 2005 Express. And if you didn’t,
that’s okay, too. Now all you need to do is breeze through a few simple steps,
and you’re ready to start using your new database. Here’s how to get SQL
Server 2005 Express up and running:

1. Remove old software.

If you’ve installed any beta editions of SQL Server 2005 Express or the
SQL Native Client, you need to uninstall them via the Control Panel’s
Add and Remove Programs utility.
2. Back up your system.
It may seem a bit excessive, but you’ll never regret taking the time to
make a backup copy of your important information. If things go wrong,
you have a way of restoring your data. And if things go fine (which they
probably will), you’ve still safeguarded your computer.
3. (Optional) Defragment your disks.
This may not seem like the time to defragment your disks, but in fact it’s
a great opportunity to give SQL Server 2005 Express some nice, clean,
well-organized space with which to work. Over time, data on your disk
drives gets fragmented, and spreads across the entire disk. This can
 Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing SQL Server 2005 Express 27
hurt performance of all applications; SQL Server 2005 Express is no
exception. Here’s how to defragment your disk:
a. Launch the Windows Disk Defragmenter.
You’ll find it via Start➪Programs➪Accessories➪System Tools➪
Disk Defragmenter.
b. Click the Analyze button.
The Disk Defragmenter analyzes your disk and returns a recom-
mendation (see Figure 2-1).
c. If the Disk Defragmenter recommends that you defragment your
disk, click the Defragment button.
This may take some time to complete, but be patient: It’s worth it.

Figure 2-1:
A disk that
needs to be
defrag-
mented.

4. Install the Microsoft .NET Framework.

This is the foundation on which SQL Server Express was built. You can
download it for free from the Microsoft Web site. In fact, you will find a
handy link to it right on the SQL Server 2005 Express download page.
5. Run the SQL Server 2005 Express installer program.
If you install SQL Server 2005 Express via the Visual Studio installer, you
may have a slightly different set of instructions.
After you launch the installer, you see a screen similar to Figure 2-2.
Once these initial tasks are out of the way, the SQL Server 2005 Express
Installation Wizard launches, which is shown in Figure 2-3.
28 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

Figure 2-2:
The initial
SQL Server
2005
Express
installation
prerequisite
screen.

SQL Server 2005 Express runs some very sophisticated checks against
your system to make sure that the upcoming installation goes smoothly.
Each configuration check is flagged as Success, Error, or Warning.
You must correct errors; you can get away with ignoring warnings, but
things may not run very smoothly if you do so.

Figure 2-3:
The SQL
Server 2005
Express
Installation
Wizard.
 Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing SQL Server 2005 Express 29
For example, Figure 2-4 shows a “close but no cigar” configuration
check. This particular machine was a little light on memory; hence the
warning. You can even get a report of what the configuration check
learned, as shown in Figure 2-5.

Figure 2-4:
Results from
the SQL
Server 2005
Express
system con-
figuration
check.

Figure 2-5:
Report from
the SQL
Server 2005
Express
system
configura-
tion check.

In addition to giving you a place to add your name and company, the
next screen, shown in Figure 2-6, lets you elect whether to install SQL
Server 2005 Express with its defaults, or customize your site’s configura-
tion by unchecking the Hide Advanced Configuration Options check box.
30 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

Figure 2-6:
Electing to
make
advanced
customiza-
tions for
SQL Server
2005
Express.

For this example, I’ll go down the advanced configuration path. In many
cases, however, it’s wise to just accept the default installation options.
The next few dialog boxes prompt you for some important pieces of
information, including:
• Your instance name: Choosing the named instance of
SQLExpress suffices for most installations.
• Your service account: You can choose whether to specify a
Windows account or just use the built-in system account. The
latter is the path of least resistance. If you’re really curious about
security, check out Chapter 11.
The service account dialog box gives you a chance to request that
SQL Server and SQL Browser be started when the system starts.
This is a good idea for most installations, unless you’re really con-
strained for system resources.
• Your authentication mode: You can choose between Windows
Authentication Mode and Mixed Mode. The former is generally a
better choice; I discuss that in more detail in Chapter 11.
• Collation settings: Here’s where you can specify site-specific sort-
ing requirements.
 Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing SQL Server 2005 Express 31
• Error and feature reporting: You can share, anonymously, infor-
mation about errors encountered by your SQL Server 2005 Express
installation, as well as those database features that you use.
After you finish specifying your site-specific requests, the wizard fin-
ishes installing, configuring, and validating SQL Server 2005 Express.
Figure 2-7 shows a successful installation.
You can take additional steps to further customize your SQL Server 2005
Express server. I discuss these steps in much more detail in Chapter 3.

Figure 2-7:
A successful
SQL Server
2005
Express
installation!

Although it’s not mandatory, you would be wise to also download and install
SQL Server Management Studio Express from the same place that you obtained
SQL Server 2005 Express. It’s an excellent (and free!) database administration
and query tool that can handle all of your SQL Server management tasks.

Testing Your Installation

Barring any warning messages, system crashes, or other unanticipated prob-
lems with your SQL Server 2005 Express installation, you can feel confident
that everything is right in your database world. But how can you make sure?
In this section, I show you a quick test that you can run to make sure that
everything is hunky dory.
32 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

The best way to make sure that your installation went well is simply to try to
connect to your SQL Server 2005 Express database server and then run some
basic database operations. Just follow these steps:

1. Make sure the SQL Server 2005 Express service is running.

Normally, this service is started as part of the installation process.
However, making sure that it started correctly is a good idea. Follow
these steps to check it:
a. Locate the My Computer icon on your desktop or on the Start
menu.
b. Right-click it, and choose the Manage option.
c. Expand the Services and Applications folder.
d. Double-click the Services entry in this folder.
You see a list of all services (running or not) on your computer,
along with whether they’re started automatically or manually.
e. Scroll down the list of services.
Look for the SQL Server (SQLEXPRESS) entry. To see if it’s running,
look in the Status column. You can also see if it automatically
launches by checking the Startup Type column. If it’s running, you
don’t need to go on to the next steps.
f. Highlight the SQL Server entry, and then right-click it.
g. Choose the Start option.
SQL Server 2005 Express service starts running. If you want to
have the service start automatically, choose the Properties option
and then select the Automatic option from the Startup Type drop-
down menu.
2. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express Edition.
If you don’t have this tool in your environment, I show you how to use
the character-based SQLCMD utility in the set of numbered steps follow-
ing this one.
3. Connect to your SQL Server 2005 Express database.
When you try to connect to your database, you’re prompted for a server
instance connection string. This can get a little tricky; SQL Server 2005
Express is rather picky about the exact syntax. Assuming you chose the
defaults when installing, just specify your string like this:
Computer name\sqlexpress
 Chapter 2: Downloading and Installing SQL Server 2005 Express 33
So, if your computer is called Titan, your server instance connection
string would look like this:
Titan\sqlexpress
4. Expand the System Databases folder.
5. Make sure that the four system databases are present:
• master
• model
• msdb
• tempdb
With these databases in place, you’re now ready to create a test data-
base of your own.
6. Highlight the Databases folder, and then right-click it.
7. Choose the New Database option.
8. Create a database with any name that you like.
You don’t need to fiddle with the settings; just choose the defaults. If
everything goes well, you see this new database listed under the
Databases folder.
9. Delete the database.
Unless you want to keep this database around for real work, you can
safely delete it:
a. Highlight the new database in the Databases folder, and then
right-click its entry.
b. Choose the Delete option from the menu.
c. Confirm that you want to delete this database.
10. You can now close SQL Server Management Studio Express.
The database server continues running, even if you disconnect.

For those of you with no access to SQL Server Management Studio, here’s
another way to connect to the database — using the SQLCMD utility — and
test your installation.

1. Open a command prompt.

You can do this by choosing Start➪Run, and entering cmd. Another
way to do this is to choose Start➪Programs➪Accessories➪Command
Prompt. After you see the friendly command prompt, it’s time to launch
SQLCMD.
34 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

2. Type SQLCMD, and include the proper parameters.

This can get a bit confusing: SQLCMD is rather picky about the exact
syntax that it deigns to run. This is not surprising when you realize that
it supports over two dozen parameters. This table highlights a small
group of key parameters:

Parameter Purpose
-S Specify the server that you want to connect to
-U Provide your username
-P Provide your password
-d Which database to use

If you get in hot water, you can always ask SQLCMD for help:
SQLCMD /?
3. Type the following SQL:
CREATE DATABASE install_test
GO
If you receive another prompt (that is, no error message), then every-
thing is fine. If you want to drop this test database, just type the follow-
ing SQL:
DROP DATABASE install_test
GO

That’s all you have to do! You now have a working SQL Server 2005 Express
database server.
 Chapter 3

Setting Up SQL Server Express

In This Chapter
䊳 Completing a successful installation
䊳 Deactivating unnecessary database features
䊳 Working with the network
䊳 Connecting to the database server

T here are many reasons for using a database server like SQL Server 2005
Express. Perhaps you’re drawn by its no-cost price, or maybe you’re
attracted to its rich functionality. Regardless of your motivation, after you
install the database server (which I discuss in detail in Chapter 2), you still
have a few steps to take before you can take advantage of all that the product
has to offer. That’s what this chapter is all about.

To begin, I show you what to watch out for during installation, as well as how
to use the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool to deactivate nonessen-
tial features. Finally, you take a quick tour of how to connect to SQL Server
2005 Express from a variety of popular technologies.

Points to Ponder During Installation

SQL Server 2005 Express makes installation rather finicky: Certain key deci-
sions you make while deploying the product are difficult to reverse.

To begin, you should carefully consider what communication protocols, fea-

tures, and security capabilities you’ll need. The installation wizard gives you
the chance to make these features part of your environment from the very
start. Although in many cases you can add them after the fact, conscien-
tiously planning your installation is a good idea.

When in doubt, install all capabilities from inception. You can’t easily add
certain features later. The next sections describe how to configure them after
you pass the installation stage.
36 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

Keeping a Low Profile

In the previous section, I advise you to install as many protocols and features
as you believe that you’ll ever possibly need. Now you need to disable some
of those protocols and turn off the features you don’t need via the SQL Server
Surface Area Configuration utility. By letting you easily close any open doors
to your database server and shut down extraneous features, this tool helps
boost both security and server performance.

Don’t be in too much of a rush to start removing features and closing off pro-
tocols: Spend a little time examining your current and planned database
usage patterns before uprooting capabilities.

You can get to the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration utility in two ways.
The first lets you manage the database connectivity services and protocols;
the second is aimed at regulating available features.

Configuring surface area for

services and connections
As a security precaution, SQL Server 2005 Express ships with remote connec-
tivity disabled. To let other computers communicate with your database
server, just follow these simple steps.

1. Launch SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.

You can find it by choosing Start➪All Programs➪Microsoft SQL Server
2005➪Configuration Tools➪SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.
2. Connect to the computer you want to administer.
By default, the utility points at the local server.
3. Click the Services and Connections link.
4. Expand the SQLEXPRESS folder (or whatever you named your data-
base server), followed by the Database Engine.
5. Click the Remote Connections entry.
You can now choose whether your database will only accept local con-
nections, or whether it will participate in conversations with remote
computers. You can also select whether you want to enable TCP/IP,
named pipes, or both kinds of connectivity, as shown in Figure 3-1.
 Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express 37

Figure 3-1:
Configuring
services
and
protocols.

After you configure the protocols, your next duty is to administer the SQL
Server Browser service. This Windows service allows client computers to
locate your SQL Server 2005 Express database server.

If you plan on using only the default instance of SQL Server 2005 Express, or
your clients know the name of your server and instance details, you don’t
need to enable the SQL Server Browser service.

If you’re already running the SQL Server Surface Configuration utility, you can
skip Steps 1 through 3.

1. Launch SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.

You can find it by choosing Start➪All Programs➪Microsoft SQL Server
2005➪Configuration Tools➪SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.
2. Connect to the computer you want to administer.
By default, the utility points at the local server.
3. Click the Services and Connections link.
4. Expand the SQL Server Browser folder.
5. Pick one of the options from the Startup Type drop-down menu.
If you want the service to be enabled, you can choose Automatic or
Manual. The former is preferable if remote connectivity is a part of your
normal processing; otherwise opting for Manual is fine. On the other hand,
if you don’t want this service to run at all, just choose the Disabled option.
38 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

Configuring surface area for features

After getting your protocols and services squared away, you now can change
gears and take a look at the features you’ll be running in your SQL Server
2005 Express environment. You can use the SQL Server Surface Configuration
utility to enable or disable a number of key features, including the following:

⻬ Ad-hoc remote queries: This feature allows OLE-DB to contact remote

data sources and process queries.
⻬ CLR integration: This stands for Common Language Runtime, and
enabling it lets you use other programming languages to write internal
database routines.
⻬ Native XML Web Services: This technology allows your database server
to communicate with client applications via the Simple Object Access
Protocol (SOAP).
⻬ Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Automation: This lets your SQL
Server 2005 Express instance use OLE-aware custom objects.
⻬ Service Broker: This feature enables different SQL Server instances to
communicate, using a reliable and secure protocol.
⻬ xp_cmdshell: This capability lets you launch operating system-level
commands from within your SQL Server 2005 Express environment.

After you decide what features you want to enable, it’s easy to express your
wishes to SQL Server 2005 Express. Here’s how to make enable features:

1. Launch SQL Server Surface Area Configuration utility.

You can find it by choosing Start➪All Programs➪Microsoft SQL Server
2005➪Configuration Tools➪SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.
2. Connect to the computer you want to administer.
By default, the utility points at the local server.
3. Click the Services and Connections link.
4. Expand the SQLEXPRESS folder (or whatever you named your data-
base server), followed by the Database Engine folder, as shown in
Figure 3-2.
5. Check the boxes for each service that you want enabled.
6. After you’re done, click OK to save your changes.

Don’t be afraid that disabling a feature will permanently damage your server;
you can usually enable most features later.
 Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express 39

Figure 3-2:
Configuring
services
and
protocols.

Is Anyone Out There?

Your database server is a social animal: It happily chats with other users and
computers, but only if you let it. In this section, I show you how to enable and
configure the various protocols that can make these conversations possible.

To begin, understanding what purpose a communication protocol serves is a

good idea. These standards allow disparate database servers and clients to
speak and understand each other. A multitude of protocols are out there;
here are the ones that can work with SQL Server 2005 Express:

⻬ TCP/IP: This is, by far, the most popular communication protocol out
there. In fact, it’s the foundation of the Internet. Whenever you open a
browser and connect to a Web site, TCP/IP is the underlying standard
that makes it all possible, and is probably the best choice for your data-
base communication protocol.
⻬ Named Pipes: Generally used for both intra-machine and client/server
communication, this protocol is less frequently found on Internet-based
conversations. They are also somewhat less secure than TCP/IP.
⻬ Virtual Interface Adapter (VIA): As a protocol that is reliant on special-
ized hardware, the odds are you won’t likely encounter VIA as often as
TCP/IP or named pipes.
40 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ Shared memory: As you would guess from its name, this protocol relies
on a fast, dedicated section of memory that SQL Server 2005 Express
uses for communication between the database and any clients that wish
to work with it. However, shared memory has one gotcha: Client applica-
tions and processes must reside on the same computer as the database
server, making this protocol somewhat irrelevant in a highly distributed
environment.

Now that you’re a wiz with SQL Server’s myriad protocols, it’s time to see
how to enable or disable any of the ones I just listed:

1. Launch SQL Server Configuration Manager.

You have two ways to make this happen:
• Choose Start➪All Programs➪Microsoft SQL Server 2005➪
Configuration Tools➪SQL Server Surface Area Configuration. The
SQL Server Configuration Manager window opens (see Figure 3-3).

Figure 3-3:
The SQL
Server
Config-
uration
Manager.
 Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express 41
• Right-click My Computer, select Manage, and then expand the
Services and Applications folder. The Computer Management
window opens (as shown in Figure 3-4).
Notice how the user interface is the same in both cases: The only differ-
ence is that in the former you’re running the utility stand-alone, while
the latter displays it as part of Computer Management.
You have three paths to follow from here:
• SQL Server 2005 Services: Here is yet another way to start, stop,
and disable your database services.
• SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration: This is where you enable,
configure, or disable any of the four services I just listed, for inbound
connections. I discuss Network Configuration in this section.
• SQL Native Client Configuration: Here is where you can specify
how you want outbound (that is, from your database to other data-
bases) protocols to work.

Figure 3-4:
The SQL
Server
Config-
uration
Manager
via
Computer
Manage-
ment.
42 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

2. Click the entry for SQLEXPRESS (or whatever you named your data-
base server).
On the right side, you see entries for each of the protocols.
3. Right-click any protocol that you want to configure.
Figure 3-5 shows the TCP/IP protocol properties.
As you can see, you have several properties at your disposal, including
• Enabled: This property asks a very simple question: Do you or
don’t you want this service to run?
• Keep Alive: Aside from taking up space on your screen, this
property doesn’t do anything, so you can safely ignore it.
• Listen All: This setting controls how SQL Server 2005 Express,
your network, and your computer’s network cards all work
together. You can also switch to the IP Addresses tab for further
configuration.
• No Delay: Just like Keep Alive, this property is just there for
show; you can disregard it.
4. When you’re done, click OK to save your changes.

Figure 3-5:
Configuring
TCP/IP
properties.
 Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express 43
Connecting to Your Server
You would be forgiven for assuming that after you complete all the tasks
necessary to set up your SQL Server 2005 Express database server, getting a
conversation going with it would be a cinch. As it turns out, the last step in
establishing a connection can often be the most frustrating. Try as you might,
you just can’t seem to hook up with your database.

Helping you get around this annoying obstacle is what this section is all about.
I give you an inventory of the major types of applications that you need to
connect to your server, along with what you need to do to help them “find”
your database.

Connecting with SQLCMD

This all-purpose, character-based utility lets you connect to your SQL Server
2005 Express database and perform all sorts of work.

When you’re wrestling with a particularly tough connection problem, going

back to the basics is a good idea: Use SQLCMD as your test bed as you try
things out. Once SQLCMD works, you can then apply your results to the
other tools that I describe in this section.

SQLCMD has been around for quite a while, and consequently offers a wide vari-
ety of different options. You can get a list of all these options with these steps:

1. Open a command prompt.

Choose Start➪Run, and enter CMD. A command prompt comes up.
2. In the command prompt window, type SQLCMD -? and press Enter.
Figure 3-6 shows all the parameters that you can supply.

Figure 3-6:
Available
parame-
ters for
SQLCMD.
44 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

Yikes! Look at all those parameters. Don’t worry — you don’t need to stay up
all night experimenting with the dozens of different options at your disposal.
Actually, when simply connecting to SQL Server 2005 Express, you only need
to concern yourself with a handful of these variables:

⻬ -U: The login ID of the user who is trying to connect to the database.
⻬ -P: The password for the user specified with the -U parameter.
If you omit the –U and –P parameters, SQLCMD tries to log in using your
Windows login.
⻬ -S: The server name, with the instance name as an optional appendage.
In many cases, just using ComputerName\SQLEXPRESS (where
ComputerName is the name of your server) works. Optionally, you can
substitute either localhost or . for ComputerName.
⻬ -E: Try to use a trusted connection, which happens to be default behav-
ior for SQLCMD. Just like its name implies, this type of connection
bypasses some of the security safeguards; if you try to pass a login and
password, SQL Server 2005 Express reports an error.

Connecting with SQL Server

Management Studio Express
If the thought of using the character-based SQLCMD utility to manage your
SQL Server 2005 Express server leaves you cold, try SQL Server Management
Studio Express instead. It’s a graphical tool that offers database administra-
tion as well as data interaction capabilities. Here’s how you can connect to
your server, using this tool:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Choose File➪Connect Object Explorer.
3. Enter the name of your server and, optionally, an instance name.
The Connect to Server dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 3-7.
 Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express 45

Figure 3-7:
The SQL
Server
Manage-
ment Studio
Express
connection
dialog box.

After you successfully connect, you should see a window similar to Figure 3-8.

For much more about using SQL Server Management Studio Express, check
out Chapter 4.

Figure 3-8:
A success-
ful SQL
Server
Manage-
ment Studio
Express
connection.
46 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

Connecting with ODBC

Over the past decade, Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) has become the
preferred method that most software vendors use to interact with informa-
tion repositories such as SQL Server 2005 Express. If you’re using one of
these tools, you need to set up an ODBC connection. Just follow these steps
and you’ll be all set:

1. Choose Start➪Control Panel➪Administrative Tools➪Data Sources

(ODBC).
2. Click either the User or System DSN tab.
Selecting the System DSN tab (which is shown in Figure 3-9) is generally
a good idea; your data source is then visible to other users on your
computer.

Figure 3-9:
The ODBC
System DSN
dialog box.

3. Click Add.
The Create New Data Source dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 3-10.
4. From the list of drivers, pick either the SQL Native Client or the SQL
Server driver.
The SQL Native Client is the more current connectivity client, so I rec-
ommend that you select this option.
 Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express 47

Figure 3-10:
Choosing
an ODBC
driver.

5. Click Next.
The Create a New Data Source to SQL Server dialog box appears, as
shown in Figure 3-11.

Figure 3-11:
Selecting a
database
server.

6. Enter the name and description of your connection, pick the server,
and click Next.
7. Choose the authentication method you want and click Next.
48 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

8. Choose your default database and click Next.

9. Fill in the final settings (shown in Figure 3-12) and click Finish.

Figure 3-12:
Final ODBC
settings
dialog box.

10. Test your new ODBC connection.

The SQL Native Client offers a handy test feature to help validate that
your connection was set up correctly. Just click Test to launch the verifi-
cation utility, as shown in Figure 3-13. Figure 3-14 shows a verification of
a successful connection.

Figure 3-13:
Summary
of ODBC
settings.
 Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express 49

Figure 3-14:
A suc-
cessful
connection.

Connecting with Visual Studio Express

In an effort to increase its market share and mind share with the hobbyist
and entry-level developer audience, Microsoft has released a suite of devel-
opment products that are tightly coupled with SQL Server 2005 Express.
Together, these are part of the Visual Studio Express product family, and
cover many popular programming languages:

⻬ Visual C# Express
⻬ Visual Basic Express
⻬ Visual C++ Express
⻬ Visual Web Developer

Connecting any of these products to SQL Server 2005 Express is a snap; for
example, here’s how to do it with Visual Basic Express:

1. Launch the Visual Studio Express product.

2. Choose Tools➪Connect to Database.
The Choose Data Source dialog box opens, shown in Figure 3-15.
3. Choose the Microsoft SQL Server Database File option, and click
Continue.
4. Browse to the database file you want to use, and click the Open
button in the Browse dialog box.
50 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express

Figure 3-15:
Choosing
SQL Server
Express.

5. If you want to set any advanced connection variables, click Advanced.

Figure 3-16 shows some of these more advanced settings.

Figure 3-16:
Advanced
SQL Server
Express
connection
settings.
 Chapter 3: Setting Up SQL Server Express 51
6. Click Test to ensure that your connection is configured correctly.
If all goes well, you receive a message stating that the connection worked.
7. Click OK to complete the connection.
You now see your SQL Server 2005 Express database within the
Database Explorer window, as shown in Figure 3-17.

Figure 3-17:
A suc-
cessful
database
connection.
52 Part I: Welcome to SQL Server 2005 Express
 Part II
Administering a
SQL Server 2005
Express System
 In this part . . .
A database administrator’s work is never done. In a
single day, you can witness a collection of disparate
challenges requiring intervention, ranging from halting
runaway queries to satisfying new development requests
to setting up additional servers. But you don’t need to go
it alone.

First, I give you some ideas of how to plan for the future of
your SQL Server 2005 Express, as well as how you can use
some handy tools to look after your information. Next,
you discover some tips and tactics for monitoring and
managing your server’s performance. Finally, because no
database is an island, I show you how to take advantage of
replication and other techniques for accurately and safely
spreading your data across multiple servers.
 Chapter 4

Putting SQL Server 2005

Express to Work
In This Chapter
䊳 Growing with SQL Server 2005 Express
䊳 Deciding when to upgrade
䊳 Choosing a database administration tool
䊳 Creating databases, tables, and logins

D on’t make the mistake of equating the zero-cost price point of SQL
Server 2005 Express with limited capabilities. On the contrary: This
product offers a rich feature set that will likely suffice for most of your data
storage needs. With that said, you should understand that there are some
restrictions that might affect you in the future.

In this chapter, I show you how to weigh any constraints that come with SQL
Server 2005 Express and decide when the time is right to upgrade. Although
many of you will never need to migrate, all of you should select a database
administration tool. Choosing and using the right administrative technology
is also a big part of this chapter.

Planning For Tomorrow as Well as Today

After going to the trouble of downloading, installing, and configuring your SQL
Server 2005 Express server, you’re probably ready to get started developing
or deploying your database-driven solution. After all you’ve been through
you’re certainly entitled to that. But this is also a good point to take a step
back and estimate how you expect to use your SQL Server 2005 Express data-
base, as well as what kind of growth is likely to happen over time.
56 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

This is more than just an academic exercise. As I show a little later in this
section, a time may come when you decide that you’ve outgrown your data-
base server, and that it’s time to upgrade. Two factors usually drive this deci-
sion: database usage and growth, which I describe now, and feature
restrictions, which is the highlight of the next part of this section.

Estimating database usage and growth

A database grows, often significantly, over time. Some of the drivers for this
expansion include the following:

⻬ More data: Like a drawer that becomes over packed, databases have
a tendency to accumulate more and more stuff over time. Archive and
purge as often as you like, but you’ll still probably notice your database
continuing to grow. As you see in the next section, this growth may pose
a problem when you approach 4GB of information in a single database.
Fortunately, you can create multiple databases that can each hold up
to 4GB of information.
⻬ Additional users: Set up a database with interesting information, and
the world will beat a path to your door (or at least to your database).
Fortunately, SQL Server 2005 Express has no built-in user restrictions, so
you should be able to gracefully support new users. Keep in mind that if
you want to support remote users, you need to enable and configure a
protocol such as TCP/IP or named pipes. Chapter 3 has more details
about these protocols.
⻬ Additional applications: Just as the amount of data and number of users
typically grow over time, you’ll (or people that work with you) naturally
discover new uses for SQL Server 2005 Express. You can confidently build
these new applications as long as you keep the product’s built-in restric-
tions in mind. And if you do find that you’ve outgrown SQL Server 2005
Express, you can easily move your application and database onto a more
feature-rich version of SQL Server 2005.

Deciding when to graduate

SQL Server 2005 Express runs on the same technology platform as its larger,
more powerful SQL Server 2005 siblings. However, SQL Server 2005 Express
has a number of limitations that aren’t present in these other versions. In this
section, I point out these restrictions, with an eye toward helping you deter-
mine when the time is right to move to a more feature-rich version.

If you find that your needs outstrip the capabilities of SQL Server 2005 Express,
you’re probably on the upgrade path. On the other hand, these restrictions
may not be an issue for your installation. In that case, you can look forward
to running on SQL Server 2005 Express for a long time to come.
 Chapter 4: Putting SQL Server 2005 Express to Work 57
⻬ Database size: This is probably the most significant limitation of SQL
Server 2005 Express. An individual database can’t exceed 4GB. This is
not a problem for many applications, but it might be for yours.
⻬ Memory: Even if your system is stuffed with memory, SQL Server 2005
Express only takes advantage of 1GB. This limitation typically hurts appli-
cations with large numbers of users or big data storage requirements.
⻬ Multiple CPUs: One way to boost performance is to run your database
server on a multiple CPU computer. Unfortunately, an additional CPU
won’t help a SQL Server 2005 Express installation. If you find that perfor-
mance is too sluggish, you can’t take advantage of this feature.
⻬ Full-text searching: Modern database-driven applications can store a
tremendous variety of information. A significant portion of this data is
often kept in the form of large blocks of text. Full-text search, which is
not entirely available in SQL Server 2005 Express, takes advantage of
sophisticated indexes to speed up retrieving this data. If your applica-
tion needs to speedily search and manipulate large volumes of this kind
of information, you want to consider upgrading. Luckily, SQL Server 2005
Express with Advanced Services does offer full-text search capabilities;
this product is also available as a free download from Microsoft. Check
out Chapter 18 for the details about using this feature.
⻬ Analysis services: In the past few years, an entire technology segment
has sprung up around business intelligence. These products help users
mine and analyze large blocks of data, which then produces meaningful
results that drive business activity. SQL Server 2005 now incorporates
its own collection of business intelligence features, which are known col-
lectively as Analysis Services. If you deal with hefty quantities of infor-
mation that you want to slice-and-dice directly via the database engine,
consider moving to a more feature-rich version of SQL Server 2005.
If you’re already using a third-party business intelligence product, you
probably won’t need to upgrade your database. Instead, these third-
party products can likely work with SQL Server 2005 Express to produce
high quality data analysis.
⻬ Integration services: No database is an island; this rule also applies to
SQL Server 2005. Most organizations have information spread among all
sorts of databases and applications. Eventually, you might need to load
this data into a SQL Server database, or vice-versa. Previously, integrat-
ing would require you to develop or purchase software to map and pos-
sibly transform the data so that it could correctly be placed into, or
extracted from, your database.
However, with SQL Server 2005, Microsoft has developed a collection
of robust transformation technologies in an effort to ease the often
painful process of synchronizing information. If you’re likely to need far-
reaching data conversions, you’ll probably benefit from moving to a
more full-featured edition.
58 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

⻬ Reporting services: This group of capabilities makes it easy to securely

share information from your SQL Server database with users both inside
and outside your organization. It isn’t offered in the baseline SQL Server
2005 Express Edition, but it is part of other versions, including SQL
Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services.
⻬ Notification services: This feature lets you take advantage of sophisti-
cated publish and subscribe capabilities. For example, you could build
an application that would register interest in a particular database or
XML file event. Once that event occurs, the SQL Server 2005 Notification
Service would contact your application, which could then take appropri-
ate action. You can still build this kind of application in SQL Server 2005
Express, but it requires much more time, as well as custom code.
⻬ High availability: If you’re running mission-critical, 24/7 applications,
the more feature-rich editions of SQL Server 2005 offer a collection of
technologies that make life easier for you and your users. These include
capabilities like the following:
• Partitioning
• Online restore
• Online indexing
• Database mirroring
• Failover clustering
Even if you’re running SQL Server 2005 Express, you can increase the
chances that your database server remains available by taking advan-
tage of hardware-based and other redundancy technologies. However, if
this solution isn’t enough, consider upgrading to a higher grade of SQL
Server 2005.

Administering Your SQL Server 2005

Express System
Spend a little time with any Microsoft SQL Server product, and you’ll quickly
come to the conclusion that you can navigate several possible avenues to do
just about any task. What’s true for the most powerful edition of SQL Server
2005 is also true for Express. This is especially noticeable with common
database administration tasks. In this section, I show you two of the more
popular ways to handle the database administration tasks that are sure to
come your way.
 Chapter 4: Putting SQL Server 2005 Express to Work 59
To begin, I raise the important point that you can use a character-based util-
ity such as SQLCMD for nearly any tasks that you can tackle with the other
choice: SQL Server Management Studio Express. Next, I dive into that tech-
nology to show you how easily you can carry out any of the everyday admin-
istrative jobs that you’re likely to encounter when using SQL Server 2005
Express.

Using character-based utilities

For any number of perfectly understandable reasons, many administrators
have never taken a shine to the new-fangled graphical tools that have become
so prevalent with Microsoft technologies. Luckily for these folks, Microsoft
continues to support the SQLCMD utility, which you can run from any com-
mand prompt. Because Microsoft also ships hundreds of built-in stored pro-
cedures, chances are that you can handle any administrative task that comes
your way. For example, Figure 4-1 shows output from an administrative
stored procedure run via the SQLCMD utility.

Although useful, trying to make sense of this data might cause you to reach for
the aspirin. If you’d like your information in a more palatable form, read on.

Figure 4-1:
The
SQLCMD
utility.
60 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Using SQL Server Management

Studio Express
If you’re an administrator who believes a picture is worth a thousand words,
you’ll probably want to use a graphical tool to get your job done. One of the
best tools on the market is SQL Server Management Studio, which is available
from Microsoft. A full-featured version ships with the more expensive edi-
tions of SQL Server, but you can still use the Express Edition of this product
to get the job done for SQL Server 2005 Express.

Here are just a few uses you can find for SQL Server Management Studio
Express:

⻬ Database administration
⻬ Creating tables
⻬ Adding users
⻬ Granting permissions
⻬ Running queries

Using third-party database

administration tools
Many an enterprising, innovative software company has been started to fill in
the gaps in the Microsoft product line. In particular, a number of vendors spe-
cialize in database management and administration. If you find that none of
the tools I describe earlier in this section are right for you, many of these
third-party products are available for trial download via the Internet. I also
list a few of these tools in Chapter 22.

Creating a Database and Table

Here’s how you would use SQL Server Management Studio Express to create
a database:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate SQL Server Express instance.
If you don’t see any germane connections, you can create one by click-
ing the Connect Object Explorer icon.
 Chapter 4: Putting SQL Server 2005 Express to Work 61
3. Expand the connection’s entry in the Object Explorer.
4. Highlight the Databases folder.
5. Right-click this folder, and choose New Database.
The New Database dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 4-2. You spec-
ify some key information for the new database:
• Database name: You can name your database just about anything
you like. You’ll notice that as you key in the database name, the
data and log file entries are updated to reflect your choice.
• Database owner: As you might suspect, this is where you identify
the login that has primary ownership of the database.
• Data file information: When you create a database, SQL Server
2005 Express generates two types of files. The first, of type Data,
holds your database’s information: tables, indexes, and so on. The
second, of type Log, stores information that the server uses to pro-
tect your database’s integrity and make data archiving and restora-
tion possible.
One handy SQL Server 2005 Express feature is its ability to gracefully
and automatically manage database expansion. It does this via the auto-
growth feature, which you can control by clicking the ellipses button in
the Autogrowth column of the New Database dialog box. When enabled,
SQL Server 2005 Express uses the guidelines that you specify to control
how the database grows, and when it stops growing. Figure 4-3 shows
the parameters you can control for database growth.

Figure 4-2:
The New
Database
dialog box.
62 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Figure 4-3:
Setting
autogrowth
policies.

In addition to the database naming and sizing parameters, you also have
all sorts of other settings to tinker with. You find them on the Options
page (shown in Figure 4-4).
In most cases you can leave these set to their default values.

Figure 4-4:
The
database
creation
options.
 Chapter 4: Putting SQL Server 2005 Express to Work 63
6. After you’re done filling in details for all relevant prompts, click OK.
SQL Server 2005 Express now takes your requests and creates the data-
base. Once complete, you can see it in the Object Explorer, as shown in
Figure 4-5.

After the database is in place, here’s how you can create a table. If you left
SQL Server Management Studio Express running, you can skip Steps 1 and 2.

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate SQL Server Express instance.
If you don’t see any germane connections, you can create one by click-
ing the Connect icon.
3. Open the Databases folder.
4. Expand the folder for your database.
5. Highlight the Tables folder.
6. Right-click this folder, and choose New Table.
This brings up a tab where you can enter information about your table,
its columns, and their properties. In this case, I’m creating a table to
hold transaction details. Figure 4-6 shows what this looks like.

Figure 4-5:
A newly
created
database as
it appears in
the Object
Explorer.
64 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Figure 4-6:
Designing
a table.

Check out Chapter 8 for much more about how to design and build your
own tables.
7. After you’re ready to create the table, click the Save icon.
This generates the table, making it ready to receive information. You can
check the Object Explorer to see if things turned out the way you
wanted; Figure 4-7 shows what a completed table looks like.

After your tables are in place, SQL Server Management Studio Express has
some handy features dedicated to making interaction with your database
more straightforward. One helpful feature is its ability to generate SQL script
that you can plug into your applications. This automatically created SQL
script covers a wide variety of operations:

⻬ Create
⻬ Update
⻬ Insert
⻬ Delete
⻬ Drop
⻬ Alter
⻬ Execute
 Chapter 4: Putting SQL Server 2005 Express to Work 65

Figure 4-7:
Viewing a
completed
table in the
Object
Explorer.

Note that depending on the database object in question, some of these com-
mands may not be available. Nevertheless, automatically generated SQL
scripts are a great way to jumpstart your database development.

Here’s all that you need to do to get started. (If you left SQL Server
Management Studio Express running from the earlier examples in this
chapter, you can skip Steps 1 and 2.)

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate SQL Server Express instance.
If you don’t see any germane connections, you can create one by click-
ing the Connect icon.
3. Open the Databases folder.
4. Highlight any object in the Object Explorer.
For example, if you want to generate a table creation script for a given
table, you would simply highlight that table. On the other hand, if you
want SQL Server 2005 Express to generate SQL for reading from a spe-
cific view, just highlight that view.
66 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

5. Right-click the object you want to see, choose Script...As, and then
choose the action you want.
Depending on context, you have a range of options to choose from.
Don’t be afraid to experiment: This is a great way to figure out how to
write correct SQL statements. In this example, I’ve asked SQL Server
2005 Express to generate a SELECT statement for a table.
6. Choose the output method:
• New Query Editor Window
• File
• Clipboard

If you choose New Query Editor Window, Figure 4-8 shows what you see.

Even though SQL Server Management Studio Express is extremely powerful

and flexible, you might want to check out one of the many third-party, inde-
pendent database administration tools available on the market.

For all its benefits, SQL Server Management Studio Express has its limita-
tions. Some times you’ll probably wish that it did more, and that you didn’t
have to drop into Transact-SQL so often. If that describes you, never fear:
You have alternatives.

Figure 4-8:
Output from
the Script
Table As
command.
 Chapter 4: Putting SQL Server 2005 Express to Work 67
Creating databases and tables is just a small part of what you can get done
with SQL Server Management Studio Express. As its name implies, you can
also handle all sorts of administrative tasks. For example, here’s how you
would create a new database login. (If you left SQL Server Management
Studio Express running from the earlier examples in this chapter, you can
Skip Steps 1 and 2.)

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate SQL Server Express instance.
If you don’t see any germane connections, click the Connect icon to
create one.
3. Expand the Security folder.
4. Expand the Logins folder.
This gives you a list of everyone who is registered to work with your
database server.
5. Right-click the Logins folder, and choose the New Login option.
Figure 4-9 shows you what this form looks like.

Figure 4-9:
Creating
a new
database
server login.
68 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

6. Fill in the values for all the relevant settings for your new user.
There are five properties pages of information that you can provide:
• General: Here’s where you tell SQL Server 2005 Express the new
login user’s name, choose a security method, and request a default
database and language.
• Server Roles: Using this page, you can associate this new database
user with a set of predefined security profiles.
• User Mapping: Here’s where you associate a database user with
one from the Windows operating system.
• Securables: This is where you can set up highly specific security
criteria.
• Status: Here’s where you can set high level permissions, such as
whether the user can connect to the database, as well as whether
the login is enabled or not.
7. Click OK to complete the operation.
Your database login is now ready to go. If you’re curious about security,
check out Chapter 11.
 Chapter 5

Maintaining a SQL Server

2005 Express System
In This Chapter
䊳 Taking advantage of user instances
䊳 Customizing your database server’s operation
䊳 Monitoring and improving performance

A lthough SQL Server 2005 Express comes with an attractive price (free!),
and a truthful promise of low maintenance requirements, you’re still not
completely off the hook with your babysitting responsibilities. In this chap-
ter, I show you how to get these chores done with the least amount of effort.

To begin, you find out how SQL Server 2005 Express allows you to easily run
separate user instances, thereby granting normal database users extra
powers within their own workspace. With that out of the way, I show you how
to configure the database server, followed by some helpful performance tips.

Master of the Database Domain

User instances are a handy feature offered by SQL Server 2005 Express that let
regular users run their own, separate instance of the database server. When
you request a user instance, the primary SQL Server 2005 Express service
spawns a unique process containing the user instance.

Even though these users are not administrators, within the context of their
own instance they have much higher privileges. However, because they’re in
their own instance, they can’t damage or otherwise disrupt the parent
instance of SQL Server 2005 Express. You enable user instances by setting a
configuration parameter, a task that I describe in the next section.
70 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Setting SQL Server 2005

Express Parameters
You may be tempted to think of SQL Server 2005 Express as a monolithic,
unchanging application. That would be the wrong assumption, however. In
fact, dozens of settings control all sorts of engine behavior, from the number
of user connections allowed to how the database interacts with different pro-
gramming languages to how it deals with remote connections. As an adminis-
trator, you have the power (in most cases) to change these settings at will. In
this section, I describe some common parameters, along with how you can
easily modify them.

The database engine automatically tunes many of the SQL Server 2005
Express parameters. In some cases, you know better than the engine; in most
cases, you’re better off leaving the parameters alone and letting the server do
its job. To keep things clear and prevent inadvertent changes, very few of the
parameters I describe are self-tuning.

How to configure your server

Like so many of the Microsoft products, SQL Server 2005 Express offers
several alternate paths to achieving your goal; in this case, setting database
server configuration values. Here are three of the most commonly used
options:

⻬ The SQL Server Surface Area Configuration utility: This tool, which is
available by choosing Start➪All Programs➪Microsoft SQL Server 2005➪
Configuration Tools➪SQL Server Surface Area Configuration, lets you
decide which protocols and features to expose. Although it’s tradition-
ally used just after you install the product, you could also put it to work
when you’re in production.
⻬ SQL Server Management Studio Express: You can use this powerful and
flexible database management utility (available via download from
Microsoft) for all sorts of useful tasks, including configuring and cus-
tomizing your server. Figure 5-1 shows a list of all the pages at your dis-
posal for viewing and setting database properties. In this case, I’ve
selected the Memory page.
⻬ The sp_configure system stored procedure: No matter what your
database configuration, you should have access to the character-based
SQLCMD utility. SQLCMD — and sufficient permission — is all you need
to run this stored procedure. Because all installations have the ability to
run this stored procedure, I focus on it for the balance of this section.
 Chapter 5: Maintaining a SQL Server 2005 Express System 71

Figure 5-1:
Setting
memory
options with
SQL Server
Manage-
ment Studio
Express.

First, a word or two about how to launch sp_configure. Just follow these
steps and you’ll be ready to make your changes:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

You can get things going by choosing Start➪All Programs➪Microsoft
SQL Server 2005➪SQL Server Management Studio Express.
2. Connect to your database server.
3. Click the New Query icon on the Standard toolbar.
4. Run the sp_configure stored procedure.
You need to pass in parameters that indicate the setting you’re modify-
ing, along with the value that you want. For example, here’s how to allow
remote access:
sp_configure ‘remote access’, ‘1’
go
This setting is binary: Either remote access is on, or it’s off. On the other
hand, here’s how to change the numeric value for the remote query
timeout setting, expressed in seconds:
sp_configure ‘remote query timeout’, ‘300’
go
If you run sp_configure without any parameters, you get a list of all
changeable settings.
72 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

5. After you run the sp_configure stored procedure, run the RECON-
FIGURE command for the change to take effect.
Depending on the setting you’ve changed, you may need to restart your
database server for the alteration to take effect. SQL Server 2005
Express sends a message telling you what to do next.

Common server parameters

Here are some of the more frequently modified database server parameters.
You should note that for most installations, the default values are just fine;
you should plan on tuning only if you’re experiencing poor performance or
other suboptimal behavior.

Before you embark on your database configuration adventure, note that SQL
Server 2005 Express considers some parameters to be advanced, which means
that you need to run sp_configure before even attempting to make any alter-
ations. I describe how to run this stored procedure in the preceding section.
Here’s what you need to do to gain access to these advanced parameters:

sp_configure ‘show advanced options’, ‘1’

go

That’s it: You’re now ready to view and change advanced configuration
options. With these options now showing, you can now turn your attention to
customizing SQL Server 2005 Express to your liking. Here are some of the
major functional areas that you can control:

⻬ User instances: As I describe earlier in this chapter, user instances let

non-administrators have their own running copy of a SQL Server 2005
Express database. In this instance, the user has full privileges. To turn
on this feature, be sure that the User Instances Enabled option is set to
1, which is its default.
⻬ User connections: If you’re intent on overriding the automatically tuned
User Connections parameter, you can use it to stipulate the upper limit
of concurrent user connections to your SQL Server 2005 Express data-
base server.
⻬ Tracing database activity: If you’re the curious type, you can command
SQL Server 2005 Express to trace events that happen in your database.
These events are then written into a log file. I describe log monitoring in
the upcoming “Monitoring performance” section; for now, you can
request log file updates by setting Default Trace Enabled to 1.
⻬ Configure trigger behavior: In Chapter 15, I show you how to employ
triggers to enforce business rules, protect your data, and provide other
application customizations. Depending on how you’ve written your trig-
gers, they might return a result set (that is, a set of rows generated by the
 Chapter 5: Maintaining a SQL Server 2005 Express System 73
trigger). If your application isn’t equipped to handle the results, you may
experience unanticipated (and unwanted) behavior. To prevent these
results from gumming up the works, set the Disallow Results from
Triggers option to 1.
⻬ Control process behavior: Usually, all your applications that work with
SQL Server 2005 Express get along just fine. Occasionally, however, two
or more processes find themselves in conflict for the same resource at
the same time. If you want to be notified when this quarrel happens, try
tuning the blocked process threshold setting. Measured in seconds, it
can range from 0 all the way up to 86,400.
⻬ Allow other programming languages: In Chapter 16, you see how to use
Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime feature to leverage additional
programming languages to build your stored procedures, functions, and
triggers. However, you need to set the CLR Enabled parameter to 1.
⻬ Configure remote access settings: If your SQL Server 2005 Express
instance is like many others, you probably have remote users and
processes connecting to your database server. You have several tunable
options at your disposal. Three of the more interesting options are remote
access (which determines whether non-local users and processes can con-
nect to your server), remote login timeout (which specifies the number of
seconds to wait before aborting a login attempt from another computer),
and remote query timeout (which sets a delay threshold before SQL Server
2005 Express aborts a query from a remote user or process).
⻬ Set user options: You can control the default behavior for users’ SQL
Server 2005 Express sessions either individually with the SET option or
globally via the User Options setting. You compose this numeric value
by adding unique integers, producing a distinct value. Table 5-1 lists all
the user option parameters.
How do you use these numbers? An illustration can make things much
clearer. Suppose that you want all users to have the following behavior
in their sessions:
• Close open cursors when a transaction commits.
• Don’t report the number of rows affected by any statements.
• Rollback a transaction if an error happens.
It’s actually quite simple. For each of these three requirements, consult
Table 5-1 and determine the numeric value for that setting. Then, add
the three numbers together (4 + 512 + 16384 = 16900 in this case) and
run the sp_configure stored procedure as follows:
sp_configure ‘user options’, ‘16900’
Unless you want to change the default behavior for all users, you never
need to make these types of requests. In fact, most environments can
simply use the out-of-the-box settings offered by SQL Server 2005
Express.
74 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Table 5-1 Key User Configuration Parameters

Value Purpose
1 Check constraints right now, rather than waiting
2 Enable default transactions for certain types of
connections
4 Close open cursors when a transaction commits
8 Follow the ANSI standard when warning users
about truncation
16 Follow the ANSI standard when padding a fixed-
length variable
32 Follow the ANSI standard when encountering a
NULL
64 Halt a query should a divide-by-zero occur
128 Return NULL should a divide-by-zero occur
256 Decide on whether to use a single or double
quote
512 Don’t report on the number of rows affected by a
statement
1024 Unless otherwise specified, let new columns
accept NULL values
2048 Unless otherwise specified, don’t let new
columns accept NULL values
4096 Respond with NULL if you attempt to combine
NULL with a string
8192 Respond with an error if a math expression loses
precision
16384 Rollback a transaction should an error occur

Picking Up the Pace

No matter how fast your database server and applications may be, your users
will probably always want things to run more quickly. In this section, I offer
you an assortment of recommendations to help squeeze some additional
speed out of your SQL Server 2005 Express database.
 Chapter 5: Maintaining a SQL Server 2005 Express System 75
Monitoring performance
Before you can even start on your journey, taking stock of where you are is a
good idea. Several tools are at your disposal to help you get a good idea of
database and system activity and response levels. These tools belong to two
main classes: Operating system and database-specific utilities.

Operating system performance tools

The Windows operating system offers two very helpful utilities that you can
use to measure what’s happening on your computer.

⻬ Windows Task Manager: If you’ve ever tried to figure out an unex-

plained system slowdown, I bet you’re already on good terms with this
utility. You can launch it by either right-clicking the taskbar and choos-
ing Task Manager, or by pressing the famous Ctrl+Alt+Delete key sequence
and clicking the Task Manager button in the dialog box. Figure 5-2 shows
the kinds of details that it reports. In this example, I’m tracking the
CPU’s workload over time.
⻬ Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Performance Snap-in: Unless
you’re a professional system administrator or just naturally curious, you
probably don’t even know that this utility exists. A general-purpose man-
agement application, you can launch its performance-centric view by
choosing Start➪Control Panel➪Administrative Tools➪Performance.
It offers hundreds of indicators for all sorts of system information.
Figure 5-3 shows the SQL Server metrics alone. Each performance object
offers its own set of statistics.

Figure 5-2:
The
Windows
Task
Manager.
76 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Figure 5-3:
Microsoft
Management
Console’s
SQL Server
performance
objects.

Curious administrators should explore this great example of statistical

gathering software in depth. Because you’re merely gathering informa-
tion, you can experiment to your heart’s content, secure in the knowl-
edge that you won’t negatively impact your system.

Database performance tools

You can take advantage of the built-in Activity Monitor from SQL Server
Management Studio Express. It reports on all kinds of important performance
information:

⻬ Databases in use
⻬ Active commands
⻬ Applications
 Chapter 5: Maintaining a SQL Server 2005 Express System 77
⻬ Memory utilization
⻬ Locks
⻬ Object access

To access the Activity Monitor, just follow these simple steps:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Expand the Management folder.
3. Double-click the Activity Monitor icon.

Figures 5-4 and 5-5 give you an idea of what you can learn from the Activity
Monitor.

Figure 5-4:
Viewing
user actions
in the
Activity
Monitor.
78 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Figure 5-5:
Viewing
locks in the
Activity
Monitor.

If SQL Server Management Studio Express isn’t to your liking, copious third-
party database monitoring and management tools are on the market. Most of
these offerings include their own views of performance management. If you’re
curious about some of these interesting products, have a look at Chapter 22
for more.

SQL Server 2005 Express also does a good job of tracking system activity
over time. You can view its logs to get a better idea of what’s been happening
on your database server. To launch the log viewer, follow these steps:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Expand the Management folder.
3. Expand the SQL Server Logs folder.
You see a collection of log files, both current and archived.
4. Double-click any of these log files to launch the viewer.

Figure 5-6 shows a sample of what’s contained in a log file.

 Chapter 5: Maintaining a SQL Server 2005 Express System 79

Figure 5-6:
Viewing
log files.

Enhancing your computer

To squeeze some additional throughput from your database server, try any of
these suggestions:

⻬ Upgrade to a faster CPU: Computers continually get faster; just about

anyone who has bought a new computer soon faces the depressing real-
ization that the shiny new box is practically obsolete. What’s true for a
personal computer is also true for database servers. If you have the
budget, one of the fastest ways to quicker performance is simply to
upgrade to a newer and peppier CPU.
Before breaking out the credit card, remember two important caveats:
• SQL Server 2005 Express can only leverage one CPU; installing
multiple CPUs within the same computer won’t gain much
performance.
• A slightly faster computer won’t yield tremendous response
improvements. Typically, you won’t see dramatically faster com-
puters hit the market for two or three years.
80 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

⻬ Add memory: Because so much database work takes place in memory,

providing more of this valuable, yet relatively inexpensive commodity
helps augment performance.
Trees don’t grow to the sky, and unlimited memory doesn’t shorten your
applications’ response time to nanoseconds. A point comes where
diminishing returns set in, so it’s best to take an evolutionary approach
when increasing memory.
⻬ Adjust virtual memory: The Windows operating system uses the page
file as a disk-based substitute for memory. This virtual memory comes in
handy when the processing load on your system overwhelms the avail-
able physical memory. However, this virtual memory operates at about
one-tenth of the speed of true memory. In most cases, Windows auto-
matically manages this setting. If you’re inclined to tinker with it, just
follow these simple steps:
1. Right-click My Computer and choose Properties.
2. On the Advanced tab, click the Settings button within the
Performance section.
3. On the Advanced tab of the Performance Options dialog box,
click the Change button within the Virtual Memory section.
4. Adjust your memory settings (as shown in Figure 5-7) and click OK.

Figure 5-7:
Changing
virtual
memory
settings.
 Chapter 5: Maintaining a SQL Server 2005 Express System 81
You may need to restart your computer for these alterations to take effect.
⻬ Defragment your disks: Like your closet and desktop, over a period of
time your disk drives become cluttered and disorganized. The damage
here is not aesthetic: A disorderly disk drive hurts performance by forc-
ing your computer to jump around to locate necessary information.
Luckily, Windows includes a handy disk defragmenter that you can use
to set things right again. Here’s how to use it:
1. Launch the Windows Disk Defragmenter by choosing Start➪
Programs➪Accessories➪System Tools➪Disk Defragmenter.
2. Click the Analyze button.
The Disk Defragmenter analyzes your disk and returns a recommen-
dation. If you’re lucky, you won’t even need to move on to Step 3.
3. If the Disk Defragmenter recommends that you defragment your
disk, click the Defragment button.
This step may take some time to complete, but be patient; it’s
worth it.
⻬ Leverage multiple computers: If you find that your database server is
overloaded, consider bringing additional computers into the picture.
Although SQL Server 2005 Express doesn’t have the full distributed com-
puting capabilities of its more expensive siblings, you can still gain bene-
fits by offloading work onto ancillary processors. If you’re curious about
using SQL Server 2005 Express in a distributed environment, take a look
at Chapter 6.

Speeding up the database

While you may not have any control over your hardware platform, chances
are you can make some improvements to your SQL Server 2005 Express data-
base and its related applications. Try any of the following to coax more per-
formance out of your database server software:

⻬ Efficient table design: Just as you can’t construct a solid house on

quicksand, you can’t create an optimal database application on top of a
bad design. Take the time and get this vital activity right. Flip ahead to
Chapter 8 for a detailed review of best practices when creating a new
database.
⻬ Optimal indexing: Many times, the fastest and easiest way to decisively
enhance performance is to introduce better indexes into your database.
The reason for an index is simple: In the absence of an index, SQL Server
2005 Express is often forced to wade through vast quantities of extrane-
ous information, desperately searching for the correct results. On the
82 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

other hand, a proper index can cut out hundreds of thousands of extra
steps, often locating the right data in one read. Don’t be afraid to experi-
ment with indexes. If you want more guidance on this topic, see
Chapters 9 and 10.
⻬ Database statistics: When you ask SQL Server 2005 Express to locate or
modify information, the database engine must often choose among sev-
eral different paths. At first glance, each tactic appears to be an equally
qualified candidate. However, this is usually not the case: One path is
often much faster than its peers. To help the database server arrive at a
good decision, SQL Server 2005 Express has the ability to track statisti-
cal details about the data that makes up each index. You can use the fol-
lowing commands and stored procedures to determine the database
server’s statistics-gathering behavior.
• Collecting statistics: If you want to fine-tune the statistical accumu-
lation process, use the CREATE STATISTICS command. On the
other hand, if all you want to do is gather information across a
broad range of tables, simply use the sp_createstats system
stored procedure.
• Monitoring statistics: When statistics are in place, you can learn
more about them by invoking the DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS
command.
• Maintaining statistics: You can refresh your statistical sample by
running either the UPDATE STATISTICS command, or invoking
the sp_updatestats system stored procedure.
⻬ Better bulk operations: These tasks, which involve moving large blocks
of information in or out of your database, can often consume tremen-
dous amounts of system resources. You would be wise to consider the
optimal time to run these operations, as well as steps you can take to
reduce their effect on your server. Chapter 9 discusses bulk operations,
including the bcp utility, in more detail.
⻬ Use stored procedures, functions, and triggers: These centralized bits
of application logic stored in your database help protect your informa-
tion while standardizing and enforcing business rules. As a side benefit,
in certain cases, this concentration can also augment system respon-
siveness. Check out Chapters 14 and 15 to get a better picture of these
objects.
⻬ Efficient applications: It may sound obvious, but even the best, most
effectively structured database can collapse under the load of a badly
designed, improperly programmed software application. While you
may not win any friends among your developer compatriots, you need
to implore them to write their application code as economically as
possible.
 Chapter 6

Distributing Your Data

with Replication
In This Chapter
䊳 Taking advantage of multiple machines
䊳 Spreading the load with replication
䊳 Knowing when to replicate
䊳 Setting up replication

W ith hardware costs plummeting, network bandwidth charges dropping

like a stone, and free software (such as SQL Server 2005 Express) all
the rage, chances are that you might have two or more networked computers
at your disposal. Even though it’s a free product, SQL Server 2005 Express
has many features that can help you leverage this extra horsepower to build
database applications that are faster, cheaper, and more reliable.

In this chapter, you discover how to take advantage of the SQL Server 2005
Express replication features, which enable you to spread your information
and processing load across multiple servers.

Replication is one of those topics that can overwhelm you with its nuances
and complexities. Luckily, it doesn’t have to. Simply stated, SQL Server’s
replication is an easy-to-implement, automated set of processes for distribut-
ing data among multiple machines. These computers can be in the same
physical location, or they may be spread across the world and connected via
the Internet. Regardless of your unique computer distribution, replication
helps keep your SQL Server 2005 Express database in sync with other data-
base servers.
84 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Determining When and Why to Replicate

Replication makes a lot of sense in two common types of circumstances.

⻬ Reporting/data warehouse: In this scenario, your goal is to distribute

information from your primary database servers onto secondary com-
puters. These additional processors are then available to serve up
reports, business intelligence, or any other query-intensive service.
Some of these reports may be interactive, while others may be gener-
ated as part of a daily, weekly, or monthly scheduled job.
By using replication, you can automate the potentially cumbersome task
of keeping these database servers in sync; you also greatly reduce the
chance for errors and other synchronization problems to sneak their
way into your environment.
⻬ Information archiving/backup: Backing up or otherwise archiving
your valuable SQL Server 2005 Express-based information is one way to
improve the health and happiness of any database administrator. While
replication is not intended to replace standard database backups per se,
it’s often used as an adjunct to this vital system administration task.

Given these common scenarios, replication offers many benefits for those
database administrators who take the time to implement a solid data distrib-
ution strategy. Here are some of its most compelling advantages:

⻬ Shared workload: Spreading information among multiple computers

means that you can let users on those machines work with local copies
of their data, rather than forcing a central database server to shoulder
the entire workload.
In many cases, these other computers have ample capacity to process
just about any kind of database-related task. This helps lighten the load
on your primary database server.
⻬ Safeguarded data: When combined with a stringent backup strategy, data
replication offers additional protection for your important data. Simply
put, distributing your information among many different database servers
greatly reduces the likelihood of a complete loss of data, even if the core
database server is damaged or otherwise made unusable.
⻬ Reduced costs: Replication is one way to put more client computers to
work, which helps reduce the amount of processor-intensive labor on
the part of your central database server. This can often spell the differ-
ence between using this principal server as-is, or being forced into an
expensive hardware upgrade.
 Chapter 6: Distributing Your Data with Replication 85
Discovering the Types of Replication
Each of the three major flavors of replication is useful for different situations
and architectures:

⻬ Transactional: For this type of replication, your SQL Server 2005

Express server receives data modifications nearly instantaneously. If you
need to know every alteration as soon as it happens, this architecture is
probably right for you. On the other hand, if your data doesn’t change
that often, or if you have a slow network connection, you’ll likely want to
employ one of the following two replication blueprints.
⻬ Snapshot: Just as you might surmise from its name, this type of replica-
tion copies a full image of your database to the remote servers. It’s a
good choice when you don’t need up-to-the minute updates, or when
your data doesn’t change that often. The downside is that subscribers
may miss out on a data alteration until the next snapshot.
⻬ Merge: This replication architecture makes the most sense when you
expect multiple database servers to be modifying the same underlying
information at the same time. For example, you might distribute por-
tions of your master customer database to multiple subscribers. Each
subscriber is free to make alterations to this database; alterations can’t
happen with the two other scenarios. Merge replication, as its name sug-
gests, is SQL Server’s way of blending this data to preserve accuracy
and information cohesion.

Understanding Replication Limitations

By now, you’re probably wondering if all this great functionality comes with-
out any strings attached. Alas, replication has some restrictions, at least
when dealing with SQL Server 2005 Express. The good news is that replica-
tion works just fine for the two major scenarios (reporting/data warehouse
and information archiving/backup) that I describe earlier in the section
“Determining When and Why to Replicate”; the bad news is that all the
following are factors to consider with this entry-level database product:

⻬ No publications; subscription only: This limitation means that any data

that you create or modify on your SQL Server 2005 Express server can’t
in turn be published for other database servers to consume. However,
this restriction doesn’t have a major impact on the two primary replica-
tion cases I describe earlier because both examples describe situations
where SQL Server 2005 Express is the final destination for replicated
information.
86 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

⻬ Server-based, push-only subscriptions: Because there is no agent pre-

sent in SQL Server 2005 Express, you may not initiate a subscription
request from a computer running this edition. Instead, you must first
configure subscriptions on the remote server; only then can you request
access to this information from the computer running SQL Server 2005
Express.
⻬ Ease-of-use: Until the release of SQL Server Management Studio Express,
setting up subscriptions on your SQL Server 2005 Express database
server meant rolling up your sleeves and diving into either Transact-SQL
or programming to the Replication Management Objects (RMO) guide-
lines. Fortunately, this graphical tool makes replication an easily obtain-
able reality in your environment.
⻬ SQL Server-only subscriptions: Although SQL Server is a solid, indus-
trial-strength database server, other types of information repositories
are out there. Unfortunately, although the more expensive editions of
SQL Server support directly subscribing to alternate sources of informa-
tion such as Oracle, you don’t have this option with SQL Server 2005
Express. However, you could use one of these higher-level SQL Server
editions as a proxy for a different brand of database server; it could
manage a subscription, and then publish the results to which you can
subscribe.

Now that the fine print is out of the way, it’s time to look at all the replication
components and architecture.

Replication Concepts
At its heart, SQL Server replication consists of interaction among several
components, and each has an important role to play. To make things clearer, I
segregate them by whether they play a role in publishing or subscribing. I
also list them from the smallest objects to the largest.

Components for publishing

⻬ Article: This unit of information is the smallest that you can replicate.
It typically consists of data from a table, stored procedure, view, and
so on.
⻬ Publication: This grouping consists of at least one, and possibly many
more articles. An identifiable relationship is usually among all the arti-
cles in a given publication.
 Chapter 6: Distributing Your Data with Replication 87
⻬ Publisher: This database server offers up publications (which in turn
consist of articles) for other database servers to subscribe.
⻬ Distributor: Much like the middleman who facilitates transactions in the
real world, the distributor is an instance of SQL Server that is responsi-
ble for managing all the replication details of one or more publishers. In
fact, the distributor and publisher commonly work together on one
machine.

Components for subscribing

⻬ Subscription: Just as you can subscribe to your favorite magazine, you
can set up a subscription to a publication. Unlike magazine subscrip-
tions, however, you can configure when it should arrive, and how it
should be sent to the subscriber.
⻬ Subscriber: This database instance serves as the destination for sub-
scriptions. It’s important to note that publishers and subscribers can
reside on the same machine, although they’re typically found on sepa-
rate computers.

Setting Up Replication
If you’ve read through the chapter to this point, you’re probably itching to
get started with replication. If so, this section is for you. Here’s what you
need to do to make replication a reality in your environment. To begin, I use
the transactional style of replication; you can easily choose one of the other
flavors if it’s more appropriate for your environment.

When setting up publications and subscriptions, you can elect to use a com-
bination of Transact-SQL and stored procedures, or you can put your effort
into SQL Server Management Studio. The graphical tools are so much easier
to use that for this example, I place all the focus on them.

Your first task is to set up the publication and articles on the publisher.

SQL Server 2005 Express lacks the capabilities to publish information: It can
only serve as a subscriber. This means that you need to run the next few
steps on a version of SQL Server 2005 (such as Workgroup, Standard, or
Enterprise) that supports information publication.
88 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Here’s how to publish data:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Connect to the database server that will publish the data.
3. Expand the Replication folder.
4. Right-click the Local Publications folder, and choose the New
Publication option.
The New Publication Wizard launches, which walks you through all nec-
essary steps to get your data published.
5. Fill in all the relevant details in each dialog box.
Pay particular attention to the Articles dialog box (shown in Figure 6-1),
which is where you select those objects for publication.

Figure 6-1:
Choosing
objects
to be
published.

After you identify the objects to publish, you can also specify any filter-
ing criteria that you want applied to help reduce the number of items
sent for replication.
6. Decide if you want to create an immediate snapshot.
If you’re replicating to an empty database, choosing this option is a good
idea.
7. After you finish, review the publication’s properties, and click Finish
(as shown in Figure 6-2) to complete your work.
 Chapter 6: Distributing Your Data with Replication 89

Figure 6-2:
Reviewing
details
about the
publication.

That’s the publisher’s perspective on things. Here’s what to do on the sub-

scriber side:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio or SQL Server Management

Studio Express.
2. Connect to the database server that will receive the data.
3. Expand the Replication folder.
4. Right-click the Local Subscriptions folder, and choose the New
Subscription option.
The New Subscription Wizard launches, which walks you through all
necessary steps to subscribe to an existing publication.
5. Fill in all relevant details in each dialog box.
Pay particular attention to the database that you want to receive the
subscription. You don’t even need to have created a table; the initial syn-
chronization takes care of that if you want.
6. When you finish, review the subscription’s properties and click Finish
to get things going.
Figure 6-3 shows a summary of a new subscription. Note that for this
example, the publisher and subscriber are on the same machine.
Obviously, they can also be on separate machines (and usually are).
90 Part II: Administering a SQL Server 2005 Express System

Figure 6-3:
Summariz-
ing a new
subscription.

That’s all you need to do. Depending on how you configured your publica-
tions and subscriptions, information should begin flowing around your net-
work. And the best part is that SQL Server is doing all the work. If you want
to observe the data movement, you can launch the replication monitor by
right-clicking the Replication folder in SQL Server Management Studio, and
choosing the Launch Replication Monitor option.
 Part III
Adding and
Accessing a SQL
Server 2005
Express Database
 In this part . . .
A fter downloading, installing, and configuring your
SQL Server 2005 Express database server, you’re
ready to start putting it to the test: storing, retrieving, and
managing information. For that reason, in this part I dis-
cuss important design concepts that you should keep in
mind as you plan your relational database.

From there, I move on to showing you how to create impor-

tant objects, such as databases and tables, and explaining
the SQL Server 2005 Express database access language
(Transact-SQL). Finally, I demonstrate a few nifty advanced
techniques for pushing Transact-SQL to the limits.
 Chapter 7

Planning Your Database

In This Chapter
䊳 Deciding what you want to store in your database
䊳 Building an entity relationship model
䊳 Migrating from your entity relationship model to a relational model
䊳 Following good relational database design practices

C hances are that you went through all the work involved in acquiring and
then installing SQL Server 2005 Express so that you could store and
manage information, rather than just admire your server from afar. In this
chapter, I give you a good idea of how to set up your database to handle
whatever kind of data you throw at it.

As you go about creating your database, understanding the differences

between your logical and physical database design is important, as well as
how to take advantage of some of the best relational database design prac-
tices discovered over the years.

Finally, SQL Server Management Studio Express, available for free download
from Microsoft, offers some very handy tools for designing and relating SQL
Server 2005 Express tables, so I spend some time at the end of this chapter
showing you how to make your own diagrams.

What Can You Store in a Database?

Over the years, databases have become more and more flexible with regard
to what they let you keep in them. While you can’t store tasty snacks, car
keys, or Christmas presents in a relational database (yet), Table 7-1 shows all
the data types that you can place in SQL Server 2005 Express.
94 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Table 7-1 SQL Server 2005 Express Data Types

Data Type Holds
bigint Integers between –9.22 billion and 9.22 billion
binary Fixed-length binary data, up to 8000 bytes in size
bit A one or a zero (also known as TRUE or FALSE)
char Fixed-length non-Unicode character data, up to 8000
bytes long
datetime A timestamp between January 1, 1753 and
December 31, 9999
decimal Numbers with fixed precision and scale, ranging
from –10^38 to 10^38
float Floating-point data; can have an enormous range
image Variable length binary data; can be up to 2GB in size
int Integers between –2.1 billion and 2.1 billion
money Decimal numbers between –922 trillion and 922
trillion
nchar Fixed-length Unicode character data, up to 4000
bytes long
ntext Variable-length Unicode data; can be up to 2GB
in size
numeric Numbers with fixed precision and scale, ranging
from –10^38 to 10^38
nvarchar Variable-length Unicode character data; can be very
large if space permits
real Floating-point data; can have an enormous range
smalldatetime A timestamp between January 1, 1900 and
June 6, 2079
smallint Integers between –32,768 and 32,768
smallmoney Decimal numbers between –214 thousand and 214
thousand
text Variable-length non-Unicode data; can be up to 2GB
in size
timestamp Generates automatic, unique binary numbers
tinyint Integers between 0 and 255
 Chapter 7: Planning Your Database 95
Data Type Holds
uniqueidentifier Creates a system-wide unique identifier (GUID)
varbinary Variable-length binary data; can be very large if
space permits
varchar Variable-length non-Unicode character data; can be
very large if space permits
XML Up to 2GB of XML-based data

If all these data types aren’t enough for you, you can even create your own spe-
cialized data types via the SQL Server 2005 Express user-defined type feature.

You can use the CREATE TYPE statement to define your own, personalized
alias data types. This statement essentially creates a synonym for the data
type, which can be very useful when building your database.

For example, suppose your project has multiple database designers, and that
each of them is responsible for building some tables that will track addresses.
Furthermore, imagine that you want to standardize all your address fields
as variable length and character-based fields that hold up to 60 bytes
(VARCHAR(60)).

You could rely on each designer to adhere to your request, but you’re likely
to be sorely disappointed. The odds are that each designer will implement
his or her own interpretation of what an address should be. Some will choose
fixed character fields, while others will use the VARCHAR type, but set it at a
different length than the 60 you require.

Using the CREATE TYPE statement as your guide, here’s how to enforce con-
sistency for these fields:

CREATE TYPE ADDRESS FROM VARCHAR(60) NOT NULL

Now, your designers can use ADDRESS whenever they create a table that
needs to track address information:

CREATE TABLE shipping_info

(
ShippingID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
StreetAddress ADDRESS,
...
)

When SQL Server 2005 Express reports on your table, it helpfully provides
both the ADDRESS alias, as well as the fact that this alias translates to a
VARCHAR(60).
96 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Designing Your Database

After you familiarize yourself with all the categories of information that you
can store in a database, you can come up with a good design. Although each
database design project is different, they typically begin at the logical design
level, where you model the relationships among all the major data that you
want to track. After you nail down the logical design, your next job is to trans-
late that model into the physical elements and tables that you’ll create in SQL
Server 2005 Express.

Logical design
Building a logical design is quite simple. All you need to do is identify the
major entities, itemize any of their attributes, and determine how they relate
to other entities. Entities are specific, real-world objects that exist in your
database. Attributes are characteristics of each entity.

Although end-users can be picky and a real drag to deal with, interviewing
the eventual users of your database to see what they want you to build is the
only way to build a good database. As a bonus, they probably have a good
idea what real-world entities exist, as well as how the entities relate to each
other. By including the user in the design process, you can go a long way
toward building something of value and quality.

Here’s an example of a logical design. Suppose that you’re building a system

to track ticketing and seating for sporting events. In this case, you would
quickly classify several entities, along with key attributes. These include

⻬ The ticket
• Ticket holder’s name
• Price paid for ticket
• Date and time ticket was purchased
⻬ The seat
• Seat location
• List price
⻬ The event
• Date of the event
• Time of the event
 Chapter 7: Planning Your Database 97
After you categorize all the major entities, all you need to do now is figure out
how they relate. Armed with that intelligence, you can then build your entity
relationship model. In fact, many tools on the market make drawing your
entity relationship model a breeze. Figure 7-1 shows a nice example of a
simple entity relationship model from the ticketing scenario. I used Microsoft
Visio to draw this diagram.

Figure 7-1: Ticket Seat Event

A basic
entity Is Can
relationship LastName for Location have Name
FirstName one ListPrice many DateOfEvent
diagram.
DatePurchased

As you build your entity relationship diagrams, try to use natural language to
describe their relationships. This goes a long way toward helping you design
a database that works in the real world.

Physical design
A database’s physical design refers to concrete, real-world, database-oriented
objects. These include

⻬ Tables
⻬ Columns
⻬ Relationships
⻬ Indexes

Now that your logical design is done, the last step to building a working, real-
world relational database is to convert the logical database into a physical
database.

Although exceptions always abound, the general rule is to take each major
entity and turn it into a table. In turn, all attributes for each entity become a
column. If a many-to-many relationship exists between two tables, you proba-
bly need to create a third table to serve as a storage area for the attributes
that identify the relationship.
98 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Make sure that you’re not turning an attribute into its own table. For exam-
ple, if you’re tracking information about a customer, the phone number is
usually an attribute of the customer entity, which means that it would belong
as a column in the Customer table. However, if you expect to track variable
quantities of phone numbers for a customer, you could consider making the
phone number its own entity and giving it a dedicated table.

When you define your tables and columns, your next step is to use the relation-
ships from your entity relationship diagram to help you figure out what kind
of indexes and keys you need to build. I discuss relationships among tables,
including primary and foreign keys, in much more detail in Chapters 8 and 10.

Using Database Diagram Tools in SQL

Server Management Studio Express
SQL Server Management Studio Express offers some nifty database diagram-
ming tools. Not only do they give you a good picture of your database, they
can also save you from having to write extensive Data Definition Language
(DDL) code. Here’s how to get started:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

Make sure you can see the Object Explorer. If it’s not visible, you can
open it by choosing View➪Object Explorer.
2. Connect to the appropriate server.
If you don’t see any connections, now is a good time to add one. Just
click the Connect Object Explorer icon. When you finish, you can pro-
ceed to Step 3.
3. Expand the specific database that you want to diagram.
4. Right-click Database Diagrams and choose New Database Diagram.
A new, blank diagram is created. You may first be asked if you approve
creating objects to enable diagramming. Answer Yes to any of these
requests.
5. Highlight one or more tables that you want to include in the diagram,
and then click Add followed by Close.
The tables are placed on the palette. If any relationships are already
defined for the tables, they show up here.
6. After making any necessary changes, make sure to save your work by
clicking the Save icon or choosing File➪Save Diagram.
 Chapter 7: Planning Your Database 99
What kinds of changes can you make to a table after placing it on a dia-
gram? As it turns out, quite a few:
• Rename the table.
• Enter some descriptive text about the table.
• Change the schema to which the table belongs.
• Set a variety of other table properties.
• Update any of a wide selection of properties for any of the columns
present in the table.
You can even add a new column if you forgot to include it earlier.

All this is great, but suppose that all you want to do is add a new table and
relate it to one of the other tables already on your palette. Simply follow
these steps:

1. Right-click anywhere on the diagram and choose Add Table.

2. Select the table you want to add, and then click Add followed by Close.
With the table on the palette, you’re now ready to create the relationship.
3. Click the column that will serves as your join key, and draw a line to
its partner.
Figure 7-2 shows a simple database diagram that has a foreign key rela-
tionship defined between two tables. Of course, you can easily construct
much more robust, intricate diagrams.

Figure 7-2:
The Visual
Studio
database
diagram
tool.
100 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Normalization
After you define your tables and columns, making sure you conformed to the
best practices and rules of relational database design is a good idea. One of
the best-known rules is normalization, which I discuss throughout the rest of
this chapter.

While you might think that database normalization means that you’re forced
to clean up your information and remove any eccentric, troublemaking, or
otherwise wacky data, it’s actually just a collection of increasingly rigid prin-
ciples and guidelines that you can use to conceive a well-designed relational
database.

In this section, you find out about the three major normalization rules,
including when you should use them. And because all rules are made to be
broken, the next section clues you in on some situations when you can side-
step these regulations.

First normal form

As the most lenient data normalization rule, the first normal form simply
requires that a table not have any repeating fields. Taking a shortcut and vio-
lating this rule is very tempting, but you’ll probably regret doing so in the
long run. For example, suppose that you’re building an employee manage-
ment database, and want to keep track of the names of your employees’
dependents. Table 7-2 is one way that you could design a table to store this
information.

Table 7-2 Employee Dependents

Name Dependent1 Dependent2 Dependent3 Dependent4
Flint Wilma Pebbles Barney Derek
Newhart Larry Darryl Darryl2
Sanford Lamont Esther

So far, so good. But what happens when Mike Brady joins the firm? He has
six children, a wife, and a maid, which — in addition to being an insurance
nightmare — means that you must now change this table’s structure. That’s a
risky move, one that could break applications that were built with the origi-
nal table in mind. Here’s where the first normal form comes to the rescue.
 Chapter 7: Planning Your Database 101
Tables 7-3 and 7-4 can handle employees with zero, one, or many dependents;
no changes are necessary to cope with more dependents.

Table 7-3 Employees

Name
Flint
Newhart
Brady
Sanford

Table 7-4 Employee Dependents

Name Dependent
Flint Wilma
Flint Pebbles
...
Brady Alice
Brady Robert

Now the Bradys can have ten children if they like, and your database and
applications can handle these joyous events without any extra work for you.

Second normal form

Things get a little sterner with the second normal form. This rule requires
that each column in a table is functionally dependent on the primary key.
A primary key is one or more columns that, when taken together, serve to
uniquely identify a particular row. There can be no duplicate primary key
values in a given table.

In this case, suppose that you have built a database to track heating and air
conditioning work that your company delivers. Table 7-5 shows a small
sample list of these procedures.
102 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Table 7-5 Maintenance History

Customer ServiceDate Procedure
ScrapCo 10/17/2006 Clean refrigeration units,
change filters
Ivanhoe Paper 12/30/2006 Install and tune heating
coils
High Hat Airways 6/10/2007 Clean refrigeration units,
change filters

For this table, assume that the primary key is the combination of the
Customer and ServiceDate columns, while the Procedure column con-
tains a fixed set of services offered by your firm. Storing this text in this table
violates the second normal form; it is not functionally dependent on the pri-
mary key. It would be a better design if you separated these procedures into
their own table, and placed an identifier in the maintenance history table.
Tables 7-6 and 7-7 make this clear.

Table 7-6 Procedure List

ProcedureID Procedure
118 Clean refrigeration units, change filters
119 Install and tune heating coils
120 Remove old equipment, replace grating

Table 7-7 Maintenance History, Now Supporting

the Second Normal Form
Customer ServiceDate ProcedureID
ScrapCo 10/17/2006 118
Ivanhoe Paper 12/30/2006 119
High Hat Airways 6/10/2007 118

This design is cleaner and more efficient. For one thing, if you decide to
change the exact wording of a procedure, you need to change it in one place
only. You reduce the chance for errors, and help improve consistency. You
 Chapter 7: Planning Your Database 103
also store substantially less data in the Maintenance History table,
because the ProcedureID column now holds a simple number, rather than a
long set of text.

Third normal form

Now you’re in the land of the database professors. The third normal form
takes the second normal form, and adds even more regulations: No transitive
dependencies are allowed. A transitive dependency exists when a table has a
specific column that is not designated as a key, but it still defines other
columns. Extending the maintenance example from before, suppose that you
added another column to the Maintenance History table (Table 7-7), as
shown in Table 7-8.

Table 7-8 Maintenance History, with Additional Data

Customer ServiceDate ProcedureID Outstanding Balance
ScrapCo 10/17/2006 118 $1783.33
Ivanhoe Paper 12/30/2006 119 $0.00
High Hat Airways 6/10/2007 118 $27,601.00

Although it’s not obvious, this table violates the third normal form. The
Customer column is not the primary key (although the combination of it
plus the ServiceDate column is). However, it does define the Outstanding
Balance column, which really belongs in a master table, rather than in this
set of detailed data. To get in line with the third normal form is pretty easy in
this case, as you can see in Tables 7-9 and 7-10.

Table 7-9 Customer Master, Containing Additional

Header Information
Customer ... Outstanding Balance
ScrapCo ... $1783.33
Ivanhoe Paper ... $0.00
High Hat Airways ... $27,601.00
104 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Table 7-10 Maintenance History, in Compliance

with the Third Normal Form
Customer ServiceDate ProcedureID
ScrapCo 10/17/2006 118
Ivanhoe Paper 12/30/2006 119
High Hat Airways 6/10/2007 118

Now all the header information is contained in the Customer Master table
(Table 7-9), and the detailed maintenance records are in the Maintenance
History table (Table 7-10). It can be tricky to figure out when you break any
of these rules. As you’ll see in a moment, sometimes breaking a rule is smart.

When not to normalize

Sometimes, the three normal forms are just too restrictive and harsh.
Fortunately, your computer won’t crash and the world won’t end if you
decide to bend the rules a little bit. This section points out a couple of occa-
sions when you are perfectly justified in violating strict normalization rules.

Historical data
Imagine that you’re processing millions of rows a month. These rows are stored
in one main transaction table. In most cases, customers are only interested in
recent transactions — those that have happened in the past two months.

For situations like this, splitting your data into at least two tables is okay: cur-
rent and historic information. These tables would have an identical structure,
but would contain fresh and old data, respectively. Every month, you could
move records from the current table into the archive table, perhaps as part of
a large batch processing operation.

Calculated values
In most cases, permanently storing any calculated values (sums, averages,
and so on) in your database is not wise. Instead, you’re better off calculating
them at runtime. This avoids problems with stale data, especially if the under-
lying detail data changes often. In some cases, however breaking this rule and
keeping these calculated values in your database makes sense. This usually
happens with massive amounts of data to process, and very little time to do it.
 Chapter 7: Planning Your Database 105
For example, suppose that you’re maintaining a distributed retail management
system. Your company is doing very well; you have tens of thousands of
customers each day, which yields hundreds of thousands of transactions
each month. What if your users want to run queries that summarize these
transactions in a number of different ways? If you try to calculate these
answers at runtime, you run the risk of performance degradation. In this type
of scenario, maintaining a lookup table that contains commonly requested
calculated values makes sense. You could then update this table during times
when there isn’t much activity. Table 7-11 is an example of a summary table.

Table 7-11 Transaction Summary

Region Average Sale Number Customers Maximum Sale...
Northeast 81.30 18,302 199.85
Midwest 79.14 22,099 287.15
West 84.92 21,142 309.11

Now, when users need to get calculated summary data, they can consult
this table instead of launching fishing expeditions through the main transac-
tion table.

When you’re faced with a massive data table that you want to split up and de-
normalize, and you’ve chosen to upgrade to a more feature-rich edition of the
SQL Server product family, consider using the partitioning feature. This fea-
ture lets you break up a table and spread its load across your environment.
Three types of partitioning are available:

⻬ Hardware: This style of partitioning leverages fast hardware devices

such as the CPU and multiple disk drives to help even out your informa-
tion processing.
⻬ Vertical: When you apply vertical partitioning to a table, SQL Server
divides one table containing the entire set of columns into two or more
tables, each containing just a subset of the original columns.
⻬ Horizontal: This kind of partitioning creates identical copies of a table,
and then spreads the data among all the tables. The criteria for distrib-
uting the data are usually determined by a database designer or admin-
istrator. A good example would be to instruct SQL Server to distribute a
table based on last names: A-F goes to one location, G-K to another, and
so on. The databases are responsible for sending the information to its
rightful place after you specify the distribution rules. Note that this type
of partitioning is only available in SQL Server Enterprise Edition.
106 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database
 Chapter 8

Creating Databases, Tables,

and Relationships
In This Chapter
䊳 Setting up your database
䊳 Using SQL Server Management Studio Express
䊳 Defining and building tables
䊳 Enforcing data constraints
䊳 Identifying relationships among tables

W hen you want to store information in SQL Server 2005 Express, your
first responsibility is to define a database that will serve as a container
for your records. Your next job is to create the tables where the actual data
will reside, along with any restrictions on what you can place in these tables.
Finally, by defining relationships among your information, you help SQL Server
2005 Express ensure good data integrity and protect your business rules.

In this chapter, you see how to accomplish all these tasks. To begin, you get
the hang of using the handy (and free) SQL Server Management Studio Express
tool, which lets you do all the database management tasks I describe through-
out the chapter. Because you may have other preferences when working with a
data management tool, I also show you some different approaches you can take
to achieve the same results.
108 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Using SQL Server Management

Studio Express
SQL Server Management Studio Express packs a lot of features into a small
(and free!) package. You can use it to

⻬ View the structure of your SQL Server 2005 Express instance, including
databases, tables, views, stored procedures, and so on.
⻬ Connect to other SQL Server instances.
⻬ Perform many administrative tasks.
⻬ Run queries and other data access jobs.
⻬ View results, or export them to text files.

Not bad for a free tool! You can download it from the Microsoft Web site
(www.microsoft.com/sql/editions/express/default.mspx); instal-
lation is a snap. Here’s a brief tour through the product, highlighting those
features that you’re most likely to use right away.

First, launch SQL Server Management Studio Express by choosing Start➪

All Programs➪Microsoft SQL Server 2005➪SQL Server Management Studio
Express. You’re prompted with a dialog box that lets you specify which
server you want to connect, as well as your login details.

Depending on how you’ve configured your environment, you’ll notice that the
user interface is divided among several components. One of the most impor-
tant of these entities is the Object Explorer, which I describe next.

The Object Explorer

The Object Explorer in the SQL Server Management Studio Express user
interface is responsible for listing, in tree format, the following vital bits of
information:

⻬ The connection: This portion of the tree tells you about the connection,
including the names of the computer and SQL Server 2005 Express
instances.
⻬ Database details: If you expand the Databases folder, you’re treated to a
collection of really important system folders. These include a list of
system databases, as well as an inventory of your own databases.
 Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships 109
Expand any of your database folders and you see details broken out as
follows:
• Database Diagrams: Here’s where you can get a graphical view of
your information, including the relationships you’ve defined
among objects in your database.
• Tables: The contents of this folder are divided between system
tables, which are provided for and looked after by SQL Server 2005
Express, and user tables. Each table further breaks down into
columns and indexes.
• Views: Views are virtual tables, composed of information from one
or more “real” tables. If you expand this folder, you see a list of
both system and user-defined views. Opening a particular view
yields a list of the columns that make up the view.
• Synonyms: These are substitute names for objects in your
database.
• Programmability: Here’s where you can get a list of all your
system and user-defined stored procedures, including their input
and output parameters. You can also find out about your functions
via this tree entry.
• Security: This folder itemizes all the users who have access to
your database.
⻬ Security: The Security folder contains all the login names for people
who are authorized to use your database server, along with the server
roles and credentials you’ve set up. Note that this folder is different than
the Security folder within a database. The latter simply lists all those
already authorized database server users who also have access to that
database.
⻬ Server Objects: This folder holds details about those devices that
you’ve defined for backup purposes, as well as any servers linked to this
database server, and any triggers that have been defined on the server.
⻬ Replication: SQL Server 2005 Express offers the ability to subscribe to
data feeds from other SQL Server instances. This folder cites any active
subscriptions.
⻬ Management: You can view a collection of your SQL Server logs, includ-
ing current and archived versions. These are excellent sources of diag-
nostic information about your database server.

Figure 8-1 is an example of the SQL Server Management Studio Express

Object Explorer, with many of its folders expanded.
110 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Figure 8-1:
The SQL
Server
Management
Studio
Express
Object
Explorer.

To get the latest-and-greatest view of everything about your SQL Server 2005
Express instance, right-click anywhere on the Object Explorer tree and
choose Refresh.

The Query window

The Query window is where you and SQL Server 2005 Express get to know
each other, up close and personal. The workspace contains input windows
(described as the Query Editor) for queries and other data interaction. You
can also elect to have your output show up at the bottom of the screen in the
area (described as the Output window). You can create as many Query Editor
windows as you need simply by clicking the New Query icon on the Standard
toolbar.

When you’re comfortable working in the workspace, you can decide how and
where you want your results to appear. You have three options; click one of
these icons at the top of the window:
 Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships 111
⻬ Text: This formats your output into simple text, and places it in the
Output window.
⻬ Grid: This option provides more attractive results, placing them into a
grid at the bottom of the Output window.
⻬ File: This is the “to-go” option for your queries. SQL Server 2005 Express
takes the results and nicely places them in a text file.

Creating Key Database Objects

In this section, I show you how to use a combination of graphical and text
tools to create and maintain major database objects.

Databases
Creating, altering, and deleting databases are significant events in the life of
your SQL Server 2005 Express environment. However, none of these tasks
requires much heavy lifting, as you’ll now see.

Creating a database
To create a database, just follow these steps:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate SQL Server 2005 Express instance.
3. Expand the connection’s entry in the Object Explorer.
4. Highlight the Databases folder.
5. Right-click this folder, and choose New Database.
The New Database dialog box appears (as shown in Figure 8-2) that lets
you specify the new database’s name, as well as a collection of proper-
ties about the new database.
6. Enter values for these prompts (as shown in Figure 8-3), and click OK.
In many cases, you can safely accept the default values from the
Options page.
112 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Figure 8-2:
Creating a
database in
SQL Server
Management
Studio
Express.

Figure 8-3:
Setting
database
properties in
SQL Server
Management
Studio
Express.
 Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships 113
Renaming a database
After you have a database in place, renaming it is easy:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate SQL Server 2005 Express instance.
3. Expand the connection’s entry in the Object Explorer.
4. Expand the Databases folder.
5. Right-click the database whose name you want to change, and choose
the Rename option.
6. Enter a new name of your choice for the database, and press Enter to
save your modification.

Deleting a database
When the time comes to say goodbye to a database, all you need to do is
follow these steps:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate SQL Server 2005 Express instance.
3. Expand the connection’s entry in the Object Explorer.
4. Expand the Databases folder.
5. Right-click the database that you want to remove, and choose the
Delete option.
6. Click OK in the confirmation dialog box.

Renaming and dropping databases can be hazardous to your applications’

health. Creating a backup is a good idea before making changes of this magni-
tude. The sanity you save may be your own. Check out Chapter 13 for more
about archiving your information.

Tables
Tables are where the rubber meets the road in a database: they dutifully
store your vital information. I show you how to create and maintain these
important structures.

Creating a table
After you decide that you want to create a new table, bringing it into exis-
tence is easy. You have two major routes that you can follow: SQL/application
114 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

code versus a graphical tool. In the following list, I describe the advantages
and drawbacks of each:

⻬ SQL/application code: Choosing this route means that you directly

enter, via either SQL or an application programming language, the exact
syntax that you want to create your table. This approach has some very
compelling advantages:
• Power and flexibility: You can specify exactly what you want to
happen; a graphical tool may not be able to specify all the nuances
that you can in SQL.
• Repeatability: You can group your table creation statements into a
script or program that you can run again and again. This is much less
tedious than having to manually create the table in a graphical tool.
• Automation: If you’re shipping a self-installing application to exter-
nal locations or need other automation features, creating your tables
with SQL or application code is the only way to go. You definitely
don’t want to burden your users with the responsibility of using a
graphical tool to manually create your tables.
The main drawback to this approach is that it does require more under-
standing of SQL or the programming language of your choice.
⻬ Graphical tool: This is the flip side of SQL. Using a graphical tool might
just mean that you can escape all the vagaries of the CREATE TABLE
statement. This is a laudable goal, so if your table designs are simple,
and you don’t want to learn any SQL, use the graphical tool of your
choice to create your table.
Many graphical tools on the market can create SQL Server 2005 Express
tables. Figure 8-4 is an example of SQL Server Management Studio
Express creating a table.

Figure 8-4:
Creating a
table with
SQL Server
Management
Studio
Express.
 Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships 115
If you change your mind, and suddenly become very curious about the
CREATE TABLE statement, many of these graphical tools can generate the
SQL for you, as well as show you what SQL they used to create your table.

Here’s how to build tables, using SQL or another programming language:

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Open the Databases folder.
3. Expand the folder for your database.
4. Click the New Query button.
5. Type your SQL.
Here’s a snippet of SQL that creates a basic table:
CREATE TABLE partner
(
partner_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
partner_name VARCHAR(30),
partner_area VARCHAR(10)
);
6. After you’re ready to create the table, click the Execute button.
7. Check the results to make sure things ran correctly.
If they did, you receive a message like this:
Command(s) completed successfully.
8. If things ran successfully, save the code by clicking the Save button.
Make sure that you’re in the Query window and not the results window
before clicking the Save button.

You now have a table that’s ready to be filled with important data, plus the
actual code that built the table. How can you run this code again? You can
run the code in at least two ways. First, you can simply open the file in SQL
Server Management Studio Express, and click the Execute button to launch
the SQL. Alternatively, you can use the SQLCMD tool to run the script from
the command line.

SQLCMD is a very helpful utility that allows both batch and interactive
access to SQL Server 2005 Express. Follow these steps to use SQLCMD:

1. Open a command prompt.

Choose Start➪Run and enter cmd. Or choose Programs➪Accessories➪
Command Prompt. When you see the friendly command prompt, it’s
time to launch SQLCMD.
116 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

2. Run SQLCMD, passing the proper parameters.

This can get a bit confusing: SQLCMD is rather picky about the exact
syntax that it deigns to run. This is not surprising when you realize that
it supports over two dozen parameters. Table 8-1 highlights a small
group of key parameters.
If you get in hot water, you can always ask SQLCMD for help:
SQLCMD /?
3. Run your script.
Here’s an example of how I ran SQLCMD, along with the parameters I
provided:
SQLCMD -S dbserver -U Nicole -P Sierra -d WestBay -i
build_abc.sql

Make sure that your script file is in the right directory; SQLCMD can’t find it
otherwise. Alternatively, provide a full path to the file.

Table 8-1 Key SQLCMD Parameters

Parameter Purpose
-S Specify the server that you want to connect to
-U Provide your username
-P Provide your password
-d Which database to use
-i The file containing your SQL script

Modifying a table
If you made a mistake when you created a table, don’t despair! Modifying the
table to your liking is no big deal. You can choose from several approaches
when amending an existing table. The right approach is largely dependent on
what kind of modification you’re making.

If you’re only renaming a table, here’s the simplest way to make it happen:

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Open the Databases folder.
3. Expand the folder for your database.
 Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships 117
4. Expand the Tables folder.
5. Position the cursor on the table you want to rename, and click once.
6. Rename the table as you like, and press Enter.

That’s all renaming takes! Now, if you want to make more complex changes,
you’ll probably need to use straight SQL or a more robust graphical tool. This
is true for any of these kinds of adjustments:

⻬ Adding a column
⻬ Changing a column’s data type
⻬ Removing a column
⻬ Changing default values, constraints, and so on

This is just a partial list; several other types of alterations require a visit to
SQL land. Luckily, the SQL for these kinds of modifications is quite easy.
Here’s how to proceed:

1. Back up your table.

Mistakes happen to the best of us. To help recover from the slight possi-
bility of catastrophic error, creating a backup is always a good idea
before undertaking any kind of major database change.
2. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express, and click on the New
Query button.
Using SQL Server Management Studio Express makes the most sense; it’s
free, and provides great functionality. You can see your table’s structure,
which helps reduce the chance of any inadvertent SQL errors.
3. Type your SQL statement, or make the changes graphically.
I describe the SQL approach; however, when given the choice, you can
opt for the graphical approach.
The ALTER statement is very flexible, and is generally the right choice
for making table modifications. Of course, you need to make sure that
you have permission to use this statement. After you have permission,
here are some examples of ALTER in action. First, here’s the original
CREATE TABLE statement:
CREATE TABLE partner
(
partner_id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
partner_name VARCHAR(30),
partner_area VARCHAR(10)
);
118 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

• Dropping a column: When you realize a certain column is no

longer necessary, you can easily remove it:
ALTER TABLE partner DROP COLUMN partner_area;
• Adding a new column: After dropping a column , you may want to
bring it back. Fortunately, you only need to run the ALTER state-
ment to re-create the column:
ALTER TABLE partner
ADD partner_area VARCHAR(10)
• Creating a default value constraint: SQL Server 2005 Express lets
you set up restrictions on your tables. These are known as con-
straints, and I discuss them a little later in this chapter. For now,
here’s a simple default value constraint for the partner_area
column:
ALTER TABLE partner
ADD CONSTRAINT partner_area_unassigned
DEFAULT ‘unassigned’ FOR partner_area ;
4. Run your statement.
5. Check for any problems.
If things work out okay, you receive a message like this:
Command(s) completed successfully.
If you receive an error message, try modifying your SQL statement to
correct the problem.

Removing a table
Getting rid of tables you no longer need is very easy. Just follow these
simple steps.

1. Back up your data.

Unless you’re sure that you’ll never need to set eyes on this data again,
consider making a backup. Even if you don’t need the data, you might
need to re-create the table’s structure at some point later.
2. Choose the method you want to use.
You have numerous tools at your disposal when you create a table. The
same holds true when dropping a table. Of all your choices, however,
SQL Server Management Studio Express is the safest: Because you can
see all your tables, you more than likely won’t delete the wrong table.
 Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships 119
3. Drop the table.
The SQL syntax for deleting a table is very simple:
DROP TABLE SoonToBeGone;
You don’t need to first delete any of the table’s data or remove any of its
indexes or relationships: The DROP statement takes care of all cleanup.

Relationships
In terms of SQL Server 2005 Express, relationships do not mean how well
your data gets along with its friends, co-workers, or neighbors. Instead, rela-
tionships describe the interdependencies among the data stored in different
tables. Relationships have three main classes:

⻬ One-to-one: A one-to-one relationship means that a row in Table A has

one (and only one) corresponding row in Table B. For example, you
might track client information such as name, address, and so on in a
Customers table. At the same time, you might want to follow details
about each client’s credit rating in a secondary CreditStatus table.
These two tables have a one-to-one relationship. A client can have one and
only one credit rating; a credit rating can belong to one and only one client.
⻬ One-to-many: A one-to-many relationship exists whenever rows from
Table A can have many related rows in Table B, yet Table B’s rows can
only be related back to one row in Table A. Continuing with the previous
example, suppose that you want to track order information for each
client. These details reside in an Orders table. A customer can have
many orders, but each order belongs to one and only one customer.
⻬ Many-to-many: This kind of relationship exists when a row in Table A
can have many related rows in Table B, and vice-versa. This kind of rela-
tionship is very common in relational databases, and generally requires
that you create an intermediate table to store both sides of the relation-
ship. Continuing with the previous customer and order examples, sup-
pose that you’re tracking the items that each customer has ordered. You
keep your master item list in an Items table. A customer can order
many items; an item can be ordered by many different customers.
In this case, you need to create a table to store an identifier for each cus-
tomer who has ordered an item, and the identifiers for this item. These
kinds of tables usually take the names of both sides of the relationship,
so CustomerItems is a good choice. Using this intermediary table, you
can then construct useful queries from both perspectives. You can ask
SQL Server 2005 Express for a list of all customers who purchased an
item, as well as all the items purchased by a given customer.
120 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Enforcing relationships
As a database designer or developer, you specify relationships when you
create the table. You can also add them after the fact, by creating or altering
tables. But after you create your relationships, how do you enforce them?
Thankfully, enforcement in SQL Server 2005 Express doesn’t require guilt or
the threat of force. Instead, all you need to do is use a combination of indexes
and your table definition syntax.

Primary keys and relationships

A primary key is made up of one or more columns that serve to uniquely
identify a row in a table. By defining a primary key, you’re telling SQL Server
2005 Express not to allow two or more rows in the table to have the same
value in the primary key column(s). For example, you may decide that your
Customer table has a primary key called CustomerID. No two rows in this
table may have the same value in that column, which helps in enforcing rela-
tionships. Without the primary key rule, you could inadvertently create two
customers with the same CustomerID, which breaks the one-to-one and one-
to-many relationships.

Foreign keys and relationships

A foreign key establishes a relationship between two tables. When you define
a foreign key, you tell SQL Server 2005 Express to prevent rows from being
added or altered in a given table unless another table has a corresponding
row. A good example is what happens when you want to add an order to the
Orders table I cite in the previous section, “Relationships.” To do it right,
you must first make sure that no record of this customer is already present in
the Customers table. If it doesn’t exist, then you need to create it. Only then
can you safely add the order.

If, for some reason, the order gets added without a corresponding customer,
then your relationships have been damaged. Foreign keys help you make sure
that SQL Server 2005 Express automatically enforces these rules.

Constraints
Primary and foreign keys actually belong to a large class of database rules
known as constraints. There are two other constraints, both of which keep
your data nice and clean, and your database applications running smoothly:

⻬ UNIQUE: This constraint tells SQL Server 2005 Express not to allow two
or more rows to have the same values for a given column or group of
columns. This is very similar to the primary key constraint, but the
unique constraint does allow null values in a column.
 Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships 121
⻬ CHECK: This is a very interesting and useful constraint. Basically, it
tells SQL Server to prevent any violations of business or data rules that
you specify when you create the table. For example, you might define a
column to hold age information, and require that any values placed into
this column range between 0 and 110. With this constraint in place, SQL
Server 2005 Express carefully monitors activity related to this column.
Any attempts to violate the constraint results in an error, and Express
rejects the invalid data.

I describe these constraints in more detail in Chapter 10.

Creating a relationship
Ideally, you’ll create all your relationships when you define your tables.
However, what happens if you forget to set up an important relationship,
such as a foreign key relationship? Never fear — you can never be too late in
building good relationships among your data.

For this example, I show you how to use the SQL Server Management Studio
Express data diagramming tool to create a foreign key relationship. Assume
that you’re building a system to track sweepstakes entries. A Contests
table, which holds information about all your contests, and an Entries
table, which holds details about each entry for a given contest, are the two
most important tables. Here’s a portion of each of these two tables:

CREATE TABLE Contests

(
ContestID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
ContestName VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
ContestStarts DATETIME NOT NULL
)

CREATE TABLE Entries

(
EntrantID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
ContestID INTEGER NOT NULL,
DateReceived DATETIME NOT NULL
)

After you create the tables, you suddenly realize that you need to set up a
foreign key relationship between the two tables. Here’s how to fix things:

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Choose View➪Object Explorer.
3. Open a connection to your favorite database server.
If you don’t see any valid connections, click the Connect Object
Explorer icon.
122 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

4. Once connected, expand the entry for your database, right-click

Database Diagrams, and choose Add New Diagram from the menu.
You may be asked if SQL Server 2005 Express can set up internal objects
to support diagrams. Answer Yes to any of these questions. Once these
objects are in place, a list of candidate tables for your database diagram
appears.
5. Highlight the tables that you want to relate, and click Add.
6. After SQL Server Management Studio Express places the tables on the
diagram, click Close in the Add Table dialog box.
7. Draw a line between the two columns that you want to serve as the
relationship.
In this case, it’s the ContestID column in both tables. After you draw
the line, SQL Server Management Studio Express brings up several
important dialog boxes, as shown in Figure 8-5.

Figure 8-5:
Setting up a
relationship
with SQL
Server
Management
Studio
Express.

The first one is the Tables and Columns dialog box. It generates an auto-
matic name for the relationship, as well as displays the columns and
tables that make up the relationship.
8. Assuming that you built your diagram correctly, click OK in this
dialog box.
The Tables and Columns dialog box closes, and the Foreign Key
Relationship dialog box opens.
 Chapter 8: Creating Databases, Tables, and Relationships 123
9. Feel free to make any additional changes to the data in this dialog box.
For example, you may want to set up a rule about what should happen
when you delete a row in the primary table, which is what’s happening
in Figure 8-6.

Figure 8-6:
Defining
behavior for
DELETE
with SQL
Server
Management
Studio
Express.

10. After you make your changes, click OK.

11. Save the diagram by clicking the Save icon, or choosing File➪Save.
SQL Server Management Studio Express gives you one last chance to
change your mind. If you choose Yes, you are prompted for a name for
the diagram; your tables are also updated with this new relationship.
That’s all there is to setting up a relationship — you now have defined a
foreign key relationship, plus gotten a nifty diagram as a side benefit.

Changing or removing a relationship

In most cases, you can easily change your SQL Server 2005 Express database
settings simply by launching SQL Server Management Studio Express and
making your requests. However, implementing alterations to existing relation-
ships is more complex, and requires some planning on your part. The main
reason for this is that relationships exist to protect your database’s integrity
and changing or removing one can have far-reaching implications.
124 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Before tinkering with or removing a relationship, spend a little time looking at

your database structure and data, and visualize the impact of your planned
change.

To change or remove a relationship, just follow these steps:

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Choose View➪Object Explorer.
3. Open a connection to your favorite database server.
If you don’t see any valid connections, click the Connect Object
Explorer icon.
4. Expand the appropriate Database folder, followed by its Tables folder.
5. Right-click the relevant table, and choose the Modify option.
A window opens that shows how you set up the table.
6. Right-click anywhere on the screen, and choose the Relationships
option.
The Foreign Key Relationships dialog box opens, shown in Figure 8-7.

Figure 8-7:
The Foreign
Key Rela-
tionships
dialog box.

7. Highlight the relationship you want to alter or remove.

8. After you make your changes, click the Close button.
 Chapter 9

Talking to a SQL Server

In This Chapter
䊳 Understanding Transact-SQL
䊳 Placing information in your database
䊳 Searching for data
䊳 Altering table records
䊳 Deleting information from your database

M ore so than with most other advanced information storage technolo-

gies, you can use loads of tools and products to communicate with
your SQL Server 2005 Express database. In this chapter, I point out some of
the more common pathways that you can follow to have a meaningful rela-
tionship with your database, and — more importantly — with the data that
you entrust to its care.

To begin, I tell you all about the SQL standard, along with Microsoft’s flavor
of it, known as Transact-SQL. The next part of the chapter dives into a brief
overview of the various types of tools at your disposal for easy communica-
tion with SQL Server 2005 Express. Finally, I show how you can use SQL to
straightforwardly create, modify, and remove information in your SQL Server
2005 Express database.

What Is Transact-SQL?
Like many people new to SQL Server 2005 Express, you probably keep hear-
ing of “Transact-SQL,” and you wonder what it is. Another question you may
be pondering is what the difference is between Transact-SQL and plain old
SQL. Not to worry: In this section, I answer these and many other questions.
126 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

SQL: The start of it all

SQL stands for Structured Query Language. It was originally developed by IBM
way back in the 1970s, as a standardized way to talk to a relational database.
Unlike many innovations from that era (disco, wide ties, polyester shirts, and
leisure suits), SQL has survived to this day and remains the de-facto language
for accessing database information.

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is the organization charged

with defining and maintaining the SQL language standard. By and large, it’s
done a good job of coming up with a useable data access language. However,
significant gaps exist between the SQL standard and the real-world demands
of database-accessing applications. Because nature abhors a vacuum, a large
market has grown and matured around this standard: Many vendors now pro-
vide relational database products, including IBM, Oracle, MySQL, and
Microsoft.

In an effort to overcome the deficiencies in SQL, each of these vendors has

made proprietary extensions to the standard. These extensions enable appli-
cation developers to build powerful database-driven solutions. Typical exten-
sions include

⻬ Error handling: Standard SQL provides no way to easily determine if an

error has happened. More importantly, it doesn’t offer a way to recover
from an error condition. Because faults and flaws are unavoidable, this
presents a problem.
⻬ Variables: Application variables provide local storage within a program.
This storage is necessary for many different reasons, and is not part of
standard SQL. Without variables, writing a program that can hold tempo-
rary information is very difficult.
⻬ Conditional logic: Standard SQL offers no programmatic conditional
logic statements. These kinds of statements let you build intelligent pro-
grams that can choose a processing path based on logical conditions.

Transact-SQL: SQL on steroids

Originally developed by Sybase, Transact-SQL is a powerful extension of stan-
dard SQL. It offers all the extensions I describe in the preceding bulleted list,
plus many more. You can bundle Transact-SQL code into a wide variety of
software applications

⻬ Web pages
⻬ Application code, such as Visual Basic, Visual C#, and so on
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 127
⻬ Scripts that can be run from the SQLCMD utility
⻬ Packaged enterprise applications

Here’s an example of some basic, standard SQL for inserting a record into a
table:

INSERT INTO inventory (part_number, part_name, part_count)

VALUES (1811, ‘Gasket’, 12)

With this code, you can’t easily recover from a problem. Many kinds of prob-
lems can derail even a simple INSERT statement such as this one. These
include referential integrity violations, data type issues, permission prob-
lems, and so on.

Transact-SQL handles problems much easier. Here’s a small example of

Transact-SQL doing the same kind of work:

BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO inventory (part_number, part_name,
part_count)
VALUES (‘Gasket’,1811,12);
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT ERROR_NUMBER() as ErrorNumber,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ErrorMessage;
END CATCH;

In this case, notice the error handling logic. Gracefully handling a problem
is much easier. This particular INSERT statement is erroneous; the part_
number and part_name fields are reversed. Transact-SQL provides great
diagnostics to help resolve the problem:

245
Conversion failed when converting the varchar value ‘Gasket’ to data type int.

You can add logic to check the error number and take appropriate action
based on the kind of error that you run into. By chaining these kinds of error
handlers together, you can build more sophisticated and robust database
applications.

Accessing Information
After you master the history of SQL and its powerful progeny, Transact-SQL
(refer to the earlier sections of this chapter), you can use the SQL Server
2005 Express database for what it does best: store, manage, and retrieve
information.
128 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Your first decision is to pick one or more tools to get access to your data. The
market abounds with choices:

⻬ SQL Server Management Studio Express: Available for free download

from Microsoft, this tool provides interfaces for managing and maintain-
ing your database, along with a workspace for entering SQL. For most
database interactions, it’s hard to beat this free tool. Figure 9-1 shows a
Query window within SQL Server Management Studio Express.
⻬ Data access tools: The market abounds with choices to help you make
the most of your SQL Server 2005 Express data. These include reporting
tools, business intelligence products, and simple application develop-
ment platforms. Figure 9-2 shows one of the more popular platforms,
Microsoft Access, caught in the act of importing data from two SQL
Server 2005 Express tables.
⻬ Office productivity tools: Even if you’re not a sophisticated software
developer, you can still get value from your SQL Server 2005 Express
database. Most modern office productivity tools have database access
features that allow you to connect and work with your SQL Server 2005
Express installation. Figure 9-3 illustrates how Microsoft Excel can serve
as a front-end to your database. In this case, I’m using Microsoft Query
to first identify the data that I want to return to my spreadsheet.

Figure 9-1:
A query in
SQL Server
Manage-
ment Studio
Express.
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 129

Figure 9-2:
Microsoft
Access
working
with SQL
Server 2005
Express.

Figure 9-3:
Microsoft
Query
identifying
information
to return to
a spread-
sheet.
130 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

After you make your request, Microsoft Query returns data to your
spreadsheet, which is what Figure 9-4 shows.
⻬ Application development platforms: Professional application develop-
ers use these technologies to build robust, powerful database-driven
applications. Figure 9-5 shows Microsoft Visual Studio interacting with a
SQL Server 2005 Express database. In this case, a window shows all the
tables for a given database, along with an active Query window for a par-
ticular table.
⻬ Packaged enterprise applications: Many of today’s enterprise applica-
tions embed a relational database to store their information. Usually, the
application vendor does not broadcast this reality. In fact, certain ven-
dors hide the database from anyone who wants to access its information
without going through the packaged application. In many cases, you can
use one of the tools that I mention in this section to work with your
embedded SQL Server 2005 Express database.
⻬ Homegrown applications: This final category refers to any database-
accessing applications that may have been built for you, or by you. In
fact, you may be developing your own database application right now. In
any case, just like clothing that’s made to measure, these applications
are tailored for your organization’s specific data processing needs.

Figure 9-4:
Microsoft
Excel
displaying
SQL Server
2005
Express
data.
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 131

Figure 9-5:
Microsoft
Visual
Studio
interacting
with SQL
Server 2005
Express.

Storing Information in Your Database

After you choose one or more data access technologies, your next task is
to start using your database. Because a vacant database is quite boring to
explore, the first thing I do here is show you how to insert information into
your SQL Server 2005 Express tables. To keep things straightforward, I use
SQL Server Management Studio Express as the tool for direct database
access in the examples for the rest of this chapter.

For the purposes of these next sections, imagine that you’re starting the first
premium ice cream stand of a chain. You use these few simple tables to help
track vital information about your growing business.

Because an ice cream store without any products wouldn’t be much use,
Table 9-1 tracks details about your exciting flavors.
132 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Table 9-1 Flavors

FlavorID FlavorName CostServing SinglePrice DoublePrice
1 Apricot Ambush 0.54 2.35 3.25
2 Banana Blizzard 0.73 2.35 3.25
3 Chocolate Chug 1.08 2.99 3.99
...
29 Watermelon Whale 1.17 2.35 3.25
30 Vanilla Vertigo 0.59 2.35 3.25
31 Vanilla Volcano 1.11 2.35 3.25

Here’s the SQL that creates this table:

CREATE TABLE Flavors

(
FlavorID SMALLINT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
FlavorName VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
CostServing DECIMAL (3,2),
SinglePrice DECIMAL (3,2),
DoublePrice DECIMAL (3,2)
)

The PRIMARY KEY instruction in this SQL tells SQL Server 2005 Express to
make sure that no duplicates are in the FlavorID column. Primary keys help
keep the information you store in your database accurate.

Next, your business will melt faster than a Mr. Softee cone in August if you
don’t have any sales, so you use Table 9-2 to keep an eye on your revenue.

Table 9-2 Sales

SaleID FlavorID DateOfSale Amount
1 5 12/30/2006 5.75
2 31 12/30/2006 11.25
...
2902 2 1/8/2007 3.25
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 133
Here’s the SQL that creates this table:

CREATE TABLE Sales

(
SaleID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
FlavorID SMALLINT NOT NULL REFERENCES
Flavors(FlavorID),
DateofSale DATETIME NOT NULL,
Amount DECIMAL(4,2) NOT NULL
)

The REFERENCES section of the preceding SQL is known as a foreign key con-
straint: It prevents any records being entered into this table that do not have
a corresponding flavor in the Flavors table.

Without foreign keys, the quality of information in your database could

become damaged very quickly. For example, think about what would happen
if you deleted flavors without removing their corresponding sales records.
You would essentially have sales information that has been orphaned; its
vital, related records have been deleted. Foreign keys prevent these mistakes
from happening.

With your tables now ready for business, you can start filling them with data.
You can use the INSERT statement for this job. First, you insert data into the
Flavors table:

INSERT INTO Flavors VALUES (1, ‘Apricot Ambush’, 0.54, 2.35, 3.25)
INSERT INTO Flavors VALUES (2, ‘Banana Blizzard’, 0.73, 2.35, 3.25)
INSERT INTO Flavors VALUES (3, ‘Chocolate Chug’, 1.08, 2.35, 3.25)

After you put information into the Flavors table, you’re now ready to add
data to the Sales table:

INSERT INTO Sales VALUES (1, 3, 6/10/2006, 5.75)

This statement means that on June 10, 2006, you sold $5.75 worth of Chocolate
Chug. You could simply key in the flavor name in the Sales table, but doing so
would be redundant; using a numeric code that you can use to look up the
name in the Flavors table is for the best.

What happens if you try to insert a row in the Sales table without a corre-
sponding row in the Flavors table? Because I thoughtfully put a foreign key
constraint on the Sales table, any attempt to violate this referential integrity
directive causes an error:

The INSERT statement conflicted with the

FOREIGN KEY constraint
“FK__sales__FlavorID__412EB0B6”. The conflict
occurred in database
“WestBay”, table “flavors”, column ‘FlavorID’.
The statement has been terminated.
134 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

In addition to the foreign key constraint you just saw, SQL Server 2005
Express has other capabilities that help protect your information. For exam-
ple, see what happens if you try to insert a row with a duplicate primary key
in the Sales table:

INSERT INTO Sales VALUES (1, 3, 6/10/2006, 5.75)

...
INSERT INTO Sales VALUES (1, 31, 6/11/2006, 6.75)

Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint ‘PK__sales__403A8C7D’.

Cannot insert duplicate key in object ‘dbo.Sales’.
The statement has been terminated.

These kinds of protection are very important. Without it, you could easily
end up with duplicate or otherwise damaged information — causing you to
make incorrect decisions.

Bulk Inserts
Many applications require you to load large quantities of information into
your database at one time. SQL Server 2005 Express offers two helpful tools
that simplify and speed this previously challenging task. You can use the
BULK INSERT statement from SQL, or the bcp utility from the command line.

The BULK INSERT statement

The BULK INSERT statement is very useful when you have a file that you
want to insert all at once, and you want to use direct SQL entry to launch the
insert operation.

For example, imagine that your cash registers generate a large file (called
Register.txt) at the end of the day, and that you want to load this file into
your Sales table. Suppose that the raw file looks like this:

3422,3,6/10/2007,9.00
3423,8,6/10/2007,3.50
3424,1,6/10/2007,2.75
3425,15,6/10/2007,12.25
3426,22,6/10/2007,10.00
3427,30,6/10/2007,18.00

Loading this file requires a simple SQL statement:

BULK INSERT Sales FROM ‘C:\Register.txt’

WITH (DATAFILETYPE = ‘char’, FIELDTERMINATOR = ‘,’)
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 135
This command loads the information found in the file, and reports on the
number of rows it processed:

(114 rows processed)

Pay attention to the layout of your raw data files. Getting confused about the
exact character that separates each field is very easy. The fields themselves
may be in the wrong order, which causes no end of aggravation as you try to
decipher what’s happening when you insert information.

The bcp utility

Just as the BULK INSERT statement allows you to take a text file and load it
into SQL Server 2005 Express via the SQL interface, the bcp utility does the
same from the command line. Here’s how you invoke bcp to load the sales
information into your database:

C:\>bcp Westbay.dbo.Sales in Register.txt -S

DBSERVER\sqlexpress

A lot can go wrong with a bulk insert process. Problems can range from
syntax errors, data issues, and so on. Test this type of operation with a small
data file before attempting a massive upload. Otherwise you may potentially
damage your database, which is not much fun.

Format file
Ideally, your raw data files exactly match the layout of your tables.
Unfortunately, things are rarely this simple in the real world. Significant
differences likely exist between what you’re given and what you need.
Fortunately, you can create a format file that tells SQL Server 2005 Express
exactly what to expect from these data files.

To easily generate a format file, just run the bcp utility as I show here. SQL
Server 2005 Express walks through the specified table and file, and gives you
the option to create a format file at the end:

C:\>bcp Westbay.dbo.Sales in Register.txt -S

DBSERVER\sqlexpress
Password:

Enter the file storage type of field SaleID [int]:

Enter prefix-length of field SaleID [0]:
136 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Enter field terminator [none]:

Enter the file storage type of field FlavorID [smallint]:

Enter prefix-length of field FlavorID [0]:
Enter field terminator [none]:

Enter the file storage type of field DateofSales

[datetime]:
Enter prefix-length of field DateofSales [0]:
Enter field terminator [none]:

Enter the file storage type of field Amount [decimal]:

Enter prefix-length of field Amount [1]:
Enter field terminator [none]:

Do you want to save this format information in a file?

[Y/n]
Host filename [bcp.fmt]:

After you finish defining this file, you can use it for all future bcp runs.

Finding Information in Your Database

Now that you have information in your tables, you may be wondering how
you can retrieve it. As I show you earlier in this chapter (in the “Accessing
Information” section), you have many software tools at your disposal.
However, no matter what technology you use, chances are that it uses SQL
(or Transact-SQL) as its data access language, so I focus on the combination
of SQL and SQL Server Management Studio Express as the means to getting
at your information.

In this section, you get the hang of using SQL to write powerful queries to
make sense of what’s in your database. For clarity’s sake, I continue with
the ice cream store example.

The SELECT statement

Saying that the SELECT statement is at the heart of any relational database
system — SQL Server 2005 Express included — is not an exaggeration. In a
nutshell, SELECT allows you to retrieve data. To make it work, you need to
provide only a few pieces of information, and SQL Server 2005 Express duti-
fully reports on what’s stored in the database.
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 137
To build a SELECT statement, just follow these simple steps:

1. Choose an access method.

In the earlier section, “Accessing Information,” I show you the many
tools to choose from to enter a query. For these steps, I use SQL Server
Management Studio Express.
2. Open a Query window.
You need a place to type your query. For SQL Server Management Studio
Express, all you need to do is click the New Query icon, which opens a
new Query window.
3. Choose a table that you want to view and expand the entry to see the
list of columns.
I discuss multiple table queries in the “Joining Tables” section. For now,
just pick one table. Using SQL Server Management Studio Express, you
can get a list of tables by expanding the Databases entry, expanding
your database, and then opening the Tables folder.
If you want to see all columns, just use an asterisk wildcard (*).
4. Choose the columns that you want to view.
5. Type your query, using the table and column names that you want
to see.
At its most basic, all you need is to combine the SELECT keyword with
the names of the columns you want to view from the target table, along
with the FROM keyword and table name.
6. Click the Execute button to launch the query.

For example, imagine that you want to get a list of all the flavors that you sell.
Here’s what your query looks like:

SELECT * FROM Flavors

This information is the minimum amount that you can provide to the SELECT
statement. Here’s a small segment of its results:

FlavorID FlavorName CostServing SinglePrice DoublePrice

-------- ------------------ ------------ ----------- -----------
1 Apricot Ambush .54 2.35 3.25
2 Banana Blizzard .73 2.35 3.25
3 Chocolate Chug 1.08 2.35 3.25
...
...
29 Watermelon Whale 1.17 2.35 3.25
30 Vanilla Vertigo .59 2.35 3.25
31 Vanilla Volcano 1.17 2.35 3.25
138 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Because you provide a wildcard, this query returns all columns and all rows.
But what if you only want the name of the flavors, and no other columns? A
simple change to the query does the trick:

SELECT FlavorName FROM Flavors

FlavorName
---------------------------
Apricot Ambush
Banana Blizzard
Chocolate Chug
...
...
Watermelon Whale
Vanilla Vertigo
Vanilla Volcano

If you mistakenly enter a non-existent table or column name, SQL Server sets
you straight:

SELECT sorry_not_here FROM this_table_does_not_exist

Invalid object name ‘this_table_does_not_exist’.

SELECT sorry_not_here FROM Flavors

Invalid column name ‘sorry_not_here’.

If you want to see multiple columns, just put commas between their names:

SELECT FlavorName, SinglePrice FROM Flavors

FlavorName SinglePrice
----------------------------------- -----------
Apricot Ambush 2.35
Banana Blizzard 2.35
Chocolate Chug 2.35
...
...
Watermelon Whale 2.35
Vanilla Vertigo 2.35
Vanilla Volcano 2.35

You can change the output order of the columns by simply moving them
around in the SQL statement.

Filtering your results

As you can see from the previous query, you’re still getting all rows back
from your query. But what if you’re only interested in a subset of this data,
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 139
perhaps only those flavors that cost less than $1 to make? That’s where the
WHERE clause comes in. Its job in life is to filter results for your queries, so
that you get only the data you want. Here’s what a filtered query looks like:

SELECT FlavorName, CostServing FROM Flavors

WHERE CostServing < 1.00

FlavorName CostServing
---------------------------------------- -----------
Apricot Ambush .54
Banana Blizzard .73
Vanilla Vertigo .59

You can get fancier with filters. Here’s a query with two filters:

SELECT FlavorName, CostServing FROM Flavors

WHERE CostServing < 1.00 AND FlavorName LIKE ‘Vanilla%’

This query returns all your low-cost vanilla-named flavors. The AND keyword
does just what it says — it tells SQL Server 2005 Express to combine the two
parts of the WHERE clause. In this case, both sides must be true to return a
row: The row must have a CostServing less than 1.00, and a FlavorName
that begins with Vanilla. If only one of these is true, SQL Server 2005
Express doesn’t return that row.

You can build very rich filters that combine multiple criteria in a single state-
ment. You can use AND, OR, and NOT to construct various combinations of
filter conditions. These are known as Boolean searches. Here’s an example of
a more complex Boolean search:

SELECT * FROM Flavors

WHERE (FlavorName NOT LIKE (‘Vanilla%’)AND CostServing > 1.00)
OR (FlavorName LIKE (‘Chocolate%’) AND CostServing < 2.00)
FlavorID FlavorName CostServing SinglePrice DoublePrice
-------- ------------------- ----------- ----------- -----------
3 Chocolate Chug 1.08 2.35 3.25
29 Watermelon Whale 1.17 2.35 3.25

What’s this query doing, exactly? SQL Server 2005 Express interprets it, and
applies the following logic:

1. Gets all the columns from the Flavors table.

2. As long as the flavor’s name does not begin with Vanilla.
3. And it costs more than $1.00 to make per serving.
4. Or the flavor’s name begins with Chocolate.
5. And it costs less than $2.00 to make per serving.
140 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

As this example shows, coming up with incorrect Boolean searches is very

easy, especially if you misplace a parenthesis. Build and test your queries
carefully before making any decisions based on a complex Boolean search.

Sorting your results

Getting data back in an unsorted blob is not very helpful. Fortunately, the
designers of SQL took this into consideration, and offered some very benefi-
cial sorting features. To begin, you can include a simple ORDER BY with your
query to sort the result set in any way you like:

SELECT FlavorName, CostServing

FROM Flavors
ORDER BY CostServing

FlavorName CostServing
---------------------------------------- -----------
Apricot Ambush .54
Vanilla Vertigo .59
Banana Blizzard .73
Chocolate Chug 1.08
Watermelon Whale 1.17
Vanilla Volcano 1.17

See how the CostServing column nicely sorts the rows? You can sort by
multiple columns; just separate them with a comma:

SELECT FlavorName, CostServing

FROM Flavors
ORDER BY CostServing, FlavorName

In this example, SQL Server 2005 Express firsts sort the results by the
CostServing column, and then uses the contents of the FlavorName
column to sort any rows that have the same CostServing value.

Built-in functions
SQL Server 2005 Express includes many helpful built-in functions. These func-
tions take large quantities of data and group them into a single result. Here
are some of the more popular basic aggregation functions, along with how
you can use them:

⻬ Summing up data: You can use the SUM() function to add up the values
in a particular numeric column. For example, here’s how you would get
the sum of all transactions in the Sales table:
SELECT SUM(Amount)
FROM Sales
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 141
SQL Server 2005 Express adds up the values of the Amount column for
all the rows in the table. Of course, you’re free to provide a filter if you
only want the sum of values for a smaller set of data:
SELECT SUM(Amount)
FROM Sales
WHERE DateOfSale BETWEEN ‘1/1/2006’ AND ‘12/31/2006’
These functions generally require numeric columns. If you try to run a
function on a character column, SQL Server 2005 Express complains:
SELECT SUM(FlavorName)
FROM Flavors

Operand data type varchar is invalid for

sum aggregate operator.

⻬ Averaging data: You can tell SQL Server 2005 Express to calculate the
average value for a given numeric column. For example, if you want to
find the average cost per serving of ice cream, you would use the AVG()
function:
SELECT AVG(CostServing)
FROM Flavors
⻬ Counting data: As you might expect, the COUNT() function tallies the
number of rows that meet a certain criteria. If you just want to get a
count of all the rows in a table, here’s what you would enter:
SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM Sales
In this case, the wildcard means that you want to count up all the rows
in the table.
⻬ Finding the maximum value for a column: Some times you’ll want to
know the maximum value for a particular column. For example, you
might want to know the largest sale you’ve ever made. You can use the
MAX() function to get your answer:
SELECT MAX(Amount)
FROM Sales
⻬ Finding the minimum value for a column: Just as the MAX() function
tells you the largest value for a column, the MIN() function does the
opposite: It reports on the smallest value from a column. If you need to
filter the candidate rows, you can include a WHERE clause:
SELECT MIN(Amount)
FROM Sales
WHERE DateOfSale BETWEEN ‘12/1/2006’ AND ‘12/31/2006’
142 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Renaming output columns

Transact-SQL gives you great flexibility when formatting your output.
Formatting is more than cosmetic: Easy-to-understand column headings
make your results much easier to interpret.

Suppose that you run a query that includes a variety of aggregation functions.
If you don’t provide column names, your output is difficult to comprehend, as
shown in Figure 9-6.

You can slightly alter your SQL to provide meaningful output column names,
which Figure 9-7 shows.

Joining tables
You can build powerful queries with relatively simple SQL. So far in this chap-
ter, though, I’ve showed you only single-table queries. Of course, the real
world is rarely that black-and-white. It’s now time to enter the colorful world
of multi-table joins.

Figure 9-6:
Unaltered
aggregation
function
output.
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 143

Figure 9-7:
Aggregation
function
output with
easier-to-
understand
column
names.

By design, relational databases break information into tables. To present a

single picture of this data, you need to join these tables together as part of
your query. To relate information from multiple tables is known as joining
the tables.

Joins are possible only with common keys, so before you write a join, you
need to figure out what the two tables have in common. You can then use
that common key to construct your query. For example, suppose that you
want to get a list of all the sales for a particular flavor of ice cream. Here’s
what that query would look like:

SELECT f.FlavorName, s.DateOfSale, s.Amount

FROM Flavors f JOIN Sales s ON (f.FlavorID = s.FlavorID)
WHERE f.FlavorName = ‘Watermelon Whale’
ORDER BY s.DateofSale

Here’s how SQL Server 2005 Express works with this query:

1. Get the data from the FlavorName, DateofSale, and Amount

columns.
The f and s prefixes instruct SQL Server 2005 Express what table these
columns come from.
144 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

2. Join the data from each table for any rows that have the FlavorID
columns in common.
3. Apply a filter to make sure the flavor is Watermelon Whale.
4. Return the results sorted by the date of sale.

The join takes place during Step 2. Note that SQL Server 2005 Express may
first elect to filter for any rows that are Watermelon Whale, and then locate
transactions for that flavor.

Here’s another way to write this query:

SELECT f.FlavorName, s.DateOfSale

FROM Flavors f, Sales s
WHERE (f.FlavorID = s.FlavorID)
AND (f.FlavorName = ‘Watermelon Whale’)
ORDER BY s.DateofSale

Standard joins return only those rows that are present in both tables. What
happens when only one table has a given row? For example, how would you
get a list of those flavors that haven’t seen any sales? You use outer joins in
these situations to find the exact information you need. Here’s an example of
an outer join:

SELECT f.FlavorName, s.DateOfSale

FROM Flavors f LEFT OUTER JOIN Sales s
ON (f.FlavorID = s.FlavorID)

FlavorName DateOfSale
---------------------------------- -----------------------
Chocolate Chug 2006-12-30 18:35:01.000
...
Walnut Wipeout NULL
...
Banana Boom 2006-12-30 21:14:23.000
Grape Gusher NULL

What can you infer from this data? Unfortunately, the Walnut Wipeout and
Grape Gusher flavors have not sold at all. The LEFT OUTER JOIN clause
tells SQL Server 2005 Express to return flavors, even the ones with no sales.
That’s why the DateOfSale column has a value of NULL; the Sales table
has no related rows. You use LEFT OUTER JOIN here because the Flavors
table is on the left part of the statement; if it were on the other side you
would use RIGHT OUTER JOIN instead:

SELECT f.FlavorName, s.DateOfSales

FROM Sales s RIGHT OUTER JOIN Flavors f ON
(s.FlavorID = f.FlavorID)
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 145
Subqueries
One way to greatly increase the power of your queries is to take advantage of
subqueries. You can think of these as nested searches that all work together
to give you the answers you seek from your SQL Server 2005 Express data-
base. The alternative would be to write copious amounts of code that kept
track of all the information necessary to answer your question.

For example, imagine that you want to get a list of the names for all the fla-
vors that have had at least one sale between $10 and $15. You could write a
program to retrieve all rows from the Sales table, and then keep internal
counters, but a subquery does the job quickly:

SELECT FlavorName
FROM Flavors
WHERE FlavorID IN
(SELECT FlavorID
FROM Sales
WHERE Amount BETWEEN 10.00 AND 15.00)

What’s happening here? When you’re faced with either building or analyzing
a subquery, starting with the innermost query and then working your way
out is always best. In this case, SQL Server 2005 Express processes the query
as follows:

1. Get the values from the FlavorID column in the Sales table.
2. Apply a filter so that only those rows that have an Amount of between
$10 and $15.
This step likely finds thousands of candidates.
3. Return those FlavorID values to the outer query.
4. Using the returned FlavorID list, look up the values in the
FlavorName column from within the Flavor table.
5. Only return a unique list of FlavorName column values to the user;
there’s no need to show the same value twice or more.

Subqueries are helpful for other types of operation, too. For example, a slight
tweak to the SQL statement instructs it to delete all those flavors where any
transaction was less than $2.99. This treatment is somewhat harsh for your
less-than-popular flavors, but it works:

DELETE
FROM Flavors
WHERE FlavorID IN
(SELECT FlavorID
FROM Sales
WHERE Amount < 2.99)
146 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Consider using subqueries whenever you need to perform one or more

passes through your database and then feed those results to a higher-level
operation.

Speeding up your queries

For small, infrequently accessed databases, performance isn’t usually an issue.
However, after you start storing serious amounts of information in your SQL
Server 2005 Express database, you can expect to spend some time making sure
that system response is acceptable. What’s acceptable is largely dependent on
your users’ expectations. Some users are easygoing; others expect an answer
before they’ve even asked the question!

The simplest thing you can do to increase your queries’ speed is to provide
proper indexing. Think of an index as a shortcut that SQL Server 2005
Express can use to find your data.

For example, suppose that you need to find your friend’s entry in the phone
book for a large city. The phone book for this city contains millions of entries.
Furthermore, imagine that you have a poorly designed phone book: All the
entries are in random order, rather than in the familiar last-name order of
most sane phone books. Of course, in reality a normal phone book is indexed
by last name. Without this index, you would have to open the book and start
paging through all the names until you ran across your friend’s name. Chances
are that after five or ten pages, your eyes would glaze over and you’d probably
miss it. SQL Server 2005 Express doesn’t get tired, but it can take a long time
to find information when no index is available.

Contrast this fatiguing experience with what happens when the phone book is
indexed: You immediately open the book to the vicinity of your friend’s name,
and then review a much smaller set of information to find the right entry. For
SQL Server 2005 Express, things are even better: Rather than churning
through the entire table, it is able to find the right record in milliseconds.

SQL Server 2005 Express uses a sophisticated technology called an optimizer

to pick the fastest index. The optimizer’s job is to understand the database,
including its structure, data distribution, and so on. Armed with that under-
standing, it’s able to make informed recommendations to the database server
when it comes time to retrieve or alter information.

Getting a list of indexes

Figuring out what indexes are in place for a given table is easy. Just follow
these steps:

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Expand the Databases entry.
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 147
3. Open the entry for your database.
4. Pick a table that you want to explore.
5. Expand the table’s entry.
6. Open the Indexes view.

Figure 9-8 shows an example of two tables, their columns, and their primary
key indexes. I’ve also opened a window showing properties for one of the
indexes.

Deciding what to index

Because indexes are so important, your job as a database or query designer
is to make sure that you create the right indexes. How can you know which
columns to index? While performance optimization merits its own book, you
can follow a few guidelines. Indexing these kinds of columns likely removes
most index-driven performance impediments:

⻬ Primary keys: This column, or group of columns, provides a unique defi-

nition for a given row. By definition, no two rows in the same table can
have the same primary key value. Defining a primary key for each table
is important. When you do this extra step, SQL Server 2005 Express
automatically creates an index on the primary key. Chapter 8 has more
about primary keys.

Figure 9-8:
Index
information
as reported
by SQL
Server
Manage-
ment Studio
Express.
148 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

⻬ Foreign keys: By enforcing relationships among your tables, foreign

keys help protect your database’s referential integrity. When faced with
a database operation that could violate referential integrity, SQL Server
2005 Express checks to see if any foreign keys are in place, and blocks
any potential problems. In fact, this is so important for performance that
SQL Server blocks any new foreign key constraints if no candidate
indexes are in place:
There are no primary or candidate keys in the
referenced
table ‘parent_table’ that match the referencing
column list in the foreign key
‘FK__child_tabl__col1__03317E3D’.
You can get more details about foreign keys in Chapter 8.
⻬ Filter columns: Filter columns help SQL Server 2005 Express narrow the
range of results for your queries. Without a filter, a query returns all the
rows from a table. You should plan on indexing your most frequently
used filter columns, especially if the underlying table has many rows.
For example, using the Sales table from earlier in the chapter, imagine
that you want to run frequent queries to identify rows based on the
Amount column. A typical query might look like this:
SELECT DateOfSales, Amount
FROM Sales
WHERE Amount = 9.99
Can you see which column should be indexed here? Because you’re fil-
tering on Amount, giving SQL Server 2005 Express the option of using an
index for this column often significantly improves performance.
⻬ Join columns: Join columns are the mechanism that SQL Server 2005
Express uses to establish equivalency between two or more tables,
which retrieves a unified view of your data. In most cases, you must
make sure that both sides of the join are indexed. For example, look at
this query:
SELECT f.FlavorName, s.DateOfSales, s.Amount
FROM Flavors f JOIN Sales s ON (f.FlavorID =
s.FlavorID)
Placing an index on the FlavorID column in both the Flavors and
Sales tables would help the SQL Server 2005 Express optimizer find
candidate rows more quickly. As it turns out, because the FlavorID
column is the primary key of the Flavors table, it’s already been
indexed.
⻬ Sort columns: Users appreciate a logically sorted group of rows, rather
than an undifferentiated blob of data. However, sorting takes time and
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 149
costs system resources, so it is not free. One way to keep the costs as
low as possible is to make sure that the sort column is indexed. Imagine
that a large query looks like this:
SELECT *
FROM Sales
ORDER BY DateOfSale
If an index isn’t on the DateOfSale column, it takes more effort for SQL
Server 2005 Express to organize and return the rows to you.

Building multiple column indexes

So far, I’ve only demonstrated indexes on single columns. You can build much
more comprehensive, multiple column indexes if need be. For example, sup-
pose that you have a table of customer information like in Table 9-3.

Table 9-3 Customers

CustomerID LastName FirstName
1 Olsen Caroline
2 Jonnsan Katlyn
...
4175 Fischer Bert

By speaking with your users, you know that they’re searching for customers
based on the combination of LastName, FirstName. Given this fact, you can
create a composite index on these two columns. This composite index helps
future queries and other database activities that need to filter or sort on
these two columns.

When building a composite index, make sure that users are employing the
index from left to right. That is, if a given composite index is built on columns
A, B, and C (in that order), searches and sorts that successfully use this index
can include any of the following combinations:

⻬ Column A, B, C
⻬ Column A, B
⻬ Column A
150 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Creating indexes
Indexes have many benefits to offer, so you’re probably wondering how you
can create one of these wonderful creatures. Fear not — they’re very easy to
generate. In fact, SQL Server 2005 Express often creates them for you by
default. For example, when you define a primary key, SQL Server 2005
Express automatically generates a unique index for that column(s).

However, what if you want to build an index for another kind of column?
Here’s an example of putting an index on the FlavorName column from the
Flavors table:

CREATE INDEX IDX1 ON Flavors(FlavorName)

The syntax is identical if you want to create a composite index; you just need
to add the additional column name:

CREATE INDEX IDX2 ON Flavors(CostServing,SinglePrice)

SQL Server 2005 Express lets you define your indexes as unique or non-
unique, as well as clustered or non-clustered. By choosing unique, you’re
telling SQL Server 2005 Express not to permit any duplicates in the index
keys. For example, if you create an index on the LastName column, you can’t
insert or update any values if they would create two rows with the same data
in that column.

When you elect to define an index as clustered, you’re telling SQL Server 2005
Express that you want the table to be physically ordered by that index.
Continuing with the example of placing an index on LastName, if you
instructed SQL Server 2005 Express to make this index clustered, it lays the
table out on disk in LastName order. Naturally, you can only have one clus-
tered index per table.

If you decide to use clustered indexes, define them first before requesting
non-clustered indexes.

Changing Data
Putting information into a database is not like chiseling it in stone: You can
easily make changes any time you need. In this section, I show you how easy
changing your data is.
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 151
Just like the INSERT statement places data into a SQL Server 2005 Express
database and the SELECT statement retrieves information, the UPDATE state-
ment is responsible for adjusting this data.

For the sake of simplicity, I’m continuing with the ice cream example that I
lay out earlier in this chapter (in the “Storing Information in Your Database”
section). Suppose that you decide to improve your products by purchasing
higher-quality ingredients. Of course, you’re running a business, not a char-
ity, so you need to pass on some of these costs to your customers. You need
to record these higher costs in your database, so you write a simple UPDATE
statement to make the changes:

UPDATE Flavors
SET CostServing = CostServing * 1.10,
SinglePrice = SinglePrice * 1.05,
DoublePrice = DoublePrice * 1.05

What is this statement doing?

1. Only the Flavors table is being altered.

2. The values contained in the CostServing columns are being increased
by 10 percent.
3. The values contained in the SinglePrice and DoublePrice columns
are being increased by 5 percent.

Can you spot a potentially dangerous problem with this statement? It doesn’t
contain a filtering WHERE clause; all the rows in the table are updated.

Be careful when writing blanket UPDATE statements. Unless you want to

change all the rows in a table, you probably need a WHERE clause.

In this case, given the terrible reception that the Walnut Wipeout and Grape
Gusher flavors have received in the market, perhaps you shouldn’t be raising
prices on those two flavors. You can easily change the query so that all the
rows except for those two problem children are updated:

UPDATE Flavors
SET CostServing = CostServing * 1.10,
SinglePrice = SinglePrice * 1.05,
DoublePrice = DoublePrice * 1.05
WHERE FlavorName NOT IN (‘Grape Gusher’,’Walnut Wipeout’)

This statement is a more selective UPDATE statement: The two poorly sell-
ing flavors still remain a bargain. Perhaps this pricing can improve sales of
those two.
152 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Naturally, you can write more complicated UPDATE statements. To do so, you
often use the same advanced search syntax that you use in your SELECT
statements.

Before running any blanket, potentially widespread UPDATE statements, why

not try them out as a SELECT statement first? You have nothing to lose by
doing so, and you can also spot errors before your data gets changed.

Deleting Data
Nothing lasts forever, including data. The time likely arises when you need to
remove certain information from your SQL Server 2005 Express database.
Several useful statements are at your disposal for removing this unneeded
data.

To begin, the DELETE statement offers an easy way to get rid of redundant
rows in a particular table. In this case, suppose that you’re tired of seeing the
lackluster sales for the Grape Gusher and Walnut Wipeout flavors. The time
has come to remove them from your Flavors table:

DELETE FROM Flavors

Where FlavorName IN (‘Grape Geyser’,’Walnut Wipeout’)

A DELETE statement without a WHERE clause obliterates all the rows in a

table. Be very mindful when you invoke this statement.

Because you have sales transactions in your Sales table, perhaps a better
idea is to first remove the sales records, and then the flavor itself. Here’s how
you would do that:

DELETE FROM Sales

WHERE FlavorID =
(SELECT FlavorID
FROM Flavors
WHERE FlavorName = ‘Grape Geyser’)

DELETE FROM Flavors

WHERE FlavorName = ‘Grape Geyser’

If you have foreign key constraints in place, you must process DELETE state-
ments in this order (that is, children first, parents last). A little earlier in this
chapter, I placed a foreign key on the Sales table (refer to Table 9-2). The
reason for doing this is to prevent erroneous deletion of parent (that is,
Flavor) rows while child (that is, Sales) rows still exist. In fact, if you try
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 153
to delete the parent before the child — thereby violating the foreign key con-
straint — you receive a warning message like this one:

The DELETE statement conflicted with the REFERENCE

constraint
“FK__sales__FlavorID__412EB0B6”.
The conflict occurred in database
“WestBay”, table “sales”, column ‘FlavorID’.
The statement has been terminated.

Removing all rows from a table

If you need to eliminate all the rows from a given table, using either the
TRUNCATE TABLE or DROP TABLE statements is much faster; running the
DELETE command takes much longer. Here’s how you use both of these
statements:

TRUNCATE TABLE Sales

This statement removes all the rows from the Sales table, leaving the table
structure and all its constraints, indexes, and so on in place. However, it
doesn’t bypass any referential integrity constraints that you have specified.
For example, what happens if you try to remove all the rows from the
Flavors table?

TRUNCATE TABLE Flavors

Msg 4712, Level 16, State 1, Server DBSERVER\SQLEXPRESS,

Line 1
Cannot truncate table ‘Flavors’ because it is
being referenced by a FOREIGN KEY constraint.

After you truncate a table, you can continue using it: no application code has
to change (but the data is gone, of course).

If you’re sure that you won’t ever need the table or its data again, you can
simply use the DROP TABLE statement:

DROP TABLE Sales

Unlike the TRUNCATE TABLE statement, DROP TABLE obliterates all con-
straints, indexes, and other table structures, so be very careful when you
use it.
154 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Removing some of the rows from a table

What if you need to get rid of a significant number of rows in a table, but not
all of them? Transact-SQL offers some handy features to make this possible.

Deleting rows by using a filter

You can use a WHERE clause to create a filter that SQL Server 2005 Express
uses to determine candidate rows to be removed. For example, suppose that
you want to remove all the rows from the Sales table where the amount of
the sale is less than $5.00. All that you need to do is pair a simple WHERE
clause with your DELETE statement:

DELETE FROM Sales

WHERE Amount < 5.00

In most cases in which you need to remove a subset of the table’s data, just
appending a filter to your DELETE statement is all you must do to identify
and eliminate the right information.

Deleting a set quantity of rows

Sometimes, you may want to delete a set quantity of rows based on some cri-
teria. This typically happens when you have a table that contains large num-
bers of rows that don’t have much value after a certain period of time.

For example, suppose that you’ve been selling ice cream like crazy, and you
want to delete a number of your older transactions. How can you isolate
and delete the right candidate rows without affecting newer data? One
option would be to write a program that looks at all the rows in the table,
and deletes only those that meet a certain criteria. However, this action
requires much more effort than is necessary.

In this case, how about using the TOP extension to Transact-SQL? You can
instruct SQL Server 2005 Express to remove a percentage of sales data that is
older than a given date:

DELETE TOP(10)
FROM sales
WHERE DateOfSale < ‘12/30/2006’

This operation tells SQL Server 2005 Express to remove ten rows from
the Sales table, as long as those rows are from a date earlier than
December 30, 2006.
 Chapter 9: Talking to a SQL Server 155
Unfortunately, this statement has a problem: Eligible rows are removed at
random. As long as the rows are old enough, SQL Server 2005 Express deletes
them until ten rows are gone. After the dust settles, the ten oldest rows may
not have been deleted. You can easily see why: What if more than ten rows
with a DateOfSale are older than December 30, 2006?

To make matters worse, because the rows are removed at random, a good
chance some very old rows may survive, while some younger rows are
eradicated.

If you want to ensure a more orderly removal process, try this statement
instead:

DELETE FROM Sales

WHERE SaleID IN
(SELECT TOP 10 SaleID
FROM Sales
WHERE DateOfSale < ‘12/30/2006’
ORDER BY DateOfSale ASC
)

This statement removes the oldest ten rows from the Sales table, as long as
the rows are older than the target date. You still may have rows that were cre-
ated before December 30, 2006, but the ten oldest rows are gone.

Deleting a percentage of rows

If you’re more focused on percentages, you can include a PERCENT directive
with your DELETE statement. This statement tells SQL Server 2005 Express to
remove a specific percentage of rows from a given table. To intelligently
target rows, including a filter is a good idea:

DELETE FROM Sales

WHERE SaleID IN
(SELECT TOP 10 PERCENT SaleID
FROM Sales
WHERE DateOfSale < ‘12/30/2006’
ORDER BY DateOfSale ASC
)

Can you see what’s happening here? You’ve told SQL Server 2005 Express that
you want to delete the top (that is, oldest) ten percent of those rows for trans-
actions that happened prior to December 30, 2006. If this operation still leaves
candidate rows, you can repeat the statement until all eligible rows are gone.
You see a shrinking number of rows until all the relevant rows are history:

(92 row(s) affected)

(18 row(s) affected)
(0 row(s) affected)
156 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

In summary, the set quantity and percentage means of partial-delete opera-

tions are helpful when you want to remove a general subset of information.
However, in most cases just including a WHERE clause with your DELETE
statement gives you the results you want.
 Chapter 10

Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics

In This Chapter
䊳 Defining sophisticated data structures
䊳 Taking advantage of indexes
䊳 Searching, grouping, and summarizing information

I f you have an appetite for some more advanced interaction with your SQL
Server 2005 Express database, this chapter is for you. I begin by showing
you how to define your data structures to increase the reliability of your
information. You also find out how to speed up your database operations by
creating and using indexes. Finally, I tell you all about some cutting edge
capabilities for locating and organizing information in your database.

Advanced Data Definition

As the SQL standard and Microsoft’s Transact-SQL version have grown and
matured over time, database designers and administrators can use increas-
ingly powerful and refined tools to help ensure the quality, security, and
accessibility of their data. In this section, you see how to use constraints,
views, and XML to extend the power of your database engine, while reducing
the amount of work that you or your programmers need to do.

Constraints
When you build a database application, you’re responsible for making sure
that no bad data gets put into your database. If you fall down on the job, you
may make a bad decision, because what’s stored in your database doesn’t
accurately reflect reality. Constraints are a way for you to define, at the data-
base level, rules that help protect your database from data anomalies. Your
toolbox includes a number of constraints: primary and foreign keys and NOT
NULL, UNIQUE, and CHECK constraints.
158 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Primary key
By defining a primary key constraint, you’re telling SQL Server 2005 Express
that the values contained in one or more columns must be unique across all
rows. As well as protecting your data’s integrity, a primary key constraint is a
great help to database performance: Using the primary key, SQL Server 2005
Express can find a row almost instantaneously.

In fact, the database server thinks so highly of primary keys that it even takes
ownership of generating them for you automatically. All you need to do is
specify IDENTITY when creating your table:

CREATE TABLE auto_manufacturers

(
ManufacturerID SMALLINT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL IDENTITY,
ManufacturerName VARCHAR(30)
)

Now, all you need to do to insert rows into this table is to provide a value for
the ManufacturerName column; SQL Server Express does the rest:

INSERT INTO auto_manufacturers (ManufacturerName) VALUES (‘Aston Martin’)

INSERT INTO auto_manufacturers (ManufacturerName) VALUES (‘BMW’)

SELECT * FROM auto_manufacturers

ManufacturerID ManufacturerName
-------------- ------------------------------
1 Aston Martin
2 BMW

The alternative to this approach requires you to write application code to

determine the highest identifier, and then add 1 to the number to generate a
new primary key value. This is time-consuming at best; at worst, you can gen-
erate erroneous primary keys. As an added benefit, you can instruct SQL
Server 2005 Express to start your numbering sequence at a number other
than 1, and you can request increments larger than 1. For example, I modified
the previous table creation statement:

CREATE TABLE auto_manufacturers

(
ManufacturerID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL IDENTITY(1000,250),
ManufacturerName VARCHAR(30)
)

The first row in this table has a ManufacturerID value of 1000; the second
row has 1250, and so on.
 Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics 159
A Global Unique Identifier (GUID) is another choice for primary keys. These
are system-generated values that are built using truly unique information:
your network card’s internal serial number. In addition to their unique prop-
erties (which can come in handy in networked applications), GUIDs can hold
extremely large numbers. However, they can be confusing to people, and they
consume extra storage and CPU resources.

To use GUIDs, all you must do is have your primary key column use the
uniqueidentifier data type. With that task out of the way, your next step
is to set the column’s Is RowGuid property to Yes. After you do this, SQL
Server 2005 Express automatically generates lovely values like the following
for your primary key:

B3E1988C-38F2-411F-AC4C-BC3ED64D0ED3
EB7BA81A-DB19-4F9A-9011-37DACBABADF2
9011785F-B0C4-4306-99A5-7B637D71C4B5

These primary key values are for a 3-row table. As you can see, these values —
at least to the human eye — have no rhyme or reason. However, GUIDs are
great when you may need to merge values from the same table deployed in
multiple locations.

Foreign key
Most relational database applications spread their knowledge among multi-
ple tables. Each table ordinarily holds a specialized type of data. For example,
suppose that you’re building an application to track student grades. A common
way of maintaining this information is to store demographic details about the
students (name, address, and so on) in one table, and test-specific aspects of
their grades (class, date of test, score, and so on) in a second table.

Here’s where things can get tricky. If you’re not careful, your application
could delete a student’s demographic data without deleting the associated
test data. Alternatively, you could create a detailed test score record but omit
creating a student demographic record. You’ve damaged your data’s integrity
in both of these cases. Foreign key constraints are specifically designed to
prevent these unhappy situations from ever occurring.

When you place a foreign key constraint on two or more tables, you’re telling
SQL Server 2005 Express to intercept any attempts, deliberate or otherwise,
where your data’s integrity can be compromised.

NOT NULL
The NOT NULL constraint helps make sure that any database applications
provide data for one or more of your columns. If you attempt to enter an
160 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

empty (that is, NULL) value on a column that has a NOT NULL constraint, SQL
Server 2005 Express intercepts the call:

Cannot insert the value NULL into column ‘LastName’,

table ‘Westbay.dbo.Employees’; column does not allow
nulls.
INSERT fails.

The database server is smart enough to trap an illegal update, too.

UNIQUE
The UNIQUE constraint is very similar to a primary key constraint, but unlike
primary keys, UNIQUE constraints let you place a NULL value in the column.
However, you generally define a UNIQUE constraint when you already have a
primary key in place, but also want to enforce non-duplication on another
column. For example, look at this table’s syntax:

CREATE TABLE Employees

(
EmployeeID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
LastName VARCHAR(30),
FirstName VARCHAR(30),
SocialSecurity CHAR(11) UNIQUE
)

For this table, you’re using the EmployeeID column as the primary key, but
you also want to prevent duplicates in the SocialSecurity column. This is
a job for a UNIQUE constraint.

CHECK
Think of CHECK constraints as bits of application logic that you can place on
your tables to guarantee that they reject any attempts to violate a business
or other data rule that you want to enforce.

For example, imagine that you’ve extended the Employees table from the previ-
ous UNIQUE constraint example. You’ve now been asked to track the employee’s
work status. An employee can either be full or part-time; no other value is per-
mitted in that column. This scenario is ideal for a CHECK constraint:

CREATE TABLE Employees

(
EmployeeID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
LastName VARCHAR(30),
FirstName VARCHAR(30),
SocialSecurity CHAR(11) UNIQUE,
WorkStatus VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL,
CONSTRAINT Con_WorkStatus CHECK (WorkStatus =
‘FullTime’
OR WorkStatus = ‘PartTime’)
)
 Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics 161
With this constraint in place, you can rest assured that no one can sneak
something by SQL Server 2005 Express:

INSERT INTO Employees VALUES (1798,’Von Zell’,’Harry’,

‘123-45-6789’,’Slacker’)

The INSERT statement conflicted with the CHECK constraint

“Con_WorkStatus”. The conflict occurred in
database “Westbay”,table “Employees”, column ‘WorkStatus’.

Views
When you want to access or modify information that is spread among multiple
tables, you must first build your Transact-SQL statement so that it joins these
tables to produce a cohesive result set. This often isn’t so simple, especially if
any or all the following sets of circumstances are true for your organization:

⻬ You have relatively unsophisticated users accessing your database

directly via SQL or a graphical query tool.
⻬ You have a complex database structure.
⻬ You have security concerns: Not all users are allowed to see all columns.
⻬ You have especially sensitive performance concerns.

Any of these situations can cause all kinds of problems as people attempt
to navigate the complexities of your SQL Server 2005 Express installation.
Fortunately, as a database designer or administrator, you have the power to
present a much simpler — and more secure — picture of this information to
these folks. To do this, you create what is known as a view.

Views are virtual representations of information from one or more tables.

Their main purpose is to hide complexity from the database user, which
allows them to easily locate and work with data. You can build a view on a
single table, or on dozens of tables. The end result is the same: A more
straightforward way to gain access to information.

In this next section, I describe some ways that you can use views to give your
users a better experience with information you’ve entrusted to SQL Server
2005 Express.

Viewing your views

Getting a list of your views is no problem. Here’s how to do so using SQL
Server Management Studio Express, which is available from Microsoft:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate database engine.
162 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

3. On the Databases entry, expand the database entry for the database
you’re interested in.
4. Expand the Views folder.
With the Views folder expanded, you now see a System Views subfolder.
If you’re curious about the dozens of built-in views available, just open
this folder.
If, on the other hand, you’re interested only in the database-specific
views that have been created by users and database administrators, you
see a list of them here as well. If you’re curious about what makes up a
particular view, go to the next step.
5. Expand the view you’re interested in examining.
Each user-defined view entry contains several columns of interest.
These include
• Columns: Expanding this folder gives you a list of all the columns
that make up the view.
• Triggers: A trigger is a set of activities that SQL Server 2005
Express performs when a certain event occurs. These events can
be INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE. By using an INSTEAD OF trigger,
you can instruct SQL Server 2005 Express to take actions on the
base tables when any of these events happen. This folder offers a
list of any triggers driven by this view.
• Indexes: Here’s a list of all indexes that relate to this view. Note
that while you can create indexes on views in SQL Server 2005
Express, they won’t be of benefit to you unless you upgrade to the
Enterprise edition.
• Statistics: To help improve performance, SQL Server 2005 Express’
Query Optimizer keeps track of a number of important facts about
your data. Expanding this folder shows you what the optimizer
currently knows; you can also create new statistical profiles.

If you’re more of a Transact-SQL person, you can also get a list of views by
consulting the sys.views table:

SELECT * FROM sys.views

A lot of information returns, especially if you’re using a DOS command

window; you may want to restrict your query to retrieve only the name of
the view:

SELECT name FROM sys.views

 Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics 163
When you have these details in hand, you can use the sp_helptext stored
procedure to go to the next level and see the actual Transact-SQL syntax that
created your view:

sp_helptext MyViewName

Creating a single table view

Although views really shine when they group information from multiple
tables, they still can be very valuable for single tables. Look at the following
SQL that creates a table of employee information:

CREATE TABLE Employees

(
EmployeeID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
LastName VARCHAR(30),
FirstName VARCHAR(30),
SocialSecurity CHAR(11) UNIQUE,
WorkStatus VARCHAR(20),
Salary DECIMAL(6,2),
EmployeeRank SMALLINT
)

This table holds some sensitive material, such as employee salaries, their
Social Security numbers, and their rankings. You might want to restrict
access to some of this intelligence, but people still need to view other parts
of the data. One option is to set permissions for various users, but this can
be cumbersome. In this case, a better choice is to create a view. You could
then instruct users to work with the view; they would never know that the
underlying table even existed.

To create a single table view, just follow these easy steps:

1. Identify the candidate table for the view.

2. Choose the columns that you want to be present in the view.
3. Create the view, using standard SQL syntax.
Here’s what it would look like for this table:

CREATE VIEW V_Employees AS

(SELECT EmployeeID, LastName, FirstName
FROM Employees)

Users can now interact with this view. Figure 10-1 shows query results for
both the base table as well as the view.
164 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Figure 10-1:
Comparing
query
results from
a view
versus a
table.

From the users’ perspective, this view walks and talks just like a regular
table. In fact, because it’s a single table-based view, you can even make data
alterations via the INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statements:

INSERT INTO V_Employees VALUES (59229, ‘Fields’, ‘Sidney’)

This statement actually creates a new row in the Employees table; the view
also shows this new row instantaneously.

Creating a multiple table view

In the previous section, I show you how to build and use a view on a single
table. While a single table view is helpful, views really help out when you
need to condense multiple tables into a single user experience.

Multiple table views are very helpful for retrieving information; however,
unlike a single table view, you can’t update a multiple table view.

Here’s how you can create a multiple table view:

1. Identify the candidate tables for the view.

Your goal should be to create a single window into these tables. The
data should be related and meaningful.
2. Choose the columns that you want present in the view.
You need to do this step for each table in question. Starting with a clean
slate is a good idea: Don’t assume that you need to include all columns
from all the tables in your view.
 Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics 165
3. Determine how to join the tables.
Because your view’s purpose in life is to combine data from multiple
tables into a single user experience, it’s really important that you get the
right join syntax working among all the tables. Otherwise, the view itself
possibly reflects an incorrect picture of reality, and you may find tracing
the problem very hard after you put the view into production.
Before creating your view, build some test queries that use the join
syntax you plan to include in the view. Make sure that the data you’re
seeing matches your expectations before deploying the view.
4. Build the view.
You can write standard SQL to do this, or you can use a tool to make it
easier. Figure 10-2 shows what Visual Studio looks like when you’re
building a view.

Figure 10-2:
Creating a
view from
within SQL
Server
Management
Studio
Express.

Using XML
Since its introduction in the mid 1990s, the Extensible Markup Language
(XML) has become an incredibly popular way of representing, manipulating,
and transmitting information. It offers many advantages over older
approaches, including

⻬ Standards-based: Originally developed by the Worldwide Web

Consortium (W3C), the XML is open, not owned by anyone, and based
on well-documented standards. In fact, the XML standard has become
the foundation of numerous other specifications.
166 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

⻬ Platform independence: From the beginning, XML was designed to work

with a huge range of operating systems, hardware platforms, computer
languages, and so on. Its support of Unicode means that it is truly inter-
nationalized, as well.
⻬ Open, text-based file format: You can use a simple text editor to read
and write an XML document; there’s no need to struggle with any propri-
etary, arcane file structures or cumbersome editors.
⻬ Well-defined, enforced syntax: Rather than being simple amorphous
blobs of data, XML documents are in fact subject to easily enforced
structural rules. This helps maintain integrity of information stored and
transmitted in XML.

Here’s an example of a purchase order written in XML format:

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8”?>

<PO Identifier=”RR89291QQZ” date_generated=”2005-25-Jun”

application=”Optimize v4.3”>
<customer>
<name>Soze Imports</name>
<identifier>21109332</identifier>
</customer>
<creator>Michael McManus</creator>
<product quantity=”1” price=”9.99”>GG2911</product>
<product quantity=”6” price=”54.94”>TK3020</product>
<Delivery>
<instruction>Call Mr. Hockney in
receiving</instruction>
<instruction>Fax bill to Mr. Kobayashi</instruction>
</Delivery>
</PO>

Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express

Recognizing the importance of XML, Microsoft has integrated it into the SQL
Server product family. Here are some things to be aware of when it comes to
SQL Server 2005 Express and XML storage:

⻬ The xml data type: To store XML information in a particular column,

simply create the column, using the xml data type. You can then decide
whether to include a full XML document in the column, or to simply
place a subset of this information, known as a fragment, into SQL Server
2005 Express.
You can store only as much as 2GB worth of XML information in your
database.
Finally, you can elect to have SQL Server 2005 Express enforce the
integrity of your XML data by relating an XML schema collection with
the column(s) that store the XML information. If you go this route, you
 Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics 167
can consider your XML data to be typed: That is, SQL Server 2005
Express takes on the responsibility of making sure that no incorrectly
structured XML data goes into your database.
⻬ XML-based indexes: Internally, SQL Server 2005 Express stores XML
information in binary large object (BLOB) format. While BLOB is an effi-
cient way of storing data, querying or extracting information at runtime
can be quite time-consuming.
Fortunately, administrators can place indexes on frequently queried
XML columns. These indexes are defined as either primary or sec-
ondary. SQL Server 2005 Express uses a primary index to conduct a
sequential search through your XML data. A secondary index provides
an alternative mechanism to locate information, one that bypasses the
potentially time-consuming sequential search of a primary index.

Now that you know how to store XML information in your database, in the
next section, I show you how to derive value from these highly structured
documents.

Working with XML

After you define one or more columns as storing XML, here are some ways
that you can work with this information:

⻬ Transact-SQL: You can use standard Transact-SQL statements to work

with XML data. However, the fundamental structural differences between
the XML and relational data models likely means that you also end up
including one or both of the next two approaches to work with this
information.
⻬ XML methods: Five dedicated methods are available to work with XML
information:
query()
value()
exist()
nodes()
modify()
⻬ XQuery: Because XML represents a different way of storing information
than that followed by traditional relational databases, it stands to
reason that there would be specialized ways to work with this data. In
fact, the XQuery query language was specifically developed for XML.
You can use this language to perform sophisticated interaction with the
XML data that you’ve elected to store in your database.

If you want to know a lot more about using XML in conjunction with SQL
Server 2005 Express, check out Chapter 21.
168 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

Indexing
When improving query and other data access performance, database design-
ers and administrators have to come up with a good indexing strategy. What
makes things a little complicated is that each application has its own, unique
performance needs that then translate to different indexing approaches.

In this section, you find out what must be indexed, and why. You also check
out some additional SQL Server Express indexing features that you might
want to use, depending on your application profile and performance needs.

Deciding what to index

At a minimum, you’ll want to create indexes for the following types of columns:

⻬ Primary key columns: A primary key serves to uniquely identify a row

within a table; it preserves data integrity by preventing duplication. It
also allows for very fast queries and other data access operations. You
should define a primary key for every one of your tables. SQL Server
2005 Express thanks you by automatically creating an index on your pri-
mary key column(s).
If you can’t come up with a primary key on your own, you can always
create the table with an extra column that can be set to IDENTITY. SQL
Server Express generates unique values for this column.
⻬ Foreign key columns: Setting up foreign key relationships among tables
helps safeguard your database’s integrity by preventing erroneous infor-
mation modifications. For example, if you’re building a shipment system,
you may want to enforce a rule that no order record (kept in the Order
table) gets created without a corresponding customer record (stored in
the Customer table). You can use a foreign key to help make sure that
this rule doesn’t get broken.
If you do go down this path, make sure that the column that serves as
the foreign key (in this case, the customer identifier from Customer
table) is indexed. In fact, SQL Server 2005 Express blocks you from even
creating the foreign key if you haven’t created the proper index.
⻬ Filter columns: You use filter columns to narrow your data access results.
For example, you might want to get a list of all customers who live in
Costa Rica. When you write your query, you tell SQL Server 2005 Express
what — if any — filters to apply. To help boost performance, creating
indexes on commonly used filters is a good idea. In this case, this would
translate to an index on the field that defines the customer’s country.
⻬ Sort columns: One nice feature of SQL is how easy you can request
information in sorted order. However, if you want SQL Server 2005
Express to sort significant amounts of data, you would be wise to place
 Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics 169
an index on the columns that are most frequently designated as respon-
sible for sorting. Doing so helps reduce the amount of overhead that the
database server must undertake to process your request.

All of the SQL Server 2005 database products offer a specialized type of struc-
ture known as a clustered index. When a clustered index is in place on a table,
that table is then physically stored in the order of the index. For example,
suppose that you have a table that contains a column that stores people’s
last names. If you create a clustered index on that column, SQL Server 2005
Express physically sorts the table by last name, and rearrange its internal
structures so that the table is in that order. Note that you can only have one
clustered index per table. If you don’t define any indexes as clustered, your
primary key serves as the clustered index.

Creating an index
Building an index is very easy. Just follow these straightforward steps:

1. Decide what you want to index.

Use the guidelines I describe in the preceding section to help you
settle on those columns that need indexes. Don’t be afraid of making a
mistake — you can always drop any unnecessary indexes later.
2. Decide what tool you’ll use to build your index.
You have a wide variety of choices here. You can use SQL Server
Management Studio Express (which is what I use in this example), the
command-line interface, or a third-party tool. I also show you the SQL
that you need to type it yourself.
3. Expand the Data Connections entry.
If you don’t see any valid data connections, just right-click the Data
Connections entry and choose the Add Connection option.
4. Expand the particular database where you want to create the index.
5. Open the Tables folder.
6. Right-click the table where you want to create an index and choose
the Modify option.
7. Right-click anywhere in the list of table columns and choose the
Indexes/Keys option.
The Indexes/Keys dialog box appears.
8. Click the Add button.
This creates a new index prefixed by IX_. It’s now time to pick the
column(s) and set the properties for your new index.
170 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

9. Click the Columns property, and then click the ellipses to get a list of
candidate columns.
10. Choose as many columns as you like, and specify whether the index
will be ascending or descending for each column.
11. Set other properties for the index and then click Close when you’re
finished; save the modified table by choosing File➪Save.
These can include properties like its name, and whether you want SQL
Server 2005 Express to re-compute its internal statistics after creating
the index.
Figure 10-3 shows the rich user interface that Visual Studio offers for
constructing indexes.

Figure 10-3:
Creating an
index from
within SQL
Server
Management
Studio
Express.

Doing things graphically is fine, but what if you want to directly enter the SQL
to create this index? That’s easy enough — here it is for a scenario where you
want to use the SQLCMD utility to generate an index on the LastName
column in the Employees table:

CREATE INDEX IX_EMPLOYEES ON Employees(LastName)

Searching, Grouping, and

Summarizing Data
Transact-SQL offers a number of useful query language expressions that help
you make sense of your data. In this section, I list each of these tools, as well
 Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics 171
as provide illustrations of how you can use them. For the purposes of these
examples, look at the structure and sample data in Table 10-1.

Table 10-1 Daily Sales

TransactionID Item Region DateOfSale Amount
17090 Widget 1 East 10/17/2006 45.90
17091 Widget 4 UK 10/17/2006 17.23
..
29040 Widget 6 Japan 12/30/2006 132.93

Note: For simplicity, I’ve included the item and region’s name in this table. In
reality, if you subscribed to good relational database design theory, this
would likely be represented by a number that pointed to a table containing a
master list of all items, as well as a number that referred to a list of regions.

GROUP BY
You can use GROUP BY to help aggregate information, which is very benefi-
cial when you want to provide higher-level summarization of your data. For
example, suppose that you need to break out and total your sales figures by
region. It’s easy to do with GROUP BY:

SELECT Region, SUM(Amount) as ‘Total’

FROM DailySales
GROUP BY Region

SQL Server 2005 Express neatly sums up your information and returns the
results:

Central 234252.75
Japan 242278.92
East 227365.08
Latin America 235740.14
UK 306054.29
West 246750.58
China 248140.43
Germany 258725.60

Of course, you’re free to add other requirements to your query, such as filter-
ing, sorting, and so on:
172 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

SELECT Region, SUM(Amount) as ‘Total’

FROM DailySales
WHERE Item = ‘Square Wheel’
GROUP BY Region
ORDER BY ‘Total’ DESC

This query focuses on one item, and sorts the results in descending order of
the total amount sold.

ROLLUP
Including ROLLUP with your query instructs SQL Server 2005 Express to take
your query results and help create subtotals and totals. For example, sup-
pose that you want to run a search that summarizes sales by region and item.
Here’s how you would use ROLLUP:

SELECT Region, Item, SUM(Amount) as ‘Total’

FROM DailySales
GROUP BY Region, Item WITH ROLLUP

Here’s a small subset of the output from this query:

Central Widget 1 36674.00

...
Central Widget 8 19915.89
Central NULL 34252.75
...
China Widget 1 38395.36
...
China Widget 8 36389.85
China NULL 248140.43
...
East Widget 1 32198.16
...
East Widget 8 28977.62
East NULL 227365.08
NULL NULL 1999307.79

SQL Server 2005 Express has considerately reported on how each item sold
within each region. Total sales for the region are tabulated at the bottom of
each region; their item name is NULL. The very last row reports on total sales
for all items for all regions.

CUBE
Adding CUBE to your query produces very similar results as ROLLUP. The
main exception is that CUBE also summarizes all combination of your
 Chapter 10: Transact-SQL: Beyond the Basics 173
output columns. For example, look at the slight modification to the previous
query:

SELECT Region, Item, SUM(Amount) as ‘Total’

FROM DailySales
GROUP BY Region, Item WITH CUBE

Here’s the net new output from this query:

NULL Widget 1 322746.38

NULL Widget 2 225510.42
...
NULL Widget 8 35606.70

SQL Server 2005 Express would report on further combinations if you had
requested added columns as part of your query.

HAVING
In a nutshell, including HAVING with your aggregation query tells SQL Server
2005 Express to further filter your results. This is very powerful, and really
helps you isolate and focus on important data.

For example, suppose that you want to see only sales summaries from those
regions that sold more than $250,000. You could write an application that
walked through the data and then reported only relevant results. However, a
better idea would be to use HAVING:

SELECT Region, SUM(Amount) as ‘Total’

FROM DailySales
GROUP BY Region
HAVING SUM(Amount) > 250000

By adding HAVING, you ask SQL Server 2005 Express to avoid reporting on
regions that didn’t hit the revenue target. Your result set is quite small, but
exactly what you wanted to see:

UK 306054.29
Germany 258725.60

TIMESTAMP
Keeping track of changes in your database can be tricky, especially when
you’re actively working with a row and want to make sure that nothing has
changed before you update the database with your own alterations. In cases
like this, try taking advantage of the TIMESTAMP data type to help you stay
on top of the exact state of your information.
174 Part III: Adding and Accessing a SQL Server 2005 Express Database

When you build a table that includes a TIMESTAMP column, SQL Server 2005
Express automatically inserts an internal identifier into the column anytime a
given row is inserted or updated. You can then use this value to see if some-
thing has changed. Here’s the exact set of steps to follow:

1. Create your table, making sure to include one (and only one) column
defined as TIMESTAMP:
CREATE TABLE Accounts
(
CustomerID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
CurrentBalance DECIMAL(10,2) NOT NULL,
TIMESTAMP
)
Notice that you don’t need to give the TIMESTAMP column a name. Also,
note that you can’t insert a value into this column directly, so you need
to specify your column names (and omit the timestamp) when adding
data to your table.
2. Use your table normally: Add, alter, and retrieve information with
standard Transact-SQL.
The timestamp value doesn’t change unless you change a row.
3. Check the timestamp value before you update a row.
A good way to do this step is to first retrieve the timestamp, make your
changes in your application, and then retrieve the timestamp one more
time (but put it into a different variable). If the two timestamps match,
the row has not changed from the time you first retrieved it. Otherwise,
someone has updated the row while you were working with it.

To get the current database timestamp, run the following query:

SELECT @@DBTS

0x00000000A9C20FA0

This returns a hexadecimal value, which changes every time someone alters
timestamped information in the database.

Don’t confuse TIMESTAMP with the DATETIME data type: The former refers to
the internal database identifier; the latter refers to a point in time.
 Part IV
Keeping Your Data
Safe from Harm
 In this part . . .
W hat’s a harried database owner to do? Sometimes
you’ll feel like everyone’s out to get you, or at least
your data. Uneducated users, apathetic developers, mali-
cious hackers, mutant viruses, and even cosmic rays all
seem to conspire to deliberately or carelessly damage or
even destroy your vital information. Luckily, you can do a
lot to protect yourself.

To begin, you see how to take advantage of the rich secu-

rity capabilities of SQL Server 2005 Express. After that, I
show you how transactions can help keep your data in
order. Finally, you get the hang of setting up and imple-
menting a robust backup and recovery strategy.
 Chapter 11

Securing Your Data

In This Chapter
䊳 Understanding how SQL Server Express implements security
䊳 Setting up a workable security model
䊳 Granting and revoking access
䊳 Integrating database and operating system security

I n a perfect world, you wouldn’t need this chapter. You would also have no
need for police or locks on doors, but, alas, that is not reality. As it turns
out, you have good reason to be concerned about the safety of the informa-
tion entrusted to your SQL Server 2005 Express database. Fortunately,
Microsoft has done a very good job of creating a robust security infrastruc-
ture for the entire SQL Server database product family. However, the sheer
volume of security-related capabilities can be somewhat daunting.

This chapter is all about quickly helping you make the most of the security
features at your disposal. To begin, I list some questions that you can use to
help determine the degree of emphasis you need to place on security.
Because you likely require at least some security configuration, the next sec-
tion talks about the broad range of database objects that you can lock down.
Finally, with the overview complete, I show you how to perform some of the
most commonplace security tasks.

This chapter is not a comprehensive guide to all the possible SQL Server
2005 Express security permutations; that would fill its own book!

Why Bother with Security?

As you see in this chapter, the SQL Server 2005 Express security system has a
lot to it. You may wonder what all the fuss is about, and whether your time is
well spent learning about securing your database. Both are valid questions,
and after reading this section you might indeed decide that you don’t need to
implement a broad-based security strategy. But first, you should understand
the risks of an unsecured database.
178 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

Insufficient security: When bad

things happen to good data
Your data has two primary threats when your SQL Server 2005 Express data-
base doesn’t have the right security configuration. The first hazard is unau-
thorized access to information. For example, an unauthorized employee or
outsider may figure out a way to view sensitive details, such as salary, trade
secrets, and other intelligence that you don’t want made public. The inter-
loper doesn’t change any data or damage things, but your sensitive informa-
tion is now compromised.

Things get worse in the second type of security exposure: unauthorized data
modifications. In this case, that rogue employee who was viewing salary data
has decided to give himself a raise, while rolling back the wages of all his co-
workers to 1970s levels. Of course, you may eventually figure out what has
happened to your information, but obviously a tremendous amount of
damage can happen before you can correct things. This example is actually
fairly mild; a security gap can lead to much more serious information injuries.

Should you secure your database?

Now that I’ve filled your head with scary visions of damaged data, you can
decide if you need to implement a security plan. If you answer Yes to any of the
following questions, you need to take the time to set up a decent security plan:

⻬ Will your database hold sensitive information?

⻬ Will multiple people work with your data?
⻬ Will other computers connect to your database?
⻬ Will your database server be available over a local network or the
Internet?

Chances are that at least one of the preceding questions applies to you. With
that in mind, you can get started setting up the right security plan for your
database.

What Can You Secure?

If you can store it or represent it in SQL Server 2005 Express, chances are that
you can secure it. These security-ready structures are known as securables.
One securable may in fact enclose additional securables, thereby producing a
 Chapter 11: Securing Your Data 179
group of objects. These are known as scopes, and by setting security at the
scope level, all securables contained within the scope receive the same secu-
rity settings. As I show you in this section, many securables can make up
each scope; however, for the purposes of this chapter, I focus on a few of the
object securables within the schema scope.

To give you an idea of how many security options you have, take a look at the
following list, which is categorized by the SQL Server 2005 Express three
securable scopes, each containing its own securables:

Server:
Endpoint Login
Database
Database:
User Role
Application role Assembly
Message type Route
Service Remote service binding
Fulltext catalog Certificate
Asymmetric key Symmetric key
Contract
Schema:
Type XML Schema Collection
Object

The Object securable is of most interest for this chapter. It contains the fol-
lowing components:

Aggregate Statistic
Constraint Synonym
Function Table
Procedure View
Queue

If some of the items in these lists look a little unfamiliar to you, don’t worry:
The balance of the chapter focuses on securing the more recognizable
objects, such as tables and views.
180 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

Who Can You Let Use Your Database?

In the preceding section, I show you all the items that you can secure. The
next question to answer is what kind of users can work with your database.
In fact, some of these users aren’t people at all, but application programs and
processes. Regardless of whether the entity accessing your database has a
heartbeat or voltage, SQL Server 2005 Express uses the term principal to
describe them. Principals have three major classifications, which in turn con-
tain resources as follows:

Operating system-based principals:

Windows domain login Windows local
SQL Server-based principals:
SQL Server login
Database-based principals:
Database user Database role
Application role

SQL Server 2005 Express also supports the concept of prepackaged permis-
sions. These are known as roles, but you can think of them as a one-stop shop
that lets you grant permissions en masse. Table 11-1 lists all the fixed server-
level roles along with their purposes. Table 11-2 does the same for fixed
database-level roles.

Table 11-1 SQL Server Express Fixed Server Roles

Name Permission Available
bulkadmin Run the BULK INSERT command
dbcreator Create, change, restore, or drop a database
diskadmin Administer disk files
processadmin End SQL Server processes
securityadmin Set server and database-level permissions; set password
serveradmin Shut down the server; modify server configuration values
setupadmin Manage linked servers; run system stored procedures
sysadmin Perform any administrative task on the server
 Chapter 11: Securing Your Data 181
Table 11-2 SQL Server Express Fixed Database Roles
Name Permission Available
public Default role for all database users
db_accessadmin Maintain access permissions to the database
db_backupoperator Archive the database
db_datareader Read all data from any user table
db_datawriter Make any modifications to any user’s data
db_ddladmin Execute any DDL command in any database
db_denydatareader Blocked from reading data in a database
db_denydatawriter Prevented from making any data modifications
db_owner Perform all setup and database maintenance
db_securityadmin Administer permissions and roles

Understanding that all new database users are associated with the public data-
base role is important. If you don’t explicitly set permissions for a given secur-
able, these users automatically inherit the permissions that have been granted
to the public database role for the securable in question. Later in this chapter,
I show you how to define permissions, including for the public database role.

What Can You Let Users Do?

Previously in this chapter, I’ve shown the type of objects that you can secure,
as well as the types of users and roles that you can support. The next step in
realizing your security vision is to decide who you want to work with your
database, and then grant them the appropriate permissions.

Who gets to use the database?

Knowing all the configurable security options at your fingertips, you may be
tempted to rush out and start setting up profiles and granting access to your
database server. However, because no two enterprises can have the same
security profile, taking a little more time and getting a better handle on
exactly what you need to do for your own organization is worth your time.
182 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

A great start is to simply figure out the types of users that you need to sup-
port. In this section, I list some of the typical SQL Server 2005 Express user
profiles that you’re likely to encounter, in increasing order of responsibility.
Note that your site may not have all these functions; you may also have the
same person handling multiple jobs, or you may be faced with additional roles
and responsibilities. Nevertheless, use this handy list as a starting point:

⻬ Reporting user: This kind of user typically connects to your database

via a third-party reporting tool and runs reports or other data analysis.
Generally, you can safely restrict these people’s ability to make changes
to the database, because they’re primarily interested in reading data,
not altering it.
⻬ Application user: This type of SQL Server 2005 Express user often
doesn’t even know that a database server is part of the picture. Instead,
they generally log in to an application and perform work that just hap-
pens to get registered in your database. By and large, you don’t need to
give tremendous power to this class of user; in fact, you can usually look
to your application developer or vendor for guidance on the right secu-
rity profile. Certain types of applications handle their own security,
which usually translates into a smaller set of SQL Server 2005 Express-
based logins.
⻬ Database user: Akin to reporting users, these people are generally inter-
ested in the raw contents of your database, rather than information fil-
tered by any third-party applications.
⻬ Application power user: These sophisticated users often need to have
higher levels of database privileges for tasks such as creating views and
new tables or even granting access to additional users. Nevertheless,
you would be wise to concede only as little additional privileges as pos-
sible. They can always request more control if it’s really necessary.
⻬ Operator: Normally, operators are concerned only with routine (but
essential) database administration tasks, such as backup and restore
operations. Unless they need to have higher authority, you can generally
limit their access to your database to these purely administrative tasks.
⻬ Application developer: These folks usually want broad security power,
which can trigger an adversarial relationship with the database adminis-
trator. Developers themselves are often subject to the changing whims
of their application users, whose requests often require changes to the
database or underlying server.
However, by setting up development and test servers, you can have your
cake and eat it, too: The developers can have wide open security permis-
sions on these non-production servers, and you can sleep better know-
ing that your production environment is safe.
 Chapter 11: Securing Your Data 183
⻬ System administrator: It’s quite understandable if a system administra-
tor views database administration as a bit of a nuisance: After all, their
primary job is ensuring the health of the server computer itself.
However, you need to give these overseers sufficient permission to fill in
or otherwise assist the person with the ultimate responsibility for the
database’s health: the database administrator.
⻬ Database administrator: This profile represents the alpha and omega of
SQL Server 2005 Express security. Typically, the database administrator
can perform any task on a SQL Server 2005 Express server. However, all
this power comes neatly packaged with a great deal of responsibility, so
be careful about handing this role out lightly.

Choosing from the permissions menu

You use permissions to grant or remove privileges to a principal on one or
more securables. For example, you might want to give a certain user full priv-
ileges for table 1, partial privileges for table 2, and no privileges for table 3. I
show you how to set permissions as part of the next section.

Implementing Security
After you read through the previous sections and get up to speed on all the
clever SQL Server 2005 Express security possibilities, you can put them to
the test. To begin, I show you how to figure out who can already access your
server and databases. When you know that, you then get the hang of granting
access to your database server and databases, followed by how you can set
specific permissions on particular objects.

Because the graphical SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) is the
most straightforward way of getting administrative tasks done, I focus on this
helpful tool. You could also use SQLCMD to manage security, but you have to
wield a combination of stored procedures and Transact-SQL.

Getting a list of authorized users

Whether you’ve created 100 users or none, here’s a quick, easy way to see
who is authorized to connect to your system.
184 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

Getting a login list

Just as a login lets you access a computer, a SQL Server 2005 Express login
lets people (or processes) connect to your database system. Here’s what you
need to do to get a full list of authorized logins:

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to your database server.
3. Expand the Security folder.
4. Open the Logins folder.

That’s all there is to it. All the people or processes listed in the Logins folder
(see Figure 11-1) can log in to your system.

Figure 11-1:
Getting a list
of server
logins.

Of course, the next thing you need to know is who can actually work with
your databases, which is what I show you next.

Getting a user list

Just logging in to a SQL Server Express system is not enough. You also need
permission to connect and work with one or more databases. Here’s how you
can tell who is allowed to do this:

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to your database server.
3. Expand the Databases folder.
 Chapter 11: Securing Your Data 185
4. Open the specific folder for the database that you want to check.
5. Open the Security folder for the database.
6. Expand the Users folder.

Everyone listed in the Users folder is authorized to connect to this particular

database. Figure 11-2 shows a fully expanded security view, from the logins to
the database users.

Figure 11-2:
A consol-
idated list
of server
logins and
database
users.

Granting access
Authorizing people and applications to work with your SQL Server 2005
Express system is the most common security-related administrative task that
you’re likely to face. In this section, I show you the sequence of events you
need to follow to make that happen.

For this example, assume that a new employee named Hal has just joined
your organization. His job is to analyze sales and marketing trends, so he
needs direct access to a specific database named Marketing. Also assume
that your Windows system administrator has already created an appropriate
Windows login and profile for Hal.

Creating database server logins

To begin, anyone who wants to talk with your SQL Server 2005 Express data-
base server must have a login. Here’s how to create one, using SQL Server
Management Studio Express:
186 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to your database server.
3. Expand the Security folder.
4. Open the Logins folder.
5. Right-click the Logins folder, and choose New Login.
The New Login window appears.
6. Decide if you want to use Windows or SQL Server authentication.
When you choose Windows authentication, you’re instructing SQL
Server 2005 Express to obtain its login information directly from the
operating system. This integrated security approach makes a lot of
sense, especially if you’re using the same login architecture for other
applications. You can search your computer or others on your network
for login details.
On the other hand, choosing SQL Server authentication means that
you’re creating a login that is meaningful only within the confines of
your database server; it has no relationship with the operating system.
7. Fill in additional general properties.
After you select your user, you now have several pages worth of
security-related properties for the new login. Figure 11-3 shows the
general properties page where you can set the default database and
language for this login.

Figure 11-3:
The Login –
New
General
Properties
page.
 Chapter 11: Securing Your Data 187
8. Switch to the Server Roles page, and authorize any server roles that
you want this login to have.
I list the available server roles in the section “Who Can You Let Use Your
Database?” (earlier in the chapter); be careful about giving new logins
broad capabilities. In this example, because Hal is just a run-of-the-mill
user, he doesn’t need server-wide permissions.
9. Switch to the User Mapping page, and enable connectivity to all rele-
vant databases.
By enabling database connectivity here, SQL Server 2005 Express auto-
matically creates a user with this name in each database, which saves
you time later. In this case, simply checking the Map box next to the
Marketing database and picking a database role is all that’s necessary to
grant Hal connectivity to the database.
10. After you finish setting the properties for this login, click OK to
save it.
This login is now ready to connect to your database server. If you associ-
ated the login with one or more databases, and those databases have
public permissions set, this login can now work with those databases.

Creating database users

A database user is someone who not only has permission to connect to your
SQL Server 2005 Express instance, but also has the ability to work with one
or more databases. You can make this happen by simply associating a login
with one or more databases, which I point out earlier in this chapter. On the
other hand, if you want to do this manually, here’s how to get the job done:

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to your database server.
3. Expand the Databases folder.
4. Expand the folder for the specific database where you want to create
the user.
5. Expand the Security folder.
6. Right-click the Users folder, and choose New User.
The Database User window opens with a series of different pages. Figure
11-4 shows the General Properties page.
188 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

Figure 11-4:
The new
user
General
Properties
page.

7. Associate the new user with any owned schemas.

In this example, Hal’s default schema is dbo.
8. If applicable, assign the new user to any database roles.
9. Switch to the Securables page, and set up authorization for the
new user.
You can set security permissions by user, or you can set them for the
public database role (which is faster and more convenient). If you want
to set them by user, use the Permissions page. You can search for the spe-
cific types of securables from within this page, as shown in Figure 11-5.

Figure 11-5:
Searching
for objects
to authorize.
 Chapter 11: Securing Your Data 189
After you pick one or more types of securables, SQL Server 2005 Express
returns a list of the available objects to secure, as shown in Figure 11-6.

Figure 11-6:
Authorizing
access for
a given
object.

10. After setting the right security profile for the new user, click OK to
save the record.
Your user is now ready to work with all authorized objects in this
database.

Setting permissions by securable

So far, I’ve described security from the perspective of the user. However, you
can implement your security architecture is a different (and often better)
way. In this case, you set your security at the securable level, granting or
revoking permissions for users, database roles, or application roles.

For example, suppose that you want to set permissions on a given table.
Here’s what you need to do to make this possible:

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to your database server.
3. Expand the Databases folder.
4. Expand the folder for the specific database where you want to set the
permissions.
5. Expand the Tables folder.
190 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

6. Right-click the table in question, and choose Properties.

7. On the Permissions page, click the Add button.
A dialog box appears in which you can locate users, application roles,
and database roles.
8. Click Browse to see a list of candidates.
9. Choose at least one candidate for permission granting, and click OK.
10. Set permissions for the candidate, and click OK.
With your candidates identified, you can now set their permissions
according to your security policies, as show in Figure 11-7. In this case,
I’m about to grant permissions on the PointOfSale table to the
public database role, which in turn affects all registered users. Because
Hal is a member of this role, he too has these permissions.

Figure 11-7:
Authorizing
access
for a given
object.

Modifying or revoking permissions

Altering or denying permissions is a relatively straightforward affair. In the
case of SQL Server Management Studio Express, you generally use the same
sequence of steps to make these changes as you do when adding permissions;
the main difference is that you’re removing them instead of adding permissions.

You may also elect to set user-specific permissions. In Figure 11-8, I’ve
checked the Deny box to specifically prevent Hal from creating any new
 Chapter 11: Securing Your Data 191
records in this particular table. For Hal, this overrides the Insert permis-
sion that I granted to the public group.

Figure 11-8:
Denying
permission
for a
specific
user to
insert
records in
the table.
192 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm
 Chapter 12

Keeping It Together: Using

Transactions to Maintain
Data Integrity
In This Chapter
䊳 Understanding data integrity
䊳 Passing the ACID test
䊳 Exploring key transaction structures
䊳 Working with isolation levels
䊳 Programming with transactions

U nlike many other databases, SQL Server 2005 Express combines ease-of-
use and low cost (actually, it’s free) with very sophisticated database
engine features. Transactions are one of the most important capabilities
offered by any high-end database. In this chapter, you get a good idea of data
integrity, and why transactions are important in keeping your data nice and
clean. Because transactions are one of the main guardians of your data, you
also see how you can use them to keep everything running smoothly.

What Is Data Integrity?

Simply put, data integrity means that you can trust your database server to
accurately store and report on your information. Without integrity, you can
easily make bad or inaccurate decisions because you’re not really getting a
true picture of reality. In this section, I describe several ways that your data
can lose its integrity, along with the SQL Server 2005 Express transaction capa-
bilities that help preserve integrity. Transactions play a big role in preventing
loss of integrity, so I also describe what makes a transaction a transaction.
194 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

Shocking tales of lost integrity

Brace yourself: You’re about to read several ways that your information can
lose its integrity. Fortunately, you can avoid each of these unpleasant scenar-
ios by simply employing a combination of referential integrity (primary and
foreign keys) and transactions.

⻬ Parent and child differences: Imagine that your database includes data
stored in parent (header) and child (detail) tables. Furthermore, suppose
that you keep a running total of information in the parent table about
records in the child table. A good example is customer details (name,
address, financial summary) in the parent table, and customer transac-
tions (transaction date, amount, and so on) in the child table. If you’re
not careful, these two tables can get out of sync, which might lead to
someone looking at data in the parent table to make an incorrect
assumption.
⻬ Orphans: Continuing with the preceding example, what happens if you
intentionally delete a parent record but somehow overlook deleting its
related children? You’re left with the sad prospect of orphaned child
records forever doomed to a lonely existence in your database.
⻬ Partial updates: A partial update can happen when all the tables that
are supposed to be updated at one time don’t actually successfully com-
plete their modifications. The classic example of this problem is a failure
when transferring money between savings and checking tables. If the
application only reduces the savings balance but does not increase
the checking balance, the customer is quite unhappy, and the data’s
integrity (and possibly the bank manager’s office) is damaged.
⻬ Business rule violations: Although rules are generally meant to be broken
from time to time, this is not true with information carefully entrusted to
your SQL Server Express database. For example, you might be building an
application to track credit ratings for your customers. Valid values for the
credit score range between 0 and 100. If a rogue person or program places
a value of –291 or 1,259 in this column, your data’s integrity is no longer
intact.

Passing the ACID test

SQL Server 2005 Express is a robust, industrial-strength database server. One
hurdle that any database server must pass to belong to this club is known as
the ACID test. It does not refer to the database’s propensity to ingest psyche-
delic drugs, nor does it have anything to do with its ability to withstand cor-
rosive liquids. Instead, passing this test means that the database server
Chapter 12: Keeping It Together: Using Transactions to Maintain Data Integrity 195
supports a minimum level of transaction integrity. ACID is an acronym that
stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Integrity, and Durability. I describe each of
these components in the following list:

⻬ Atomicity: This doesn’t refer to the radioactivity of your database.

Instead, you can consider a transaction to be atomic if all its steps
happen as a group, or none of them do. For example, a transaction may
update four tables at one time. Atomicity means that either all four
tables receive their updates correctly, or all of them are restored to
their initial state. Without this trait, your database could easily become
inconsistent.
⻬ Consistency: Part of your job as a database designer or administrator is
to set up referential integrity and other business rules. The database
engine’s job is to take these rules into consideration when processing
a transaction. If the transaction attempts to violate even one rule, the
database server must abort the transaction and roll the database back
to its original state. For example, if you specify that a column can only
contain a numeric value between 1 and 5, and a transaction attempts
to place a 6 into that column, SQL Server 2005 Express rolls the whole
transaction back, even for any other tables or columns that were not
violated.
⻬ Integrity: In the context of a SQL Server 2005 Express transaction,
integrity has nothing to do with paying debts, obeying the speed limit, or
helping old ladies across the street. Instead, it means that while a trans-
action is underway, no other processes other than the transaction itself
can see the database in an intermediate state. For example, suppose that
your transaction is processing an order, which involves decrementing
inventory while updating a customer’s shopping cart. The integrity trait
means that any other process sees both the inventory and shopping cart
data structures in their original states while the transaction is running. Of
course, after you finish the transaction both these results are available at
the same time.
⻬ Durability: A durable database server transaction does not refer to its
ability to withstand heat and cold, or resist thermal viscosity break-
down. Rather, it means that after you state that the transaction is fin-
ished, and the database reports this to be true, SQL Server 2005 Express
doesn’t suddenly develop amnesia and disregard your work. It’s true
that another user or process may come along and make changes to your
data, but this is not the same as the database itself casually forgetting
what you did.
196 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

Key Transaction Structures

To make transactions possible, SQL Server 2005 Express uses a sophisticated
set of technologies all working together to help ensure that things go
smoothly. At the beginning of a transaction, SQL Server 2005 Express uses
the set of internal structures that I describe here to record the details about
the transaction, as well as coordinate interaction between your transaction
and other database users and processes. Some of these key components
include

⻬ Log cache: SQL Server 2005 Express uses this memory-based structure
as a temporary storage buffer for details about a transaction. Because
it’s based in memory, and separate from the standard buffer cache used
for data, it’s very fast and efficient.
⻬ Transaction log: This file, or group of files, is a journal that contains
information about your transactions. It works in conjunction with the
log cache. If you need to roll back your transaction, or restore from a
backup, this journal is vital to setting things right with your database. It
also serves as a source of guidance for database replication and standby
servers. Administrators typically back up their transaction logs as part
of normal maintenance.
⻬ Locks: Because SQL Server 2005 Express supports multiple concurrent
users and processes, a series of locking mechanisms must coordinate
access to information. A lock’s scope can be very granular — such as at
the data page level — or very wide — such as at the table or even data-
base level.
⻬ Checkpoints: As you might guess from its name, a checkpoint is an intri-
cate, internal SQL Server 2005 Express event that serves to synchronize
all the other internal transaction structures so that everything is
consistent.

Isolation Levels
Each SQL Server 2005 Express transaction has an isolation level. This term
describes how the transaction interacts with other database users and
processes.

To make transaction isolation levels work, SQL Server 2005 Express employs
a variety of locks on data and indexes, as well as other internal controls.
Locks may be at the row, page, or table level, and they may be exclusive
(completely restricting access to data) or shared (which allows other
transactions to access information).
Chapter 12: Keeping It Together: Using Transactions to Maintain Data Integrity 197
SQL Server 2005 Express offers a series of increasingly stringent isolation
levels:

⻬ READ UNCOMMITTED: Also described as dirty read, this isolation level is

the most permissive. It lets other users and processes see your transac-
tion’s work even if it hasn’t yet been formally committed to the SQL Server
2005 Express database. For example, you may insert a row into a particu-
lar table. Other users see that row even before the transaction is finished.
If you then roll back the transaction, the row never truly existed; yet other
users saw it. This is known as phantom data, and can lead others to make
scarily incorrect decisions.
⻬ READ COMMITTED: As the default for SQL Server 2005 Express, this isola-
tion level prevents other users or processes from seeing your transac-
tion’s work until it’s finished. However, these outside parties can make
alterations to any of the data that your transaction has read. For exam-
ple, suppose that your transaction reads 100 rows from a given table and
then takes action based on what it read. Another program can modify
any of those 100 rows even while your transaction is active. This may be
a problem if your transaction needs those rows to remain in their origi-
nal condition. Fortunately, the next isolation level addresses that kind of
potential issue.
⻬ REPEATABLE READ: This level is just like the READ COMMITTED isola-
tion level, except that REPEATABLE READ prevents other transactions
from modifying any rows that were consulted by your transaction. To
continue the READ COMMITTED example, this isolation level means that
no other transactions could change any of the 100 rows that your trans-
action has read until your transaction has finished.
⻬ SNAPSHOT: By requesting this isolation level, you can be assured that all
the data that your transaction reads or modifies remains in that state
until you complete your work. It uses versioning to achieve this high
degree of interoperability, which comes at a much lower overhead cost
than other isolation levels, such as REPEATABLE READ. Of course,
others may come along after you finish your transaction and make their
own changes, but this isolation level does at least keep things consistent
until your work is done.
⻬ SERIALIZABLE: This isolation level is by far the most restrictive. Not
only does it block other transactions from seeing any changes that your
active transaction has made, and changing any data that you’ve read, it
also prevents outside transactions from inserting any new rows if the
index values for those rows would fall in the range of data that you’ve
read. For example, suppose that your transaction has read rows with an
index value between 0 and 100. With this setting, no other transactions
could insert a new row with an index value anywhere between 0 and 100.
198 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

Be careful when using the more restrictive isolation levels. Although they do
a great job of preserving data integrity, the cost can be significantly reduced
system speed and throughput.

Using Transactions
In the previous sections of this chapter, I tell you all about transactions. So
now you’re probably wondering how you can put these powerful features to
work. Fortunately, despite their rich capabilities, transactions are quite
simple to use. In a nutshell, just follow these steps:

1. Determine the isolation level that you need to do your work.

In the preceding section of this chapter, I show you that SQL Server 2005
Express offers five different transaction isolation levels. Your job as a
developer is to pick the right one.
Pick the least restrictive transaction isolation level that your application
can afford. In other words, don’t use the more draconian isolation levels
(such as SERIALIZABLE) unless your transaction demands the control
and restrictions provided by this isolation level. As a matter of fact,
in most cases, you’ll probably find that the default isolation level will
suffice.
2. Set the isolation level.
Because SQL Server Express supports numerous development languages
and technologies, I use straight SQL transaction invocations for the bal-
ance of this section.
To specify your choice of isolation level, just use the SET TRANSACTION
ISOLATION LEVEL statement:
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL REPEATABLE READ
Your chosen isolation level remains in effect until you explicitly change
it, or your session closes.
3. Start the transaction.
Use the BEGIN TRANSACTION statement to indicate that your transac-
tion is now underway:
BEGIN TRANSACTION
You may also specify a name for your transaction, but a name is
optional. In any case, after you invoke this statement, you are now in an
active transaction.
Chapter 12: Keeping It Together: Using Transactions to Maintain Data Integrity 199
4. Make your data alterations.
You can use whatever SQL or other database access language you’re
accustomed to. The fact that you’re in a transaction doesn’t change your
syntax at all.
5. Check for any errors.
Carefully monitoring each statement to make sure that it works as you
expected is important. These facts are very important when deciding
whether you want to make your work permanent.
6. Finalize the transaction.
By now you’re ready to finish your work. Assuming that everything has
gone well, you can tell SQL Server 2005 Express that you want your
changes to be made permanent:
COMMIT TRANSACTION
If you have given your transaction a name as part of the BEGIN TRANS-
ACTION statement, you need to include it here.
If things didn’t go well with your transaction, don’t despair. You can tell
SQL Server 2005 Express to forget the whole thing, and return your data-
base to its pristine, original state:
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
Remember that if you gave your transaction a name, you need to include
it here:
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION transaction name

Here, written in basic Transact-SQL, is a simple banking transaction that adds

$5.00 into the balance of every customer who has been with the bank since
before January 1, 2004:

DECLARE @ERROR_STATE INT;

SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL REPEATABLE READ;

BEGIN TRANSACTION;

UPDATE Accounts SET Balance = Balance + 5

WHERE DateJoined < ‘1/1/2004’;

SELECT @ERROR_STATE = @@ERROR;

IF (@ERROR_STATE <> 0)
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
ELSE
COMMIT TRANSACTION;

The @@ERROR function tells you if anything has gone wrong with your trans-
action, which gives you the chance to roll it back in time. To find out more
about handling errors, take a look at Chapter 17.
200 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm
 Chapter 13

Preventing Data Loss

In This Chapter
䊳 Using transactions to safeguard your data
䊳 Keeping memory and disk in sync
䊳 Backing up vital database information
䊳 Restoring database archives

W aking up one morning to find some or all your precious data lost for-
ever ranks with some of life’s great moments — like root canals, tax
audits, or endless flight delays. However, in this chapter, I show you that
unlike death and taxes, you can avoid losing data.

To begin, I show you why using transactions can be one of the smartest
things a software developer can do. Next, I expound on ways to keep your
database server’s memory consistent with the permanent information stored
on disk. Finally, you see how to use the sophisticated backup and recovery
features built into SQL Server 2005 Express to help safeguard your data.

Transactions: Your Data’s Best Friend

Because relational database applications typically divide their information
among multiple tables, things can go horribly wrong if one or more tables
have a problem with a particular database operation.

For example, suppose that you write a program that updates rows in tables
A, B, and C as part of the same unit of work. Furthermore, imagine that tables
A and C happily accept your changes, but something is wrong with the modi-
fication that you want to apply to table B’s data. If you’re not careful, you
could easily end up in a state where tables A and C think everything was fine,
and table B does not. This translates into a corrupted and out-of-sync database.
Months may go by before anyone notices, but rest assured: Your data has been
damaged.
202 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

This situation is where transactions come in. By grouping all your data updates
into one batch, you can definitively tell SQL Server 2005 Express to either
keep or reject all your changes. In the preceding example, you could have put
tables A, B, and C back to their original states if even one of them had a prob-
lem with your change. Your data remains in sync, and is safely preserved.

What are transactions?

In a nutshell, a transaction is a unit of work that you launch with a BEGIN
TRANSACTION statement. You then proceed to issue one or more database
operation requests, which SQL Server 2005 Express dutifully processes.
Then, after all your work is finished, you complete the transaction with a
COMMIT TRANSACTION statement. SQL Server 2005 Express then makes all
your changes permanent: Everything that happened between BEGIN TRANS-
ACTION and COMMIT TRANSACTION is now enshrined in your database for-
ever (or at least until you change it later).

But wait a minute. What if something went wrong during all these operations?
Fear not, because transactions let you change your mind. For example, sup-
pose that you start a transaction, issue a bunch of statements, and then
change your mind and want to go back to the way things were before?
Luckily, you have the ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement waiting in the
wings. If you issue this statement instead of COMMIT TRANSACTION, SQL
Server can rollback all your modifications, putting the database back into the
state that it was just prior to the BEGIN TRANSACTION statement.

How do transactions work?

To make sure that your transactions work as advertised, SQL Server 2005
Express performs a sophisticated juggling act among a number of internal
technologies.

When you start a transaction, the database server records this event in a
memory structure known as the log cache. In addition, all your changes are
also written into the log cache. This cache is then periodically written to the
log cache’s disk-based counterpart, which is known as the transaction log.

If the server were to crash in the middle of a transaction, SQL Server 2005
Express would use the transaction log as a guide to determine which transac-
tions to rollback. On the other hand, if you simply change your mind, SQL
Server 2005 Express can use the transaction log as a guide to reinstating your
data to the way it was prior to the start of the transaction. If this rollback
 Chapter 13: Preventing Data Loss 203
wasn’t helpful enough, the transaction log is also useful when you need to
restore from a backup. In any case, when the transaction completes, SQL Server
2005 Express also records this event in the log cache and transaction log.

Synchronizing Memory and Disk Storage

Most modern relational database systems are built to take advantage of the
lightning speed of memory-based processing. SQL Server 2005 Express is no
exception. To cut down on the number of performance-degrading disk
accesses, it uses a sophisticated set of internal memory structures to buffer
information. Because processing in memory is at least ten times faster than
doing the same work on disk, these speed enhancements can really help your
application hum along.

However, eventually all this fun has to come to an end, even if temporarily.
Sooner or later, SQL Server 2005 Express must write the contents of its
memory to disk, as part of an event known as a checkpoint. Otherwise, what
would happen if the computer suddenly lost power? All your changes would
be lost forever, vanishing into the ether before SQL Server 2005 Express
could get the chance to commit them onto disk. Try explaining that to a user
looking for last month’s sales figures.

As you work with database information, SQL Server 2005 Express accumu-
lates data on pages within a section of server memory known as the buffer
cache. When you create, modify, or remove data, SQL Server 2005 Express
records these alterations in the buffer cache on what are known as dirty
pages. These pages are then synchronized to disk during a checkpoint.

In addition to keeping memory and disk in sync, checkpoints also serve to

help SQL Server 2005 Express recover from an unanticipated shutdown or
failure. A successful checkpoint acts as an anchor in time, letting SQL Server
2005 Express recover from that point forward. Checkpoints happen all the
time, not just during transactions. Here are just a few events that trigger a
checkpoint:

⻬ Prior to backing up your database

⻬ Stopping your database server
⻬ The transaction log fills up to a preset threshold

Now that you know how checkpoints work, what do you have to do to make
sure that your own checkpoints get run correctly? The good news here is that
SQL Server 2005 Express handles all these chores automatically: You don’t
have to do anything.
204 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

However, you may want to tinker with the amount of resources that SQL
Server 2005 Express dedicates to your checkpoint process. You can influence
its behavior by running the CHECKPOINT command, passing in a value that
states the maximum amount of time, expressed in seconds, that you want
your checkpoints to take.

Normally, SQL Server 2005 Express uses its own internal algorithms to opti-
mize how long a checkpoint takes. If you run this command with a low value
(less than 60 seconds), the database server shuffles its resources to dedicate
more to the job of getting your checkpoint done quickly. Conversely, a high
value lets SQL Server 2005 Express make its own decisions about how to allo-
cate resources to get checkpoints done as quickly as possible.

Unless you’re really worried about squeezing the last bit of performance out
of your SQL Server 2005 Express system, don’t mess around with this setting.
The database usually knows best!

Backing Up Your Data: Inexpensive

Insurance You Can’t Afford to Skip!
Predicting and preventing external threats to your data such as viruses, hack-
ers, defective applications, and confused users is hard to do. However, by
implementing a well-thought-out backup and restore strategy, you can pro-
tect your information and recover from just about any unfortunate event that
befalls your SQL Server 2005 Express database. In this section, I describe the
choices you have with this vital administrative task, as well as show you how
to perform backup and recovery operations.

Choosing the right backup strategy

Choosing a backup strategy is not as simple as shopping for clothing.
Safeguarding your information has no one-size-fits-all approach. In fact, no
two enterprises are alike with regard to their data backup needs. However, to
help you figure out the right information archiving plan for you, you can use a
series of criteria that includes answering the following questions:

⻬ How dynamic is your data?

⻬ When does your information change most often? During business hours?
At other times?
 Chapter 13: Preventing Data Loss 205
⻬ What data can be recovered by means other than a database backup?
⻬ What are the business and other implications of losing data?
⻬ Do you have other computers standing by that can take over the load
for a failed server?
⻬ Do you take advantage of hardware-based high-availability technologies
such as RAID?

Generally, an organization that has dynamic information coupled with intoler-

ance for data loss or system outages is one that needs a robust backup strat-
egy, perhaps even one that is not provided by a product such as SQL Server
2005 Express.

On the other hand, if you have relatively static data or have deployed alterna-
tive redundancy measures, you may not need a very strict data archiving
regimen.

Recovery models
The full SQL Server 2005 product line offers three distinct classes of backup
and recovery. Known as recovery models, these include

⻬ The full recovery model: This recovery model is the most robust
offered in the SQL Server product family. It provides maximal protection
from just about any kind of data disaster you can think of, and lets you
restore your information to a particular point in time.
However, this power and protection comes with more work and respon-
sibilities for the database administrator. To begin, the transaction log
has to be backed up on a regular basis, or data alterations can get lost.
If your transaction log fills up, you won’t be able to make any changes
until the log file is backed up.
If you’re running a very dynamic database server, and want to have
point-in-time recovery capabilities, you may need to use this model. You
need to upgrade to the Enterprise edition of SQL Server.
⻬ The bulk-logged recovery model: Using the full recovery model adds
some performance overhead to your database server. This overhead can
get very expensive when you perform bulk operations, such as loading a
large data file into your database. One way to reduce these extra costs is
to temporarily switch to the bulk-logged recovery model until the bulk
operation finishes. The bulk recovery model saves on overhead costs by
206 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

trimming bulk operation logging to the bare minimum. However, stan-

dard database interaction is still thoroughly logged, just like in the full
recovery model.
⻬ The simple recovery model: As you expect from its name, this recovery
model is relatively straightforward to implement. It also offers two com-
pelling operational features:
• You don’t need to back up the transaction logs.
• You don’t need to take the database offline.
Because there’s no such thing as a free lunch, using this model means
that you can’t restore to a particular point in time, unless you happen to
run a database backup at that moment. Any transactions that happened
after your last backup are lost. You also can’t restore individual pages. I
spend the balance of this section reviewing this recovery model.

If all this info has your head spinning — not to worry: SQL Server lets you
switch recovery models anytime you like.

To change your recovery model, simply use the ALTER DATABASE command.
Here’s an example of setting a database’s recovery model to simple recovery:

ALTER DATABASE NorthBay SET RECOVERY SIMPLE

Best practices for protecting your data

Before I show you how to back up and restore information, using the simple
recovery model, I want to give you a few ideas on how you can safeguard
your information, regardless of which recovery model you follow:

⻬ Use redundant hardware. Hardware prices keep falling. It’s now possi-
ble to purchase and configure inexpensive, redundant components. For
example, you can set up a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)
storage system for much less than you might think. These extra disks
can greatly reduce the likelihood of a serious data loss should one of
your disks encounter a problem.
⻬ Maintain a standby server. Speaking of redundant hardware that can
come to your rescue during difficult times, a standby server can be a
great investment, especially if you keep it up to date by regularly restor-
ing backups or replicating information onto it. Then, if something cata-
strophic happens to your production server, you can always switch over
to the backup server.
 Chapter 13: Preventing Data Loss 207
⻬ Restore backups regularly. You can devise the most brilliant backup
strategy of all time, but if you can’t restore a given backup, all your
investment has been for naught. This is why you need to test your
backup validity on a consistent basis. You can also combine two good
ideas (restoring regular backups onto your standby server) to help
ensure that you can gracefully recover from a database problem.

Types of backup available in

the simple recovery model
SQL Server 2005 Express offers the administrator a choice of several different
types of backup, using the simple recovery model. Here’s a list of each of the
major styles, along with the situations where you use them:

⻬ Full backup: This data archiving is the most comprehensive type. It

backs up all your data, including enough of the transaction log to restore
the database to a consistent state. Think of this data archiving as a snap-
shot of your entire database at a given point in time.
In general, this backup is the easiest type to understand, but it also con-
sumes the largest amount of storage.
Any open, uncommitted transactions that exist at the time of a backup
are lost upon restore. The same holds true for any transactions that take
place after starting the backup. Keep these potential losses in mind
when you schedule your backups.
⻬ Full differential backup: This style of backup is identical to a full
backup, with one major difference: A full differential backup only
archives information that has changed since the last full backup. This
backup can be very handy if only small portions of your database
change on a regular basis; by running differential backups you don’t
need to incur the time and media costs of full backups.
⻬ Partial backup: As you can guess from its name, a partial backup
archives a subset of your database, including
• Data from the primary filegroup
• Any requested read-only files
• All read-write filegroups
⻬ Partial differential backup: Just as a full differential backup is a subset
of a full backup, a partial differential backup backs up only those por-
tions of the last partial backup that have changed.
208 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

For the balance of this chapter, I focus on full and full differential backups
because these make the most sense for the largest number of SQL Server
2005 Express installations. Although these backup types take longer and con-
sume more media, they’re also more straightforward to envision.

Using the simple recovery model

to backup your data
Here’s how to run a database backup:

1. Choose which backup utility you want to use.

A perfectly good backup utility is built into SQL Server 2005 Express.
Numerous third-party applications also handle database backups; you
might want to use one of these tools instead. However, for this chapter,
I assume that you’re using built-in backup capabilities in SQL Server
Management Studio Express, available via a free download from
Microsoft.
2. Connect to the right instance of your database server.
3. Expand the Databases folder, right-click the database you want to
back up, and choose Back Up from the Tasks menu.
Figure 13-1 shows the backup settings at your disposal.

Figure 13-1:
General
backup
settings.

Along with self-explanatory options such as the database you want to

archive, the name of the backup set, and the expiration date (if any) for
 Chapter 13: Preventing Data Loss 209
the backup, pay particular attention to the destination. If you have a
tape device installed on your computer, you’ll be given the option of
selecting it as your backup destination. Otherwise, you’ll need to back
up to disk.
You should also select whether you want a full backup or a differential
backup.
Using the same physical disk drive for your data and data backups is not
a good idea. If something nasty happens to your disk drive, you lose
both your data as well as your lifeline to restoring it: your backups.
Separate these two key objects onto different disk drives.
4. Fill in the required information on both the General page (shown in
Figure 13-1) and the Options page (shown in Figure 13-2), and click OK
to launch the backup.

Figure 13-2:
Backup
option
settings.

On the Options page, you choose how you want your media managed,
what should be done with the transaction log (if you chose the
full recovery model), as well as if you want extra reliability checks
performed.
Opting for backup verification and a media checksum operation adds
a little extra time to your backup. However, these checks can identify a
problem before you reach a crisis, and are generally worth the extra
effort.
5. Watch for any error messages.
If everything went well, you should receive a message telling you that
the backup completed successfully.
210 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

Why you should also export information

In the last few pages, I harangue you about how important backing up your
data is. However, even if you have a bulletproof backup strategy in place,
periodically exporting your information to text files, using either a third-party
tool or the bcp utility is a good idea. If you’re curious about bcp, check out
Chapter 9.

Why is exporting important? In a nutshell, there is no limit to what can go

wrong with a data backup, including the following:

⻬ Lost or damaged media

⻬ Corrupted data files
⻬ Other data inconsistencies

By creating a text-based backup version of your data, you give yourself one
more chance to recover from a catastrophic problem. Of course, you must
take the same precautions with your text-based backup data as you do with
your traditional data backups.

Restoring Data: Time for the

Insurance to Pay Off
Just as you buy auto and fire insurance in case of a collision or conflagration,
you back up your data in case one day you need to restore it. In this section, I
walk you through the flip side of the backup process — that is, restoring data
in case of disaster. After all, a backup is of no use if you can’t later retrieve
the information you backed up.

Restoring your database back to its original pristine state is pretty straight-
forward if you’ve done your backups correctly. Just follow these steps:

1. Launch the backup utility you used to create the original data archive.
Throughout this chapter, I cite the built-in SQL Server 2005 Express util-
ity, which you can access from within any SQL-ready tool. I continue to
refer to this tool in this section, as well as assume that you’re using SQL
Server Management Studio Express.
2. Connect to the right instance of your database server.
3. Expand the Databases folder, right-click the database you want to
restore, and choose Restore from the Tasks menu.
Figure 13-3 shows the restore settings at your disposal.
 Chapter 13: Preventing Data Loss 211

Figure 13-3:
General
restore
settings.

You can choose the database where you want the restore to be written,
as well as whether you want to restore to a point in time. You may only
restore to a point in time if you’ve chosen the full or bulk-logged recov-
ery models.
You can also select whether you want the restore utility to locate the
candidate backup set, using the database’s internal record, or to use a
backup set found on a device.
4. Fill in the required information on both the General page (shown in
Figure 13-3) and the Options page (shown in Figure 13-4), and click OK
to launch the restore.

Figure 13-4:
Restore
option
settings.
212 Part IV: Keeping Your Data Safe from Harm

The options page offers settings that help control the behavior of the
restore operation, as well as the state of the database after the restore
has been completed.
For the simple recovery model, choose the Restore With Recovery
option in the Recovery state portion of the options page.
5. Watch for any error messages.
If everything went well, you should receive a message telling you that
the restore completed successfully.

That’s it. You’re now ready to connect to your database and run some basic
tests to see if everything restored correctly. After you’re satisfied that things
are in good shape, you can let users connect to the newly restored database
to resume their work.
 Part V
Putting the Tools to
Work: Programming
with SQL Server
2005 Express
 In this part . . .
Y ou’ll primarily use SQL Server 2005 Express as a data
repository in conjunction with packaged, pre-built
tools and applications. However, you may use it as the
foundation of a new application. If you’re building a new
solution that relies on SQL Server 2005 Express, this part
is for you.

Initially, I show you how to extend the power and flexibil-

ity of your database server by creating your own stored
procedures and functions. Then I show you how to trigger
these operations based on database activity. If you’re
inclined to write your software in a language other than
Transact-SQL, Chapter 16 shows you how to leverage
Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime. Chapter 17 helps
you gracefully deal with these anomalies. Chapter 18
shows you how to conduct full-text searching and report-
ing services.
 Chapter 14

Using Stored Procedures

and Functions
In This Chapter
䊳 Understanding why stored procedures and functions are important
䊳 Deciding when to use a stored procedure or function
䊳 Taking advantage of built-in stored procedures and functions
䊳 Creating your own stored procedures and functions

D esigning, building, and maintaining a quality relational database-driven

software solution is hard work. Users are understandably demanding,
and expect accurate, prompt system response. Consolidating your application
logic in stored procedures and functions is one of the best ways to improve
both reliability and performance. In this chapter, you find out how to get the
most out of these helpful features.

Introducing Stored Procedures

and Functions
Simply put, stored procedures and functions are centralized, server-based soft-
ware that are available for everyone (assuming that they have permission) to
use. You can build your own stored procedures and functions, and you can
also take advantage of the many built-in stored procedures and functions
offered by SQL Server 2005 Express. If you write your own, you can use
Transact-SQL or another Microsoft .NET programming language if you have
enabled SQLCLR.
216 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

These helpful objects offer a number of marvelous benefits:

⻬ Better accuracy: In any software project, one way to reduce complexity

and increase accuracy is to reduce the number of moving parts. By cen-
tralizing your business logic into one place, and then making that logic
available to anyone who needs it, you can go a long way toward eliminat-
ing those pesky and hard-to-trace errors that plague most applications.
For example, suppose that you’re building an application that performs a
credit check in five key program modules. You could write separate credit-
checking logic within each of these components, but that means you need
to replicate the logic five times. To make matters worse, in the likely event
that you encounter an error, you need to chase it down in five locations.
In this case, writing and testing a centralized, credit checking stored pro-
cedure or function makes much more sense. Any module that needs to
perform a credit check would simply invoke the procedure or function. If
an error does rear its ugly head, you quickly know where to look.
⻬ Improved performance: Generally, database servers are faster and
more powerful than the clients that access them. One way to take advan-
tage of the horsepower on a server is to let it handle as much processing
as possible. Because stored procedures and functions run on the server,
using them means that you lighten the load on your clients.
You can think of this load as falling into three major buckets:
• CPU load: The CPU must do this amount of work to satisfy a
request. Running a stored procedure or function on the server
transfers this work from the client to the server.
• Disk load: Disk drives hold tons of information, but working with
them can be costly from the point of view of performance.
Anything you can do to reduce your disk usage on your clients usu-
ally translates to reduced load. Furthermore, servers generally
(but not always) have faster disk drives, which makes them more
efficient when they work with disks.
• Network load: A database request from a client generates this
amount of network traffic. Imagine that you have a client-side
application that needs to review thousands of rows to arrive at an
answer to a question. By moving that logic onto the server, you
lighten the network load significantly: Those rows never need to
travel across the network, but are instead handled on the server.
⻬ Language portability: Programmers are a fickle lot; just when they get
comfortable with one programming language, along comes a younger,
better-looking replacement. Unfortunately, these infatuations come with
a cost: extensive rewriting and redevelopment effort. By placing key por-
tions of your business logic within stored procedures or functions, you
insulate these parts of your software from the inevitable language alter-
ations as computing technology advances.
 Chapter 14: Using Stored Procedures and Functions 217
Try to identify the purely business logic-oriented portions of your appli-
cation. These candidates are good to be turned into stored procedures
or functions.
⻬ Enhanced security: Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that
people aren’t out to get you — or, in this case, your proprietary applica-
tion code. But you can protect yourself by using stored procedures and
functions. For example, suppose that you develop some world-class
algorithms, or other trade secrets that you don’t want anyone else to
see. In addition, suppose that you outsource large parts of your applica-
tion development effort. In this case, you can encode your clandestine
programming rules in a stored procedure or function, and let only your
external developers make invocations to this centralized logic.
If this scenario weren’t secure enough, Microsoft lets you encrypt your
stored procedure, making it even harder for those pesky competitors to
steal your trade secrets.

After you encrypt a stored procedure or function, you can’t have SQL Server
2005 Express print out the original source code. For this reason, always store
an unencrypted copy someplace safe for future reference.

Examples of stored procedures

and functions
You can make stored procedures and functions do just about anything. Here’s
an example of a simple stored procedure that takes a customer identification
number, checks the customer’s purchase history, and returns a string
describing the customer’s relative standing:

CREATE PROCEDURE proc_CustomerLevel

@CustomerID INTEGER,
@CustomerLevel VARCHAR(20) OUT
AS
DECLARE @PurchaseTotal DECIMAL(8,2)
SET @PurchaseTotal =
(SELECT SUM(amount)
FROM transactions tr
WHERE tr.CustomerID = @CustomerID)

IF @PurchaseTotal > 1000

BEGIN
SET @CustomerLevel = ‘Gold’
END
ELSE
SET @CustomerLevel = ‘Standard’
218 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

This example is very simple; SQL Server 2005 Express lets you build much
more powerful stored procedures that run rich sets of business algorithms.

Now, here’s an example of a function that performs the highly complex task
of converting meters to inches:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.MetersToInches (@Meters DECIMAL(10,3))

RETURNS DECIMAL(10,3)
AS
BEGIN
DECLARE @Inches DECIMAL(10,3)
SET @Inches = (@Meters * 3.281 ) * 12
RETURN @Inches
END

While this function is very straightforward, imagine the sophisticated func-

tions you could write that would add value to your own specific processing
needs. You can then invoke these functions directly within SQL, adding new
power and capabilities to your database interactions.

When not to use a stored

procedure or function
After reading the preceding section, you would be forgiven for thinking that
you should write your entire application in stored procedures and functions.
However, these helpful tools are not the right choice in every situation. Here
are some conditions when you should not use a stored procedure or function:

⻬ Overloaded database server: Asking your database server to handle the

extra processing load of stored procedures and functions is fine. However,
if the server is already overloaded, you’re asking for trouble. So, before
you centralize your programming logic, take stock of how your server is
performing. If it has plenty of extra capacity, go right ahead; otherwise,
you should reconsider (or possibly get a more powerful server).
⻬ Advanced logic needs: Transact-SQL is fine for most processing tasks.
However, sometimes you need something more powerful for your com-
puting requirements. You may find that using a more traditional, com-
piled computing language is a better choice in these circumstances.
Here’s some good news: The Microsoft .NET Framework Compiled
Language Runtime (SQLCLR) lets you write stored procedures and func-
tions in a variety of powerful procedural computer languages and then
store these in your database, so you may be able to have your cake and
eat it too. I discuss SQLCLR in more detail in the “Writing a Stored
Procedure or Function” section, a little later in this chapter.
 Chapter 14: Using Stored Procedures and Functions 219
⻬ One-time operations: Stored procedures and functions make the most
sense when you need to create code that will be invoked over and over
again by multiple users and programs. If, on the other hand, you’re
building software that will run infrequently, and by only one application,
centralizing your logic may not be worth your effort.

Differences between stored

procedures and functions
Stored procedures and functions are very similar in their design and pur-
poses. The main difference between them is that a function must return a
value; a value is optional for a stored procedure. Also, you can’t use a stored
procedure as part of an expression.

Generally, you include a function call directly within your SQL as part of a
larger statement:

SELECT Weight, dbo.MetersToInches(Length), Cost, ...

FROM Products
WHERE ProductID = 199232

On the other hand, most applications that use stored procedures look to
these objects to help outsource longer-lived, more involved processing,
thereby passing control to them until the procedures finish their work. Of
course, these rules have exceptions, but in most cases this is how things
shake out.

System stored procedures and functions

Before you charge ahead and write your own collection of stored procedures
and functions, here’s some good news: Microsoft offers hundreds of really
useful, built-in stored procedures and functions. You can use these to get a
head start for your own applications or to configure and monitor important
database indicators.

Microsoft prefixes system stored procedures with either an sp_ or xp_. Try
not to use these prefixes when building your own procedures.

While this book doesn’t have enough room to go through each of these built-
in stored procedures and functions, in this section I show you how you can
get a list of what’s installed on your server, as well as go through some exam-
ples of some particularly appealing components.
220 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Getting a list of stored procedures

and functions
Using SQL Server Management Studio Express (which you can download free
from Microsoft), you can figure out what you have available on your SQL
Server 2005 Express system, whether you created them or Microsoft pro-
vided them. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate server.
3. Expand the Databases entry.
4. Expand the database entry for the database you’re interested in.
5. Expand the Programmability folder.
Among the various objects listed here, you can choose between stored
procedures and functions. For now, I focus on stored procedures. You
can follow a similar path if you’re interested in functions.
6. Open the Stored Procedures folder.
You now see a list of any user-created stored procedures, along with a
folder for system stored procedures.
7. Expand the System Stored Procedures folder.
Be patient — you’ll be surprised at how long the list of built-in stored
procedures is.
8. Open the folder for the stored procedure you want to research.
9. Open the Parameters folder.
You can now see all the input and output parameters for the stored pro-
cedure. This list helps you when using the procedure.

Figure 14-1 shows an example of a stored procedure hierarchy, all the way
down to an individual procedure’s parameters.

This listing is chock-full of important information that you can use to figure
out how to work with the stored procedure. These details include

⻬ The parameters the procedure expects

⻬ Each parameter’s data type
⻬ If a parameter has a default value
⻬ What the procedure returns (if anything)
 Chapter 14: Using Stored Procedures and Functions 221

Figure 14-1:
A detailed
view of the
sp_Active
Directory_
Obj stored
procedure.

Some useful system stored

procedures and functions
If I were to fully describe each of the built-in stored procedures and functions
so generously provided by Microsoft, you would need a forklift to pick up this
book. Nevertheless, to help give you an idea of how powerful these proce-
dures are, I show you some selected examples, broken out by the general
type of stored procedure.

Some of the current built-in stored procedures and functions (but none of the
ones I name in the following list) are destined for that great CPU in the sky, so
before relying on a particular procedure, consider consulting the documenta-
tion to check on its life expectancy.

To make things clearer, I divide this list of sample built-in stored procedures
into three main categories, based on the primary role that the procedure
plays. Note that there are many other ways to pigeonhole these objects:
222 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ Administrative: These types of procedures enable SQL Server 2005

Express administrators to configure, manage, and monitor their own
unique database server. Figure 14-2 shows the output of two procedures.
The sp_helpdb procedure returns high-level information about your
database, while the sp_depends procedure cites any dependencies
around this database object.
⻬ Data access: This class of procedure helps database designers and appli-
cation developers understand details about their SQL Server 2005 Express
databases. Figure 14-3 shows the output from the sp_datatype_info
procedure, which describes all the potential data types at your command,
as well as the detailed table structure cheerfully returned by the
sp_columns procedure.
⻬ Security: Numerous built-in stored procedures let administrators
manage security for their database server. Two good examples are
• sp_password: This procedure lets you create or change a pass-
word for a SQL Server 2005 Express login.
• sp_defaultdb: You can use this procedure to change the default
database for a given SQL Server 2005 Express login.

Figure 14-2:
Output from
the sp_
helpdb
and sp_
depends
system
stored
procedures.
 Chapter 14: Using Stored Procedures and Functions 223

Figure 14-3:
Output
from the
sp_data
type_info
and sp_
columns
system
stored
procedures.

If you forget to include a parameter, don’t worry: SQL Server 2005 Express is
on the job. For example, if you don’t tell sp_defaultdb what database you
want it to use, it complains:

Procedure or Function ‘sp_defaultdb’ expects

parameter ‘@defdb’, which was not supplied.

Writing a Stored Procedure or Function

After you understand all that you can do with stored procedures and func-
tions, you’re probably raring to go and develop your own. The first question
you need to answer is whether you’re writing your stored procedure or func-
tion in straight Transact-SQL, or if you’re using SQLCLR (the Microsoft .NET
Framework Common Language Runtime).

Using Transact-SQL
As it turns out, in most cases Transact-SQL can meet your processing needs.
If you’re unsure about whether to use Transact-SQL or SQLCLR, see the next
section for more about when SQLCLR is the right choice.
224 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

To construct the stored procedure or function in Transact-SQL, use the CREATE

PROCEDURE or CREATE FUNCTION statement, respectively. Keep these things in
mind as you go about developing your own server-based logic:

⻬ You can declare both input and output parameters.

⻬ You can use default values for input parameters; if you’re calling a func-
tion, you must include the DEFAULT keyword.
⻬ A function must return at least one output value; a value is optional for a
stored procedure.
⻬ All parameters must be declared with a data type (such as VARCHAR,
INT, and so on).
⻬ You can declare variables within the procedure or function. You must
also declare them with a data type.
⻬ You can encrypt your stored procedure or function by including the
ENCRYPTION directive.
⻬ You can nest stored procedures and functions up to 32 levels deep.
⻬ A function may also return information in the format of a table.

After you’re ready to write your stored procedure or function, you can use
any of the following tools offered by Microsoft:

⻬ SQL Server Management Studio Express

⻬ Visual Studio
⻬ The SQLCMD utility

In fact, because you can write stored procedures and functions in Transact-
SQL, you can use any third-party tool that gives you direct SQL capabilities.
Assuming that you’re using SQL Server Management Studio Express, here’s
all you need to do to create your logic, using stored procedures as a model:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate server.
3. Expand the database node where you want to create your procedure.
4. Right-click the Stored Procedures folder, and choose the New Stored
Procedure option.
A template comes up that gives you a head start on the stored proce-
dure authoring process, as you can see in Figure 14-4.
5. Enter your customized stored procedure code.
6. Click the Execute button to generate your stored procedure.
 Chapter 14: Using Stored Procedures and Functions 225

Figure 14-4:
New stored
procedure
template.

If everything goes according to plan, SQL Server 2005 Express reports that
your command executed successfully. You can then see your stored proce-
dure or function by following the steps in the “Getting a list of stored proce-
dures and functions” section, earlier in this chapter.

Using the SQL Common Language

Runtime (SQLCLR)
Even though Transact-SQL is more than powerful and flexible enough for
most applications, you may have special needs that require the additional
computational clout offered .NET programming languages by using SQLCLR.
Here are some of the capabilities of SQLCLR that may be of interest to you:

⻬ Performance: Given their compiled nature, CLR stored procedures and

functions are typically faster and more scalable than their Transact-SQL
counterparts.
⻬ Debugging: Microsoft offers a very rich development and debugging
environment, which helps you solve any problems when building stored
procedures and functions.
226 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ Object orientation: Microsoft Visual C# and Visual Basic .NET are

object-oriented languages. These types of languages offer much higher
flexibility and developer productivity than traditional procedural pro-
gramming languages.
⻬ Extensibility: Microsoft’s .NET Framework Library contains copious
software components that you can incorporate into your stored proce-
dures and functions.

If any of these features seem particularly appealing, check out Chapter 16 for
a detailed exposé on how to take advantage of SQLCLR to build stored proce-
dures or functions.

Calling a Stored Procedure or Function

SQL Server Express 2005 allows you to easily call an existing stored proce-
dure or function. Using the two examples from earlier in this chapter, here’s a
snippet of Transact-SQL that invokes the stored procedure, as well as prints
its results:

DECLARE @CustomerLevel VARCHAR(20)

EXECUTE proc_CustomerLevel 12391, @CustomerLevel OUT
PRINT @CustomerLevel

In this example, you need to declare a variable to hold the results from the
stored procedure; the PRINT statement simply displays what came back.

And here’s how you call the function:

SELECT dbo.MetersToInches(123.45) AS ‘Inches’

Inches
------------
4860.473
 Chapter 15

Understanding Triggers
In This Chapter
䊳 Understanding what triggers do
䊳 Reviewing the two types of SQL Server 2005 Express triggers
䊳 Deciding when to use triggers, and when not to
䊳 Creating, invoking, changing, and dropping triggers

T riggers are a great tool for centralizing and consolidating processing rules
for your database, helping to improve your applications’ accuracy and
consistency. If that isn’t enough of an incentive to find out what this feature
does, triggers may also help boost application performance. In fact, triggers
are so valuable that Microsoft offers two types: Data Definition Language (DDL)
triggers, which handle changes to your data structure, and Data Manipulation
Language (DML) triggers, which handle changes to your actual information.

This chapter introduces you to triggers. You begin by figuring out what they
are, what they do, and how they work. After you pass that easy hurdle, your
next step is to check out the differences between DML and DDL triggers.

As with any powerful feature, you need to understand when to use a trigger,
as well as when it’s not the right choice for the task at hand. For this reason,
this chapter reviews several scenarios to help guide you toward the right
decision.

Finally, after examining all these topics, you can easily create your own set of
triggers.

Triggers: Actions Awaiting an Event

You can think of triggers as centrally stored sets of actions that take place
only if something else happens. For example, if you write a letter to your
friend and then drop it in a mailbox without putting enough postage on the
envelope, you trigger the post office to return the letter to you along with a
friendly reminder that you need to add postage. This reminder is triggered by
the lack of a stamp; otherwise, the letter would have gone through the mail
228 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

without any delays. Different post office triggers would be invoked if you pro-
vided enough postage but forgot to write your friend’s address, wrote the
address in Bulgarian, or tried to mail your cat.

From the post office’s perspective, these triggers (or business rules) are vital.
Without them, each letter carrier would make his or her own decisions about
what constitutes a valid letter. Some overly zealous letter carriers would
reject valid mail, while other, more easygoing civil servants would let invalid
shipments gum up the works. By centralizing these rules, the post office
enforces consistency, which makes the mail more predictable and easier to
use for the customer.

Back in the database world, a trigger is actually a specialized stored proce-

dure that gets launched when a certain event takes place. One of the things
that makes triggers so attractive is that SQL Server 2005 Express does all the
work — all you need to do is correctly define the trigger and the database
engine patiently waits for the event to happen. When it happens, SQL Server
2005 Express launches the right trigger.

Trigger scope
You can define a trigger to be processed for a particular table or even a view
that is made up of many tables. As I show you a little later in this chapter (in
the “Writing new triggers” section), you can set up triggers to be invoked for
a wide variety of statements that affect these tables or views. In fact, you can
set up multiple triggers for the same object. After you decide on the type of
statement that you want to invoke a trigger, you can nest your triggers: They
can call other triggers or stored procedures as well.

Because you don’t want to have a potentially costly trigger processed in

some situations (such as during large data loads or other batch operations),
you can tell SQL Server 2005 Express to temporarily disable processing a par-
ticular trigger.

Trigger programming languages

You have great flexibility when developing your triggers. If Transact-SQL
isn’t your favorite, you can use any other .NET supported language via
SQLCLR. For example, you may elect to write some of your simpler triggers in
Transact-SQL, and use the power of C# to write your more complex triggers.
In most situations, however, you can likely turn to Transact-SQL as your trig-
ger programming language, so this chapter focuses on these types of triggers.
See Chapters 9 and 10 for more about Transact-SQL.
 Chapter 15: Understanding Triggers 229
How do triggers work?
Now that you know what triggers are, you may be wondering how they work.
When you create a trigger, SQL Server 2005 Express makes an entry in the
sys.triggers table. You can think of this entry as a header table, contain-
ing important information about the trigger:

⻬ A unique identifier for the trigger

⻬ The type of trigger (whether it’s for a database or table/view)
⻬ When the trigger was created
⻬ Whether the trigger is disabled

For each trigger that you create, SQL Server 2005 Express also writes detail
entries in the sys.sql_modules and sys.trigger_events tables. These
tables hold additional information about the trigger:

⻬ The actual SQL text for the trigger

⻬ Which type of SQL statement invokes the trigger
⻬ Other trigger properties

When the trigger is in place, the SQL Server 2005 Express engine consults
these tables to find any relevant triggers for a given table or view. If it finds an
appropriate candidate, it runs the trigger.

Types of Triggers
SQL Server 2005 Express divides its triggers into two categories: triggers that
affect data definition tasks, and triggers that affect data manipulation tasks. I
cover each category in this section.

Data Definition Language (DDL) triggers

You can invoke DDL triggers, newly available in the SQL Server 2005 family,
whenever a statement executes that alters your database structure. These
statements include

⻬ CREATE
⻬ ALTER
⻬ GRANT
230 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ DENY
⻬ REVOKE
⻬ UPDATE STATISTICS
⻬ DROP

You typically use a DDL trigger to perform or regulate database management

tasks. For example, you may want to thwart someone who is trying to create
an index. By placing a DDL trigger for the CREATE INDEX statement, you can
have SQL Server 2005 Express intercept this operation and warn the user that
new index creation cannot take place without your approval. Alternatively,
perhaps you want to be notified via e-mail if someone changes permissions
for any database object. In this case, you can easily create a trigger for both
the GRANT and REVOKE statements and have the trigger call a stored proce-
dure to send you e-mail.

Data Manipulation Language

(DML) triggers
Unlike DDL triggers, you can invoke DML triggers based on any statement
that modifies data (rather than the database’s structure). Candidate state-
ments include

⻬ INSERT
⻬ UPDATE
⻬ DELETE

DML triggers are incredibly useful for centralizing all kinds of important
application processing. While you may never need or want to use a DDL trig-
ger, you have a good chance of benefiting from a DML trigger. I show you a
bunch of examples in the next section of this chapter.

To Trigger, or Not to Trigger?

If you’ve read the previous sections, in which I show you all that triggers can
do, you’re now probably wondering how to tell if they’re the right tools for
the job. In this section, I describe a number of scenarios where triggers make
sense, as well as some when you should not bother with them.
 Chapter 15: Understanding Triggers 231
Triggers to the rescue!
You use a trigger for many reasons. Some of the best include the following:

⻬ Enforcing business rules: Suppose that you want to make sure that only
your best customers get the VIP discount. You can rely on your program-
mers to make that determination, but a better, more consistent way is to
use a trigger.
⻬ Protecting data integrity: While SQL Server 2005 Express includes a host of
referential integrity tools, you may at times need very specialized process-
ing to protect and preserve data integrity. A trigger can be just the ticket to
solve this kind of problem. In fact, this trigger is the most common.
⻬ Launching additional actions: Because you can write very powerful and
flexible triggers, using Transact-SQL and other languages, you can have
these triggers launch follow-on actions. For example, suppose that you
want to be notified if a particular part in your warehouse reaches a criti-
cally low inventory level. In this case, you can place a trigger on the
part’s table, and when the inventory fell below a set threshold, have it
generate an e-mail alert. You can even automate the reordering process,
all driven by triggers.

Don’t be trigger happy

Triggers are so powerful, and so useful, that you can easily get carried away
and use them when you shouldn’t. Unfortunately, triggers do incur some
overhead, so they can hurt performance. Here are some examples when you
should not use a trigger:

⻬ One-time processing: Triggers are very good at centralizing and enforc-

ing business rules when a particular business rule needs to be enforced
in multiple situations. On the other hand, if you have a specific rule that
will be processed only one time or by one application, you won’t gain
much by creating a trigger.
⻬ Permission checking: SQL Server 2005 Express provides a sophisticated
security management system. Although you may be tempted to generate
a slew of DDL triggers to enforce your own brand of permission manage-
ment, you generally don’t need to go to this effort: A better idea is to
simply learn more about the built-in SQL Server 2005 Express security.
⻬ Default data validation: SQL Server 2005 Express delivers a rich set of
referential integrity capabilities designed to protect your information
from deliberate or accidental damage. Unless you have cross-database
data integrity issues to manage, writing your own referential integrity
management triggers is not necessary.
232 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Using Triggers
In the previous sections of this chapter, I show you what triggers are, how
they operate, and when to use them. In this section, I welcome you to take
the plunge and make triggers work for you.

Discovering already-existing triggers

Most Microsoft products offer a number of alternate ways of getting informa-
tion. The same holds true for learning about existing triggers in SQL Server
2005 Express. You can find out about existing triggers in three ways. Of the
three options, the first is by far the easiest to perform.

Via SQL Server Management Studio Express

You can quickly navigate to your triggers via this free database administra-
tion tool, available for download from Microsoft. Here’s how to see all the
triggers in place for a database.

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Connect to the appropriate server.
3. Expand the Databases entry.
4. Expand the database folder for the database you’re interested in.
5. Expand the Programmability folder.
6. Expand the Database Triggers folder.

Via a stored procedure

The all-purpose sp_helptext procedure lists the statements that make up
your trigger. Just pass it the name of the trigger you want to understand:

sp_helptext trig_check_inventory

It returns the exact statements that make up the trigger, including any
embedded comments:

-- Now, create the trigger

CREATE TRIGGER trig_check_inventory ON requests
AFTER INSERT
AS
DECLARE @part_number INTEGER, @part_request_count INTEGER,
@quantity_on_hand INTEGER, @minimum_number INTEGER,
@bad_item
...
 Chapter 15: Understanding Triggers 233
If you don’t know the name of the trigger, you can always get a list of all the
triggers for a table by running the sp_helptrigger procedure, and passing
in the table’s name.

Via the system catalogs

If you’re intrepid and curious, you can consult the SQL Server 2005 Express
system catalogs to get a handle on the number and types of triggers for your
installation. Here’s a simple query that neatly joins the three primary system
catalogs to give you insight into your triggers:

SELECT tr.name, sm.definition, te.type_desc

FROM sys.triggers tr, sys.sql_modules sm,
sys.trigger_events te
WHERE tr.object_id = sm.object_id
AND tr.object_id = te.object_id

Feel free to come up with your own queries against the SQL Server 2005
Express system catalogs — a tremendous amount of valuable information is
stored there.

Writing new triggers

Creating a new trigger is easy — you simply enter your Transact-SQL, using
SQL Server Management Studio Express (available via free download from
Microsoft) or many other types of interactive query tools. After you success-
fully run your Transact-SQL, your trigger is ready to use.

Figure 15-1 shows an example of using SQL Server Management Studio

Express to create a new trigger.

To build your triggers, just follow these steps:

1. Determine what you want your new trigger to do.

What exactly does the DML trigger shown in Figure 15-1 do? It actually
does quite a bit. For this example, suppose that you are maintaining an
inventory management system. New requests arrive regularly, and you
want to make sure that you never run out of stock. To prevent a short-
age from happening, you want your trigger to automatically initiate
reorder requests whenever a particular item runs low on inventory.
Another job for this trigger is to alert buyers whenever an especially
unpopular inventory item finally goes out the door. You could write
another trigger to handle this work, but in this case you decide to com-
bine all the code into one object.
234 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Figure 15-1:
Creating a
new trigger,
using SQL
Server Man-
agement
Studio
Express.

2. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express or the SQL tool of

your choice.
SQL Server Management Studio Express is a great tool for entering
Transact-SQL statements, including those that create triggers.
3. Connect to the database where you want to create the trigger.
4. Write your trigger logic.
Using the inventory management example, I break down the code into
manageable chunks to help illustrate how it works:
-- Remove the trigger if it already exists
USE NorthBay
IF OBJECT_ID (‘dbo.trig_check_inventory’, ‘TR’)
IS NOT NULL
DROP TRIGGER dbo.trig_check_inventory
GO
If you try to create a trigger with the same name as one that already
exists, SQL Server 2005 Express complains:
.Net SqlClient Data Provider: Msg 2714, Level 16,
State 2, Procedure trig_check_inventory, Line 34
There is already an object named
‘trig_check_inventory’
in the database.
 Chapter 15: Understanding Triggers 235
Because this kind of error stops a script in its tracks, this first bit of
code gets rid of the trigger if it already exists.
-- Now, create the trigger
CREATE TRIGGER trig_check_inventory ON requests
AFTER INSERT
By specifying AFTER INSERT, you tell SQL Server 2005 Express that you
want this trigger to fire only if the SQL statement that invoked the trigger
is correct, and only for those operations that put data into the table. You
could also have this, or other, triggers fire for UPDATE or DELETE events.
AS
DECLARE @part_number INTEGER, @part_request_count
INTEGER,
@quantity_on_hand INTEGER, @minimum_number INTEGER,
@bad_item TINYINT, @decision_maker_name VARCHAR(50),
@decision_maker_email VARCHAR(50)
Here is where you declare all the variables that you want to use during
your trigger. Remember that you can use all the power of Transact-SQL,
so your triggers can be quite comprehensive.
Write the body of the trigger:
-- Look at the inserted table to find out about the
order
SELECT @part_number = i.part_number,
@part_request_count = i.part_request_count FROM
inserted i

-- Get the current inventory level

SELECT @quantity_on_hand = inv.part_count
FROM inventory inv INNER JOIN inserted i
ON inv.part_number = i.part_number

-- See if there isn’t enough inventory

SELECT @minimum_number = it.minimum_number
FROM inventory_threshold it INNER JOIN inserted i
ON it.part_number = i.part_number

-- Find out if this is a white elephant

SET @bad_item = 0
SELECT @bad_item = COUNT(*) FROM white_elephants we
WHERE @part_number = we.part_number
This group of queries uses newly created information from the inserted
table to help drive validity and other checks. You can think of the
inserted table as a temporary repository of new information — a place
where you can go to find out what the user has sent to SQL Server 2005
Express. The same holds true for the deleted table, except it holds
data that has just been removed. You can use UPDATE() or COLUMNS_
UPDATED to determine the scope of an update.
236 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Now that you have this information, you can take action if necessary:
-- If there isn’t enough inventory, then order some
more
IF (@quantity_on_hand + @part_request_count >
@minimum_number)
INSERT INTO reorder VALUES (@part_number,
@minimum_number)

-- If it’s a white elephant, tell the buyer the good

news
IF @bad_item > 0
exec sqlexpress.msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
@recipients = @decision_maker_email,
@subject = ‘Just sold some of the white
elephants!’ ,
@body = ‘Check the sales activity report’;
This trigger closes out by starting the reorder process when there is
insufficient inventory. Finally, if a customer was foolish enough to buy
one of the problem products, the trigger executes a system stored pro-
cedure to send a congratulatory e-mail to the person who made the deci-
sion to stock the troubled product.
5. Run the Transact-SQL that creates the trigger.
This trigger is fairly basic; you can write much more powerful code that
encodes much more sophisticated business logic, invokes other trig-
gers, and launches stored procedures.

Here’s an example of a DDL trigger that’s designed to block people from cre-
ating new indexes without first checking with you:

CREATE TRIGGER no_new_indexes

ON DATABASE
FOR CREATE_INDEX
AS
PRINT ‘Please call your friendly neighborhood DBA
before creating a new index’
ROLLBACK

Now, if users try to sneak a new index into the database, your new trigger
stops them cold in their tracks:

Please call your friendly neighborhood DBA before creating

a new index
.Net SqlClient Data Provider: Msg 3609, Level 16, State 2,
Line 1
The transaction ended in the trigger. The batch has been
aborted.

You can use DDL triggers to safeguard your entire SQL Server 2005 Express
installation.
 Chapter 15: Understanding Triggers 237
Invoking triggers
Because the SQL Server 2005 Express database engine monitors and runs
triggers, you do very little to make this process happen. In fact, all that needs
to happen in most cases is for the triggering event to take place. For example,
if you put an insert trigger on a particular table, SQL Server 2005 Express
patiently waits until an insert happens on that table. After that insert hap-
pens, Express invokes the trigger and faithfully executes your instructions.

As I show you in the next section, you can disable a trigger. If you’re con-
cerned that a trigger isn’t executing properly, you can easily check whether
the trigger is in fact active. For example, here’s how to tell if the
trig_check_inventory trigger is disabled:

SELECT name, is_disabled FROM sys.triggers WHERE name = ‘trig_check_inventory’

A value of 1 in the is_disabled column means that the trigger is disabled; a

value of 0 means that it is active. Finally, if you’re still not sure that your triggers
are executing properly, you can always put debugging statements into them.

Disabling triggers
Sometimes, even the best of triggers can get in the way of what you’re trying
to accomplish. For example, suppose that you have a collection of rather
complex triggers for a particular table. You wrote these triggers to perform a
variety of data integrity and validation checks to protect your database from
incorrect information. This strategy is a good one: Your database has very
accurate data.

However, suppose that one day you’re given a text file containing several mil-
lion rows of already-cleaned data that need to be inserted into this table.
These hard-working triggers will likely get in the way and cause the data load
to take a very long time.

If you’re using the bcp utility or the BULK INSERT command, SQL Server
2005 Express automatically disables triggers, which helps speed up these
operations. However, for this example, assume that you’re not using either of
these options.

In this case, you don’t want to drop and re-create the triggers, but you want
this one-time job to finish as quickly as possible. Luckily, you can use the
DISABLE TRIGGER statement to tell SQL Server 2005 Express to set one or
more triggers aside:

DISABLE TRIGGER trig_validate_inventory, trig_validate_address ON requests

238 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

In this case, you tell SQL Server 2005 Express to disable two triggers for this
table. If you want to disable all triggers for a table, you can do even less typing:

DISABLE TRIGGER ALL ON requests

But why stop there? A simple change disables the DDL triggers for the whole
database:

DISABLE TRIGGER ALL ON DATABASE

Finally, if you have sufficient permission you can disable all the DDL triggers
for the entire server:

DISABLE TRIGGER ALL ON ALL SERVER

Of course, invoking these kinds of statements exposes your database to the

nasty, data-damaging events that you were concerned about when you first
wrote the trigger. So remember to turn the triggers back on when you’re
ready. Doing so is very easy — just use the ENABLE TRIGGER statement.
Here’s an example of turning all the DDL triggers back on for your server:

ENABLE TRIGGER ALL ON ALL SERVER

Here’s how to put your triggers back to work for a specific table:

ENABLE TRIGGER ALL ON requests

Modifying triggers
Mistakes happen to the best of us, so someday you’ll probably need to
change one of your existing triggers. If you need to make a modification to
the trigger’s logic, you can use the ALTER TRIGGER statement.

Unfortunately, altering a trigger often means that you must re-type the code
for the entire trigger. But what if you forgot the code? Luckily, you can
retrieve it by simply running the sp_helptext stored procedure:

sp_helptext trig_validate_address

On the other hand, if you want to rename the trigger, use the combination of
DROP TRIGGER and CREATE TRIGGER statements.
 Chapter 15: Understanding Triggers 239
Deleting triggers
One day, you and one or more of your triggers might have a falling out.
Maybe it’s just not working for you anymore, or one of you has grown and
changed. In any case, if you can’t patch things up with the trigger, you can
pull the plug. SQL Server 2005 Express makes these awkward moments less
difficult. The DROP TRIGGER statement instantly obliterates the trigger.

For a DML trigger, the DROP TRIGGER statement looks like this:

DROP TRIGGER trig_validate_address

To prevent global mistakes, SQL Server 2005 Express requires that you list
each DML trigger that you want to delete. Getting rid of a DDL trigger for just
one database looks like this:

DROP TRIGGER trig_no_new_index ON DATABASE

You can easily expand the DROP TRIGGER statement to remove a DDL trigger
for all databases on your server:

DROP TRIGGER trig_no_new_index ON ALL SERVER

Another way to get rid of a DML trigger is to drop the entire table, but unless
you truly don’t care about the table, using the DROP TRIGGER statement
instead is a better idea.
240 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express
 Chapter 16

Going Beyond Transact-SQL:

Using the SQL Common
Language Runtime (SQLCLR)
In This Chapter
䊳 Introducing how SQLCLR works
䊳 Discovering the benefits of deploying SQLCLR-based applications
䊳 Integrating SQLCLR with SQL Server 2005 Express
䊳 Developing SQLCLR stored procedures and functions

L ike all of us in the software industry, Microsoft is guilty of generating an

occasional TLA. Oops — I just did it, too. TLA stands for three-letter
acronym, and it’s shorthand for one way that industry insiders and vendors
express complex topics. CLR is yet another example of that; it stands for
Common Language Runtime. As a cornerstone of Microsoft’s approach to inte-
gration, it offers a wealth of interoperability and security features that extend
far beyond just SQL Server 2005 Express. Microsoft has integrated the Common
Language Runtime into SQL Server 2005 and has called this feature SQLCLR.

You can use any of the following programming languages as part of the
SQLCLR environment:

⻬ Microsoft Visual C++

⻬ Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
⻬ Microsoft Visual C# .NET

In this chapter, I describe how to take advantage of this technology to extend

the power of your database applications. However, given the richness of this
infrastructure along with the lack of space in a single chapter, please bear in
mind that my immediate goal is to give you a basic overview of SQLCLR; I’m
leaving many highly technical details out in the interest of clarity and brevity.
242 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Finding Out How SQLCLR Works

A word of warning before I show you how this technology works: Just as
using an electric light does not require understanding quantum physics, writ-
ing SQLCLR code for your database doesn’t mandate deep knowledge of all
the underlying software that makes this integration possible. Still, if you’re
curious about all the features that SQLCLR brings to the table, read on.

The .NET framework

Although we database-focused folks might like to believe otherwise, CLR plays
a much bigger role in the Microsoft overall architecture than just in the context
of SQL Server 2005 Express integration. It’s actually part of the Microsoft .NET
framework. Think of this framework as a unifying set of technologies that are
designed to make the lives of programmers and other technical people easier.

Because the .NET framework handles so many of the tasks that were previ-
ously the responsibility of an individual developer, many applications have
been built on top of this infrastructure. Known as Managed Code, and
whether by design or not, these solutions leverage the following .NET frame-
work services in the process:

⻬ Garbage collection: Before you get your hopes up, no, CLR doesn’t take
the trash out for you or straighten up around your desk (although these
tasks likely will be available by 2010). In this case, garbage collection
refers to how CLR cleans up memory that is no longer needed. It helps
make the most of an always-scarce resource; without it, your applica-
tions would consume more memory, and do so less efficiently.
⻬ Threading: Threads are one way that modern computers and operating
systems stretch performance. They are different strands of logic that
your CPU juggles in near-real time. Threading boosts system throughput
in a way that is completely transparent to your application. CLR
employs sophisticated threading logic to increase your solution’s
responsiveness.
⻬ Security: The power and flexibility of CLR-based applications can be a
double-edged sword: It’s easy to imagine a shady character trying to
sneak some nefarious code into your database. However, the CLR has a
number of built-in security restrictions designed to protect your data-
base from unauthorized logic.
⻬ Assemblies: After compiling your .NET-based application, Microsoft gen-
erates a composite object known as an assembly. In addition to your
application code, these structures contain all sorts of information that
the CLR uses when running this program. By using this intermediate
arrangement, your application can easily interact with other programs
that were built the same way.
 Chapter 16: Using the SQL Common Language Runtime (SQLCLR) 243
Why use SQLCLR?
Transact-SQL is fine for many database-oriented tasks, but it has some signifi-
cant shortcomings as a tool for more complex software development jobs.
One of the reasons that SQLCLR exists is to help address these deficiencies.
Here are some of its key advantages when building robust solutions:

⻬ Performance: Transact-SQL is an interpreted language; the SQL Server

2005 Express engine generally validates every script each time it’s run.
However, the programming languages that you use to build a SQLCLR-
based solution are all compiled. They greatly reduce the amount of work
necessary at runtime, which helps increase throughput. On top of that,
these languages are generally faster in their own right.
⻬ Security: SQLCLR introduces numerous safeguards to prevent unautho-
rized access to, and operations on, your database. While Transact-SQL is
no security slouch, SQLCLR adds yet another layer of defense for your
information by leveraging the underlying SQL Server 2005 Express secu-
rity system.
In addition, because these languages are compiled, no one can have a
peek at your code; the compilation process encrypts your application
logic.
⻬ Proven programming model: Given SQLCLR’s tight coupling with the
.NET framework, choosing one of these programming languages as your
development infrastructure lets you take advantage of Microsoft’s solid
architectural foundation.
⻬ User-defined types and functions: You can build your own types and
functions in Transact-SQL; they just run more quickly and efficiently
when coupled with the SQLCLR environment.
⻬ Productivity: You can use the highly capable Visual Studio 2005 environ-
ment for any programming language supported by SQLCLR. This soft-
ware development platform offers tremendous productivity
enhancements when compared to the way that most developers con-
struct Transact-SQL software.

What can you build with SQLCLR?

You can use SQLCLR-based programs to create any of the following SQL
Server 2005 Express objects:

⻬ Stored procedures
⻬ Functions
⻬ Aggregates
244 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ User-defined types
⻬ Triggers

If you’re curious about what these objects do, check out Chapter 14 for
details about the value of stored procedures and functions, and Chapter 15
for how triggers can add value to your applications.

Determining Whether You

Should Use SQLCLR
How can you tell whether you need to switch from building database soft-
ware with Transact-SQL to one of the SQLCLR-ready languages? Chances are
you should if any of the following conditions apply in your environment:

⻬ Trade-secret algorithms: Your application may contain one or more con-

fidential, proprietary algorithms. For example, perhaps you’re building a
solution that determines credit risk, using some hard-won, closely
guarded formulas. The last thing you’d want is for someone outside your
organization to see how these formulas were constructed. The compiled
nature of the SQLCLR languages — along with the added security pro-
vided by the framework — means that your trade secrets remain just
that: secret.
⻬ High performance requirements: You may be creating an application
that needs extremely high rates of speed. On the other hand, you may
just have extremely high maintenance users. Regardless of the reason,
consider switching to SQLCLR if your goal is to wring every last drop of
throughput from your solution.
⻬ Powerful clients: With hardware costs continually dropping, many
environments now feature client computers that a few years ago would
have been acting as servers in their own right. While a Transact-SQL-based
application needs its code to run on the server, a SQLCLR-based appli-
cation’s logic can be run on the server, the client, or a combination of
the two.
⻬ Advanced language needs: Transact-SQL is missing a number of key fea-
tures and constructs that software developers have come to rely upon.
All these are present in any of the SQLCLR-based languages:
• Arrays
• FOR/EACH loops
• Object orientation
• Classes
 Chapter 16: Using the SQL Common Language Runtime (SQLCLR) 245
Using SQLCLR
Leveraging SQLCLR to extend your database applications is not as compli-
cated as you may think (or fear!). First, I show you the basic steps needed to
employ SQLCLR in your database. Then, I use these steps to build two
sample SQLCLR-based objects.

1. Launch Visual Studio 2005.

2. Create a new project, choosing your preferred language at the
same time.
3. Choose a SQL Server template.
4. Choose the database connection you want to use.
If one doesn’t exist, here’s where you create it.
5. Generate the foundation of your software.
You can choose among stored procedures, functions, triggers, aggre-
gates, and user-defined types.
6. Write your application logic, using the Visual Studio-generated foun-
dation as a starting point.
7. Build and deploy your program.
To take advantage of SQLCLR-based logic, you must first enable
CLR capabilities in your database server. To do so, execute the sp_
configure stored procedure as follows:
exec sp_configure ‘clr enabled’, 1
You may also need to tinker with the security settings of your SQLCLR
application, especially if it needs to make calls back into the database,
access the user interface, or manipulate the file system.
If administrative stored procedures aren’t your cup of tea, you can use
the SQL Server Surface Area configuration tool to set these parameters.
Chapter 3 has all you need to know about this helpful utility.
8. Test your solution.

The preceding steps lay out the basic workflow for embedding SQLCLR logic;
with that in mind, check out the two different examples of how to embed
SQLCLR-based logic in your SQL Server 2005 Express database. Before begin-
ning, here are a few assumptions and ground rules about these examples:

⻬ Visual Studio 2005 is the development platform. Although there are

other potential routes, if you plan to make frequent use of SQLCLR-
based logic, Visual Studio is the way to go. Take the time to become
familiar with the product.
246 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ I build a stored procedure in one example, and a function in the

other. You can also build objects such as triggers, aggregates, and user-
defined types by using SQLCLR.
⻬ I use Visual Basic in one example, and Visual C# in the other. SQLCLR
includes support for other programming languages, but these two are
the most popular.
⻬ You have some familiarity with Visual C# and/or Visual Basic. Even
some knowledge of any procedural language is of help here.
⻬ For clarity’s sake, the examples are as simple as possible. I don’t sub-
ject you to deciphering 2,000 lines of intricate C# or Visual Basic code;
instead, I show the bare minimum necessary for you to understand how
to hook everything together and get productive.

Example 1: Customer classification

stored procedure
This Visual Basic-based customer classification stored procedure expects a
customer number, total quantity and value of transactions, average days to
pay invoice, and a classification code. Using this information, it then executes
a search in the database to find the minimum revenue target for that classifi-
cation code. If the customer has generated more than the baseline revenue,
the procedure writes a record into the database. Here’s how the initial gener-
ated procedure looks:

Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.Sql
Imports System.Data.SqlTypes
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Server

Partial Public Class StoredProcedures

<Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlProcedure()> _
Public Shared Sub ClassifyCustomer ()
‘ Add your code here
End Sub
End Class

Figure 16-1 shows how Visual Studio appears for this project. Notice how the
database and project are closely integrated within the development user
interface.
 Chapter 16: Using the SQL Common Language Runtime (SQLCLR) 247

Figure 16-1:
Building a
SQLCLR
application
in the Visual
Studio
develop-
ment
environment.

Just a few lines of Visual Basic code complete the stored procedure. Here’s
what the finished product looks like:

Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Data.Sql
Imports System.Data.SqlTypes
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Server

Partial Public Class StoredProcedures

<Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlProcedure()> _
Public Shared Sub ClassifyCustomer(ByVal CustomerNumber As Integer, _
ByVal TotalRevenue As Integer, ByVal TotalOrders As Integer, _
ByVal AverageDaysToPay As Integer, ByVal ClassCode As String)

‘ Define a connection string to the database

Dim myConnectionString As String = _
“Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=SampleCLR;” _
& “Integrated Security=True”

‘ Connect to the database using the string just created

Dim dbConnection As SqlClient.SqlConnection = _
New SqlClient.SqlConnection(myConnectionString)
dbConnection.Open()
248 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

‘ Build up an SQL string to retrieve a matching record

Dim SQLString As String = _
“SELECT RevenueThreshold FROM CustomerClassification” _
& “ WHERE ClassificationCode = ‘“ + ClassCode + “‘“

‘ Create a command object to use the string

Dim mySQLCommand As New SqlClient.SqlCommand(SQLString, dbConnection)

‘ Build up a second string and command

‘ object to insert qualified records
Dim SQLString1 As String = “INSERT INTO QualifiedCustomers values (“ + _
CustomerNumber.ToString + “, “ + TotalRevenue.ToString + “ )”
Dim mySQLCommand1 As New SqlClient.SqlCommand(SQLString1, dbConnection)

‘ Define a data reader object

Dim myDataReader As SqlClient.SqlDataReader
myDataReader = mySQLCommand.ExecuteReader()

‘ Set up a local variable to hold the retrieved threshold

‘ value from the database
Dim MinRevenue As Integer

‘ Walk through each retrieved record

Do While myDataReader.Read
MinRevenue = myDataReader.GetInt32(0)
If (TotalRevenue >= MinRevenue) Then
mySQLCommand1.ExecuteNonQuery ()
End If
Loop

‘ Shut down the connection to the database

dbConnection.Close()

End Sub
End Class

Before spending lots of time filling in the blanks on an automatically generated

SQLCLR object, try building and deploying it first. Discovering any product
installation or problems early is for the best, before you invest too much time.

Example 2: Insurance risk function

In this example, I use C# to build a function that takes a series of parameters
about a driver, including number of tickets, accidents, and late payments. It
then uses an internal algorithm to determine if the driver is a good insurance
risk, and then returns its answer to the person or process that invoked the
function.
 Chapter 16: Using the SQL Common Language Runtime (SQLCLR) 249
Here’s how the initially generated code appears:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Sql;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;

public partial class UserDefinedFunctions

{
[Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlFunction]
public static SqlString RiskProfile()
{
// Put your code here
return new SqlString(“Hello”);
}
};

Here’s what the RiskProfile() function looks like after adding the risk vali-
dation logic:

[Microsoft.SqlServer.Server.SqlFunction]
public static SqlString RiskProfile(int numTickets,
int numAccidents, int numLatePayments)
{
// Driver starts out with no faults
int Faults = 0;

// This will be the variable used

// to hold the driver’s rating
SqlString Rating = new SqlString();

if (numTickets > 3)
Faults++;
if (numAccidents > 1)
Faults++;
if (numLatePayments > 3)
Faults++;

switch (Faults)
{
case 0:
Rating = “Positive”;
break;
case 1:
Rating = “Neutral”;
break;
case 2:
Rating = “Negative”;
break;
250 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

case 3:
Rating = “Catastrophe”;
break; default:
Rating = “Neutral”;
break;
}
return Rating;
}

You can now invoke this function from within Transact-SQL, of course making
sure to replace the database name and owner with the proper values for
your site:

SELECT [DatabaseName].[Owner].[RiskProfile] (1,1,3)

 Chapter 17

Sorry, I’ll Try That Again: Adding

Error Handling to Your Code
In This Chapter
䊳 Understanding the importance of handling errors
䊳 Discovering the error management process
䊳 Trapping errors in the database and application
䊳 Defining your own types of errors

W e all strive for perfection. Alas, errors, anomalies, and other unantici-
pated surprises are a fact of life. Nowhere is this fact more apparent
than in computer-driven applications, and solutions built on top of SQL
Server 2005 Express are no exception to this rule.

In this chapter, I show you why planning for, and handling, errors is so impor-
tant. You see how to take advantage of the significant amount of error han-
dling infrastructure offered by SQL Server 2005 Express, as well as the
various application development technologies that work with this database
server. Finally, I point out a number of common error scenarios, along with
techniques that you can use to deal with them.

Don’t Just Ignore It: Why You

Should Care About Errors
Making your applications fully error-proof is hard work. Sometimes you might
even be tempted to skip handling certain types of errors, and just hope for
the best. After all, you put a lot of effort into building and debugging your
application, and it’s built on top of a solid database platform to boot. What
could go wrong? Unfortunately, errors happen even in the most bulletproof
applications, often through no fault of the software developer. Here are just a
few benefits you accrue simply by monitoring and handling errors.
252 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ Transactional consistency: In Chapter 12, I point out why transactions are

such an integral part of keeping your data logically consistent. If you’ve
followed my advice and added transactions to your applications: Good for
you. However, you’re not done yet. To correctly use transactions, you
need to know when to commit (that is, save) or rollback (that is, cancel) an
operation. If you don’t check for errors, you can’t instruct SQL Server 2005
Express to take the right action at the end of a transaction.
⻬ Application stability: Even if a particular database error doesn’t have
any impact on any transactions, you still run the risk of a logically unsta-
ble application if you don’t monitor and deal with any errors. For exam-
ple, suppose that part of your application involves creating a temporary
table and then inserting short-lived information into this new transitory
table. Your software solution then uses this temporary table to help make
decisions. If an error happens when you create the table or insert rows,
and you don’t catch or monitor this problem, you have a good chance
that the downstream decision-making process will be inaccurate. Tracing
and fixing this problem is very hard if no one knows about the initial issue.
⻬ Enhanced data integrity: Implementing a solid error-handling strategy
adds value — especially when safeguarding the integrity of your infor-
mation even if you haven’t used transactions when building your appli-
cation. By intercepting and handling an error, you may prevent your
application from introducing erroneous information into your database.

How to Handle Errors

I hope that I’ve convinced you that planning for and dealing with errors is
important. In this section, I point out the useful and descriptive details that
SQL Server 2005 Express provides whenever your application encounters an
error, along with methods you can use to handle them.

Information about errors

To help you decipher and resolve any errors that your database server
encounters, SQL Server 2005 Express provides the following error properties:

⻬ Error message: Here’s where you can find the exact wording of the error
message.
⻬ Error number: Each SQL Server 2005 Express error is associated with a
predefined number; this property gives you that number.
⻬ Error procedure: If your error happened in the middle of a stored pro-
cedure or trigger, here is where you can learn the name of the culprit. On
the other hand, if it happened outside the context of either of these
objects, this property is set to NULL.
Chapter 17: Sorry, I’ll Try That Again: Adding Error Handling to Your Code 253
⻬ Error line: This property reports on where SQL Server 2005 Express
found the error in your program or script.
⻬ Error severity: Errors can range in severity, from 0 to 24. All these
errors are not created equal. Some are cause for great concern, while
you can practically laugh off others. Table 17-1 shows a summary of
each major error severity group.
⻬ Error state: Depending on where the error occurred, the same error
number can have different error state values. So a given error number
may indicate different problems.

Table 17-1 SQL Server Express Error Severity Groups

Severity Meaning
0-9 Minor errors, or informational messages.
10 A synonym for error severity level zero.
11 Attempt to access a non-existent object.
12 Non-locking read queries return this error in cer-
tain situations.
13 A transaction deadlock has occurred.
14 A security violation was attempted.
15 SQL Server intercepted a syntax error in the
Transact-SQL.
16 A catchall for user-correctable errors.
17 SQL Server ran out of a resource such as memory,
locks, and so on.
18 An internal error happened in the database server.
19 A more severe internal database server error has
occurred.
20 A specific statement has caused a problem.
21 A system-wide error has happened.
22 A database software or disk hardware problem
has occurred.
23 The database’s integrity has been compromised.
24 The underlying disk drive has been damaged.
254 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Built-in system functions

In the preceding section, I inventory all the properties that you can discover
about an error. If you’re writing Transact-SQL and using TRY...CATCH logic
(which I describe in a moment), you can invoke the following functions to
obtain error properties programmatically:

⻬ ERROR_NUMBER()
⻬ ERROR_MESSAGE()
⻬ ERROR_LINE()
⻬ ERROR_PROCEDURE()
If the error happened outside the context of a stored procedure or trig-
ger, calling this function returns a NULL.
⻬ ERROR_SEVERITY()
⻬ ERROR_STATE()

These functions are relevant only in a TRY...CATCH block. Otherwise, they

return NULL. Also, be sure to check your errors frequently. If you omit error
checking in a given place, you may inadvertently pick up the error conditions
from another section of code.

Handling errors in the database

Think of managing any issues within the database itself as a good first line
defense against problems. This concept is especially true if your application
takes advantage of stored procedures, triggers, or functions. You can embed
error-handling logic in these server-side objects to intercept and deal with
problems before your application fails.

TRY...CATCH
Unplanned-for problems often caused a total failure of the program in earlier
generations of software applications. These errors frequently made the pro-
gram so unstable that it was unable to continue, an event I’m sure you’ve
seen. In an effort to help stabilize what are increasingly complex programs,
many modern programming languages contain exception handlers that can
catch and handle problems.

Transact-SQL now also provides this ability, via a construct known as

TRY...CATCH. This feature contains two blocks. The first, which wraps its
database access code between the BEGIN TRY and END TRY statements, is
Chapter 17: Sorry, I’ll Try That Again: Adding Error Handling to Your Code 255
known as the TRY block. Immediately following this block is the error-handling
logic, wrapped between BEGIN CATCH and END CATCH. This CATCH block is
where you can write logic to take any or all the following actions:

⻬ Report the error to the user or invoking application; ask them to correct
the mistake if possible.
⻬ Attempt to programmatically correct the error; the user may not even
know there was a problem.
⻬ Invoke a standardized error handler to manage the problem.
⻬ Rollback any open transactions.

You can nest TRY...CATCH blocks, but note that errors with a severity level
of less than 10 (that is, minor errors, simple informational, and other advi-
sory messages) won’t trigger the CATCH block. Refer to Table 18-1 for a listing
of error severity groups.

Here’s an example of a simple TRY...CATCH that launches a transaction,

inserts a row, and then rollbacks the transaction in case a problem occurs. In
this case, the value ‘one oh one’ should actually be 101 because the field
expects a numeric value:

BEGIN TRY
BEGIN TRANSACTION;
INSERT INTO products VALUES
(‘one oh one’,’Paisley leisure suit’,
‘Everything old is new again! Be the talk of
your town with this cutting edge leisure suit’
);
COMMIT TRANSACTION;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
IF (XACT_STATE()) = -1
BEGIN
PRINT N’The transaction contains errors, so
it is being rolled back.’;
ROLLBACK TRANSACTION;
END;
END CATCH;

You may be wondering what purpose the XACT_STATE() function serves in

this example. You can use this built-in function to determine the current state
of your transaction. It returns three possible values:

⻬ -1: An active transaction can’t be committed due to errors or other

problems. You need to issue a ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement as
soon as possible.
256 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

⻬ 0: This session has no active transactions.

⻬ 1: This session has an active transaction, and everything is working nor-
mally. You are free to commit or rollback the transaction as you see fit.

As you see in a moment when I discuss handling errors in the application,

database-centric error handling can go only so far: The TRY...CATCH con-
struct won’t easily catch a significant number of error situations.

@@ERROR
Unlike the TRY...CATCH block, which requires a more structured approach
to your Transact-SQL application code, you can simply consult the @@ERROR
operation to check the error number for the most recent statement.
Successful invocations return 0 (a zero); errors return a non-zero value.

Because every SQL statement resets this value, make sure to check it immedi-
ately after an operation. Otherwise, you may not have a true picture of any
error conditions.

After you save the value contained in @@ERROR, you can take action depend-
ing on what you’ve learned. Your Transact-SQL logic, however, is probably
more effective using the TRY...CATCH block rather than the more informal
@@ERROR construct.

Handling errors in the application

Despite your best efforts to intercept errors at their source in the database, I
can guarantee that some will sneak by and make it all the way back into your
application. Fortunately, all modern programming languages and technolo-
gies incorporate mechanisms to gracefully cope with all sorts of issues —
database problems included.

A highly detailed review of each software development technology’s error

management structure would fill its own book. In the following list, I simply
describe how each major application infrastructure handles errors:

⻬ Open Database Connectivity (ODBC): When your ODBC-based applica-

tion encounters a database error, three bits of diagnostic information are
at your disposal:
• The native error number. This is a SQL Server 2005 Express-
specific error code.
• A message that describes the error condition.
• A database-independent error code, known as SQLSTATE. By
building your solutions to handle this generic, cross-database
error code, you can more easily switch your application logic
between different database engines.
 Chapter 17: Sorry, I’ll Try That Again: Adding Error Handling to Your Code 257
After you determine that an error has occurred (which you know if any-
thing other than SQL_SUCCESS is returned from an ODBC function call),
you can invoke the ODBC SQLGetDiagRec operation to retrieve the
three diagnostic indicators.
⻬ Active Data Objects (ADO): This database API offers the same diagnos-
tic information as I describe for ODBC in the preceding bullet.
⻬ Object Linking and Embedding for Databases (OLE DB): This API also
provides the same error result information as ODBC. You can use the
IErrorInfo interface to fetch these details. If you’re interested in SQL
Server 2005 Express-specific aspects, check out the ISQLServerError
Info interface.
⻬ SqlClient: If you’re using this API, make sure to catch SqlException
exceptions. Once caught, you can then retrieve details about what
caused the issue to occur.
⻬ Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC): Just as with ADO and OLE DB, this
popular programming technology also offers the error detail information
available via the ODBC interface.

Error Examples
By now you’re probably wondering what some real-world errors look like.
Never fear: I’m about to show you a wide variety of what you may encounter
as you build and maintain your SQL Server 2005 Express-based application.

No two development environments are exactly alike, so I use straight

Transact-SQL to illustrate these examples. Also, recall that the TRY...CATCH
block can’t handle any errors that are caused by bad syntax, or object names
issues that aren’t discovered until runtime.

For these examples, I work with two tables from a product rating application,
as defined here:

CREATE TABLE PRODUCTS

(
product_id INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
product_name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
product_description TEXT NOT NULL
)
CREATE TABLE ratings
(
rating_id INTEGER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
rating_date DATETIME NOT NULL,
product_id INTEGER NOT NULL REFERENCES products,
rating_code SMALLINT NOT NULL,
product_rating TEXT NOT NULL
)
258 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Syntax error
Sometimes even the simplest problem can drive you nuts. Mistyping SQL
syntax ranks with some of the most common, yet hard-to-debug obstacles.
Unfortunately, unless you embed the TRY...CATCH block within a stored
procedure, even a simple syntax error isn’t caught. For example, look at this
block of code, its simple typo, and its output:

BEGIN TRY
SLEECT * FROM Products;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT
ERROR_LINE() as ‘Error Location’,
ERROR_NUMBER() as ‘SQL Server Error Number’,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ‘Error Description’
END CATCH
Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Line 2
Incorrect syntax near ‘SLEECT’.

Why didn’t the CATCH block intercept this message and give a formatted
error result? Syntax errors and recompilation mistakes aren’t caught, unless
they happen to be embedded in a stored procedure or other lower-level
TRY...CATCH block.

Database schema issue

One reason why database administrators typically keep tight control over their
SQL Server 2005 Express servers is to prevent inadvertent schema alterations.
What makes these changes so dangerous is that they can easily damage previ-
ously working applications. For example, suppose that someone decides to
rename the rating_number column in the ratings table to rating_code.
Look at what happens to the following section of well-tested, and already-
successful code.

BEGIN TRY
SELECT rating_id, rating_code FROM ratings;
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT
ERROR_LINE() as ‘Error Location’,
ERROR_NUMBER() as ‘SQL Server Error Number’,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ‘Error Description’
END CATCH

Msg 207, Level 16, State 1, Line 2

Invalid column name ‘rating_code’.
Chapter 17: Sorry, I’ll Try That Again: Adding Error Handling to Your Code 259
Just as in the preceding syntax error example, here is another example where
the TRY...CATCH block is unable to intercept and deal with a problem.
Alternatively, you could use a Data Definition Language (DDL) trigger to
thwart any attempts to modify your database’s schema.

Data conversion problems

Many an application has fallen over when attempting an incorrect data con-
version. Fortunately, proper error handling can head off an embarrassing fail-
ure in this area. Take a look at the following Transact-SQL snippet and results,
where I’m trying to insert a string into a column that’s expecting an integer:

BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO products VALUES (‘Oh no’,’Widget 6’,
‘High quality widget - available in lime green’);
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT
ERROR_LINE() as ‘Error Location’,
ERROR_NUMBER() as ‘SQL Server Error Number’,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ‘Error Description’
END CATCH

2 245 Conversion failed when converting the

varchar value ‘Oh no’ to data type int.

Referential integrity violation

As I describe in Chapter 8, referential integrity helps preserve the logical con-
sistency of your SQL Server 2005 Express database. When you put this data
safeguard in place, the database server enforces its rules. You can then
manage any errors that arise at runtime, as I show in the following code
block. In this example, I’m trying to insert a row into the ratings table that
doesn’t have a corresponding entry in the products table.

BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO ratings VALUES (1822,’12/30/2006’,
100, 15,’Product met my needs’);
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT
ERROR_LINE() as ‘Error Location’,
ERROR_NUMBER() as ‘SQL Server Error Number’,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ‘Error Description’
END CATCH
260 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

2 547 The INSERT statement conflicted with the

FOREIGN KEY constraint “FK__ratings__product__09DE7BCC”.
The conflict occurred in database “Northbay”, table
“dbo.PRODUCTS”, column ‘product_id’.

In this case, the TRY...CATCH block works as advertised, catching the error
message and displaying it in the chosen format.

You typically encode some sort of error-handling flow control logic in a

TRY...CATCH block. For these examples, I simply display the error message.

Trigger interception
In Chapter 15, I show you how to take advantage of triggers to use SQL Server
2005 Express as your agent in enforcing business and other rules. Of course,
all rules are made to be broken, but the database server is rather strict in its
interpretation of these guidelines. So you certainly receive an error if you
attempt to violate a rule encoded in a trigger. Have a look at the following
code snippet to see what I mean. Before beginning, note that a trigger is in
place to prevent users from entering a very high rating if a sufficient number
of reviews aren’t already in place.

BEGIN TRY
INSERT INTO ratings VALUES
(11,’6/10/2007’,1,100,’Best ever!’);
END TRY
BEGIN CATCH
SELECT
ERROR_LINE() as ‘Error Location’,
ERROR_NUMBER() as ‘SQL Server Error Number’,
ERROR_MESSAGE() as ‘Error Description’
END CATCH

9 50000 Not enough ratings to give this product

such a high score

The TRY...CATCH block works in tandem with the trigger, protecting the
integrity of the database and allowing the application developer to handle
the exception.

Defining Your Own Errors

with RAISERROR
Even though SQL Server 2005 Express comes with a plethora of built-in
error messages, you may want to create your own set of site-specific error
Chapter 17: Sorry, I’ll Try That Again: Adding Error Handling to Your Code 261
diagnostics. Why would you go to the trouble? Here are just a few good
reasons:

⻬ Application-specific messages: As I describe in Chapters 14 and 15, you

can customize SQL Server 2005 Express with your own set of stored pro-
cedures, functions, and triggers. These can make up the foundation of an
application, and you may wish to define and report on your own set of
errors that relate only to your solution.
⻬ Debugging: Software developers frequently spend more time debugging
software than developing new applications. You can use RAISERROR
(which I describe in a minute) as a convenient shortcut to determining
the state of your database-based application logic.
⻬ Informative messages: Sometimes an error isn’t an error. For example,
perhaps you want to report advisory results back to a user. You could
hardcode this message into your application, or you could just take
advantage of RAISERROR.

When using the RAISERROR statement, you can choose between building a mes-
sage at runtime or picking a predefined error message from the sys.messages
system catalog. Here’s how to store a user-defined error message in the data-
base server:

1. Open a command prompt.

Choose Start➪Run and enter cmd. Or choose Programs➪Accessories➪
Command Prompt. After you see the friendly command prompt, you can
launch SQLCMD.
2. Run SQLCMD, connecting to the correct database server.
3. Run the sp_addmessage stored procedure.
Here’s an example of creating an application-specific error message:

exec sp_addmessage @msgnum = 75000, @severity=17,

@msgtext = ‘VIP status available only if annual purchases
exceed $25,000 for customer %s’
GO

You can also use SQL Server Management Studio Express to create these
user-defined error messages.

With the message safely stored in the database, here are some examples of
using it in conjunction with RAISERROR. For the following examples, I show
both runtime-generated messages as well as the message I stored in the
database.

In this first case, here’s an example of the RAISERROR command for a user-
defined error message, using a similar message style to the one I describe in
262 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

the preceding steps. You typically invoke this error via a stored procedure,
function, or trigger:

RAISERROR(75000,17,1,’3D House of Beef’)

Here’s what the user sees:

Msg 75000, Level 17, State 1, Server DBSERVER, Line 1

VIP status available only if annual purchases exceed
$25,000 for customer 3D House of Beef.

Next, here’s an example of a runtime-generated message, also typically con-

structed within a stored procedure, trigger, or function:

RAISERROR (‘Customer credit is insufficient for

order’,16,1)

And here’s what the user sees:

Msg 50000, Level 16, State 1, Line 1

Customer credit is insufficient for order

Note that 50000 is the default user-defined error code.

 Chapter 18

Full-Text Searching and

Reporting Services
In This Chapter
䊳 Understanding how this version relates to the other SQL Server editions
䊳 Taking advantage of full-text searching
䊳 Making the most of reporting

B ecause no two data-processing environments are alike, the SQL Server

2005 product family offers specialized editions that you can use to con-
struct database-driven solutions that are just right for your needs. These edi-
tions range from the freely downloadable SQL Server 2005 Express all the way
up to the pricier Enterprise edition. What’s great about this arrangement is that
you can very easily move between editions: Database architecture and applica-
tion logic that work with one version are compatible with other versions.

For entry-level users and developers, SQL Server 2005 Express offers tremen-
dous functionality and power in a free package. However, certain key capabil-
ities are not present in this edition. Thus, after taking feedback from early
users into consideration, Microsoft took the baseline functionality from SQL
Server 2005 Express and added some very helpful new capabilities, and cre-
ated a new edition named SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services.
This product represents a middle way for those organizations that want the
ease of use and low (actually, free) price point of the baseline SQL Server
2005 Express edition as well as higher-end features, such as full-text search
and enhanced reporting capabilities. Prior to this new edition, the only way
to gain access to this type of functionality was to purchase a more expensive
version of SQL Server 2005.

In this chapter, I point out how you can make the most of this edition. To
begin, I help you determine whether this is the right edition of SQL Server
2005 Express for you. Next, I show you how to correctly install the product.
With that vital step out of the way, the next order of business is to see how to
leverage the power of full-text searching. Finally, you see how to quickly
create and deploy reports.
264 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Deciding to Use the Advanced

Services Edition
Given all the different SQL Server editions, you would be forgiven for wonder-
ing how Advanced Services version fits in and when you should choose it for
your data storage project. It’s actually quite simple: Choose this edition when
the basic functionality provided by SQL Server Express almost meets your
needs, but you require some additional capabilities. If any of the following
features interests you, check out Advanced Services:

⻬ Full-text searching: Quickly and efficiently search through mountains of

text-based information.
⻬ Reporting services: Present your valuable data in many different for-
mats through a variety of interfaces.
⻬ Graphical management: Perform database administration and informa-
tion operations through an easy-to-use management tool.

I show you how to use the first two helpful features throughout the rest of
this chapter.

Although the SQL Server Management Studio Express tool is highlighted as

being part of this edition, you can use it with the baseline SQL Server 2005
Express product. As a matter of fact, I reference it throughout the rest of the
book.

Installation Considerations
When installing this edition of SQL Server 2005 Express, be mindful to specifi-
cally request important product features. Otherwise, you may be unpleas-
antly surprised to find that they were skipped. For example, look at Figure
18-1 to see how the installation utility looks when selecting features.

Make sure that you enable any capabilities that you think are important in
your environment: It’s usually better to have them installed and simply not
use them than not have them when you need them.

In terms of installing the report server, it’s generally wise to choose the
default configuration rather than skipping this step. Figure 18-2 shows you
how to control the report server’s configuration.
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 265

Figure 18-1:
Installation
feature
selection
dialog box.

Figure 18-2:
Report
server
installation
options.
266 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

To get a better idea of the exact configuration for your report server, just click
the Details button. The window shown in Figure 18-3 appears, which provides
more insight into how SQL Server 2005 Express adjusts your settings.

Figure 18-3:
Report
server
installation
details.

Speaking of reporting, to gain the full benefit of all that SQL Server 2005
Express with Advanced Services offers, make sure to download and install
the SQL Express Toolkit. It includes these key technologies (see Figure 18-4):

⻬ Connectivity Components: These technologies make it possible for

database clients and servers to talk.
⻬ Business Intelligence Development Studio: This is the foundation upon
which you build reports.
⻬ Software Development Kit: These tools help application developers
build solutions to interact with SQL Server.
⻬ Management Studio Express: This graphical environment is ideal for
managing and interacting with your database.

Finally, you should bear in mind that if you want to share your reports with
users logging in from other computers, you need to make sure that a web
server such as Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) is installed and
configured. If it’s not already set up on your computer, you can request it as
follows:
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 267
1. Launch Control Panel from the Start menu.
2. Double-click the Add or Remove Programs icon.
3. Click the Add/Remove Windows Components icon.
The Windows Components Wizard launches.
4. Select the IIS check box and click Next to complete the wizard.
After the wizard finishes, IIS is installed on your computer.

With these details out of the way, it’s now time to see how full-text searching
can add measurable value to your database-driven solutions.

Figure 18-4:
SQL Express
Toolkit
installation.

Full-Text Searching
Many modern database-driven applications need to store and process large
volumes of text-based information. To help address these requirements, data-
base vendors continually improve the capabilities of their product offerings.
Microsoft is no exception. However, advanced text interrogation features
have generally only been found in the pricier versions of its database prod-
ucts. By including these capabilities in this free version, SQL Server 2005
Express with Advanced Services represents a break from this tradition. In
this section, I show you how this technology works and also how you can
take advantage of its power to build richer, more sophisticated applications.
268 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

If you’re unfamiliar with the challenges of processing large amounts of text-

based data, you’re probably wondering what all the fuss is about. Here are
just a few of the benefits that you’ll accrue simply by using full-text searches
to locate information:

⻬ Speed: When you need to search for the proverbial needle in a haystack —
where your haystack is made up of reams of text-based data — you’ll
appreciate the dramatic performance gains that full-text searches offer
versus traditional searches that use the LIKE SQL keyword.
⻬ Ease-of-use: As I show you in the “Using full-text searching” section a
little later in this chapter, you don’t need a PhD in computer science
from MIT to be productive with full-text searching. In fact, you can
quickly and simply construct your own queries in minutes.
⻬ Broad document support: Even a modern, sophisticated relational
database management system such as SQL Server is only one source of
information in most enterprises. Tons of additional data reside in all
sorts of locations, from text files to documents such as PDF, Word, and
Excel. Full-text searching lets you include these venues when construct-
ing a query.
⻬ Localization: Modern relational database management systems such as
SQL Server 2005 Express can cope with information in any language,
from Afrikaans to Zulu. When you use full-text searching (rather than the
LIKE keyword), SQL Server 2005 Express applies sophisticated linguistic
rules based on the data’s language rather than a brute force character-
matching exercise.

Special SQL Server full-text enhancements

To make possible the important capabilities I describe in the preceding bul-
lets, this edition of SQL Server 2005 Express includes three highly specialized
engine technologies, all of which interact with the standard SQL Server
process and its ancillary capabilities:

⻬ Full-text engine: This component is a dedicated indexing and search

structure that is fully integrated with the main SQL Server database
engine. It has three main tasks to perform:
• Construct full-text indexes.
• Maintain full-text indexes.
• Enable searching on full-text data.
To get the job done for these three tasks, the full-text engine includes a
number of objects, ranging from a collection of language-specific the-
saurus to a list of “noise” words that should be discarded when analyz-
ing data. If you’re curious, you can see this process running from the
Windows Task Manager; it’s called MFTESQL.
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 269
⻬ Full-text engine filter daemon: Full-text searching wouldn’t get very far
without this technology. The full-text engine launches the daemon and
makes it possible to sort through full-text information. It’s made up of
three specialized components:
• Protocol handler: This actually performs the job of interacting
with a table to work with data.
• Filter: One of the best features of full-text searching is its ability to
handle data from a variety of file formats. The filtering technology
makes it possible for SQL Server to work with these specialized
types of data.
• Word breaker and stemmer: This is how SQL Server 2005 Express
parses and analyzes text-based data to find answers to your ques-
tion. This component includes some very sophisticated language
analysis. You can even instruct the database engine to use different
language rules for different full-text columns.
This process is called MSFTEFD.
⻬ Full-text catalog: This is where the actual index contents are stored.
Interestingly, it’s kept on the file system rather than within the database.

How full-text search works

Before you dive in and start going wild with full-text searching, I want to take
you through a brief, educational journey into the nuts and bolts of how
Microsoft implemented this important and powerful feature.

At its heart, full-text searching relies on special indexes that SQL Server 2005
Express rapidly creates in response to an administrator’s request. Each index
tracks details about words and phrases, including their specific row as well
as location within a column. These indexes are stored on the file system
rather than in the database.

You can create full-text indexes on columns that you define as any of the
following:

⻬ CHAR
⻬ VARCHAR
⻬ NVARCHAR
⻬ VARBINARY
⻬ IMAGE

In case you were wondering, the full-text indexing process skips over com-
monly used words, such as a, the, an, and so on. These are noise words.
270 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Before you can create a full-text index, you need to make sure that your
table already has a unique index in place on one or more columns that
cannot be null. You should also know that you can create only one full-text
index on a table.

The process by which SQL Server 2005 Express generates a full-text index is
population. Three different mechanisms are available when undertaking this
effort:

⻬ Full population: As you may suspect from its name, this mechanism
evaluates every row in the table and constructs the appropriate index
entries based on what is learned during this process. Unless you specify
otherwise, this is the default behavior when you create a new index.
⻬ Change-tracking population: In this scenario, SQL Server keeps an eye
on changes to the full-text–indexed data over time. Armed with this intel-
ligence, it then updates the full-text index to reflect these alterations. As
an administrator, you have control over how these updates occur.
Although this edition doesn’t include SQL Agent (which means that you
can’t schedule the update), you can have them run automatically or per-
form them manually.
⻬ Incremental-timestamp population: If your table has a column with a
type of TIMESTAMP, SQL Server can automatically update the full-text
index as data changes.

Using full-text searching

Full-text searching comes in many flavors and varieties. In this section, I
show you how to set up full-text searching on your database. After this is out
of the way, you see examples of several different types of full-text search. To
keep things consistent across all the examples, suppose that you’re building
an application that handles special shipping requests for your organization’s
products. Here are three of the more important tables for your solution:

CREATE TABLE Shipments

(
ShipmentID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
ShipmentDate DATETIME,
ShippedParts XML,
ShipmentWeight DECIMAL(5,2)
)

CREATE TABLE PackingInstructions

(
PackingInstructionID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
ShipmentID INT REFERENCES Shipments,
PackingDetails VARBINARY(MAX),
PackingFileName VARCHAR(30),
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 271
PackingFileType VARCHAR(30)
)

CREATE TABLE ShipRequests

(
ShipmentRequestID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
ShipmentID INTEGER NOT NULL REFERENCES Shipments,
DeliveryInstructions TEXT
)

With your tables in place, here are the steps you follow to make full-text
searching a reality. Before setting off down this path, you first need to make
sure your database is configured to allow full-text searching. Here’s how to
make that happen when you create a new database:

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio Express.

2. Right-click the Databases folder and choose the New Database option.
The New Database dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 18-5.

Figure 18-5:
Creating a
database
that
supports
full-text
searches.

3. Select the Use Full-Text Indexing check box and continue entering the
properties of this new database. When you’re done, click OK to save
your changes.

That’s all there is to it: Your database is now ready to support full-text search-
ing. For an existing database, all you need to do is open its properties and
switch to the Files property page; you’ll see the same check box there. Check
272 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

it, and you’re ready to go. But before you break out the champagne, you still
have a little more work to do; you now need to create the appropriate full-
text indexes, after all. Here’s how to do just that:

1. Connect to your database using the tool of your choice.

For this example, I use SQL Server Management Studio Express, but any
SQL-capable tool works.
2. If one doesn’t already exist, generate a default full-text catalog.
SQL Server 2005 Express uses these structures to support full-text
indexes. When you create a full-text catalog, SQL Server 2005 Express
places the catalog on the local disk drive of the server where the data-
base engine is running. You need to create only one full-text catalog; mul-
tiple indexes can coexist within its confines. If necessary, you can also
set up multiple full-text catalogs.
To construct a new full-text catalog, use the logically named CREATE
FULLTEXT CATALOG command. Here’s the statement that generates the
catalog that supports the examples you’re about to see:
CREATE FULLTEXT CATALOG Demo AS DEFAULT
3. Run the CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX command.
Using the sample tables I show previously in this section, here’s how to
set up a full-text index on the DeliveryInstructions column:
CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX ON ShipRequests
KEY INDEX PK__ShipRequests__7E6CC920
As you can see from the rather arcane syntax for this statement, you
need to know the name of the single column-based index that provides a
primary, unique key for your table. If you don’t have such an index in
place, you need to create one.
When you want to index binary information, you must include some
additional directives to help SQL Server choose the right filter at query
time. For example, in this scenario, the PackingInstructions table’s
job is to store information found in external document files. Here’s the
syntax for creating a full-text index on the PackingDetails column:
CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX ON PackingInstructions(PackingDetails
TYPE COLUMN PackingFileType)
KEY INDEX PK__PackingInstructi__164452B1

When it’s time to run a query, SQL Server looks at the PackingFileType
column to decide what filter to use to retrieve information. I discuss this
more in the upcoming “Examples” section.
You can create only one full-text index on a given table.
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 273
Full-text predicates versus
full-text functions
When you set out on the full-text road, one important decision you need to
make is whether to use full-text predicates or full-text functions. Actually,
they’re not mutually exclusive, but you’ll probably find that you prefer one or
the other. Here’s a brief overview of these two full-text search capabilities:

⻬ Full-text predicates: This consists of the CONTAINS and FREETEXT key-

words. You use CONTAINS when you want to perform an exact match,
and you employ FREETEXT when you want to find words or phrases
with similar meanings.
You include these predicates in the WHERE or HAVING clause of your
query. If your full-text query successfully locates a match, these predi-
cates return TRUE; otherwise, they return FALSE.
⻬ Full-text functions: The two full-text functions at your disposal are
CONTAINSTABLE and FREETEXTTABLE. As you may suspect from their
names, the first function is used for exact matches, and the second is
used for a meaning match.
The primary difference between predicates and functions is that the
latter return pseudo-tables of information, which may be empty or have
many rows (depending on whether data was located). Consequently, you
use these functions in the FROM clause and must then join the results to
the original tables. These functions return tables that include a column
named RANK, which helps identify the relevance of your search results.

When you’re getting started, I recommend working with the simpler full-text
predicates. After you’re up to speed, you can start to leverage the full-text
functions.

For the balance of this section, I focus on full-text predicates.

Examples
With the full-text catalog and index in place (refer to the earlier section,
“Using full-text searching”), you can finally start deriving some value from
your text-based information. In this section, I show you several different
classes of search, from the fairly commonplace to the more infrequent.

Simple text search using exact match

This is the most common type of full-text search (which is why I’m leading off
with it!). In this scenario, you simply want to look for a phrase that matches a
particular string. To make this happen, just use the CONTAINS predicate as
follows:
274 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

SELECT DeliveryInstructions
FROM ShipRequests
WHERE CONTAINS (DeliveryInstructions, ‘ “no signature required” ‘)

In this example, you’ve asked SQL Server 2005 Express to locate any rows in
the ShipRequests table that exactly match the string in the query.

You’re free to use Boolean logic in your full-text queries. For example, you
could modify the previous query to look for rows that match one of two
phrases as follows:

SELECT DeliveryInstructions
FROM ShipRequests
WHERE CONTAINS (DeliveryInstructions, ‘ “no signature required” OR
“do not sign” ‘)

Of course, you can also combine full-text search conditions with other SQL
conditional query logic in the WHERE clause.

Although these first examples that require exact matches are very helpful,
sometimes you’re likely to want to find all records that mean the same thing,
even if they aren’t worded the same. That brings me to the next type of
search.

Simple text search using meanings

Although it’s not psychic or omnipotent, SQL Server 2005 Express does its
best to locate rows that mean the same thing as your query. To make this
happen, use the FREETEXT keyword. When you make this request, the data-
base engine performs some rather sophisticated text parsing and analysis,
and even consults a thesaurus on your behalf. For example, suppose you
want to find all rows that reference potential damage to shipments, even if
the exact wording is different. Here’s how you’d write this query.

SELECT DeliveryInstructions
FROM ShipRequests
WHERE FREETEXT (DeliveryInstructions, ‘damage broke crush’)

As written, this query finds rows containing damaged, damaging, broken,

crushed, and so on.

Although very helpful, this feature may not always catch all appropriate
matches. For example, searching for crush may not necessarily find an entry
that contains crushable. Likewise, using broke as a search term may not
correctly snag breakable. Keep these types of semantic challenges in mind
as you construct your database applications.
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 275
Proximity search
As you may suspect from its name, a proximity search enables you to look for
phrases or words that are located in the neighborhood of other phrases or
words. For example, suppose that you want to look for the words signature
and required but only when they appear in the same vicinity. You don’t want
to find rows that tell you that special packaging is required or that the cus-
tomer’s signature is on file. You want only those rows that provide some guid-
ance on whether a signature is needed for delivery. You make this search
happen by specifying NEAR in your query:

SELECT DeliveryInstructions
FROM ShipRequests
WHERE CONTAINS (DeliveryInstructions, ‘(signature NEAR required)’)

Searching within other data formats

Data comes in all shapes, sizes, and formats. One nifty feature of full-text
searching is its ability to interrogate multiple types of data formats. For
example, suppose that you want to examine the contents of a Microsoft Word
document to locate a particular phrase. In this case, you want to find data
from an attached document of directions. Here’s what to do.

1. Make sure your table contains a column of with a type of

VARBINARY(MAX).
This column serves as the destination for the contents of your file. In
order to search it, you first need to load it into your database.
2. Import your information via the OPENROWSET command.
You use this versatile command for all sorts of data interactions, typi-
cally involving setting up remote data connections. However, it also lets
you load data from external files into columns that have been designated
VARBINARY(MAX). Here’s the command I used to load a Word document
into the PackingInstructions table:
INSERT INTO PackingInstructions(PackingInstructionID, ShipmentID,
PackingFileName, PackingFileType, PackingDetails)
SELECT 123 as ‘PackingInstructionID’, 17221 as ‘ShipmentID’,
‘Demo.doc’ as PackingFileName, ‘.doc’ as PackingFileType, * FROM
OPENROWSET(BULK N’C:\Demo.doc’, SINGLE_BLOB) AS ShipmentPackaging

That’s a lot of SQL, but it’s all necessary. For SQL Server to apply the
right query filter at runtime, you need to tell it what kind of data is being
placed into the table. That’s why you provide instructions in the
PackingFileType column.
3. Run your search.
With your data safely ensconced in its new home and SQL Server given
instructions on what kind of filter to use, locating matching words and
phrases is a cinch. Here’s a search that attempts to locate all shipments
that include packing instructions to use bubble wrap:
276 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

SELECT ShipmentID
FROM PackingInstructions
WHERE CONTAINS (PackingDetails, ‘ “bubble wrap” ‘)

Performance tips
As with most powerful tools, along with great capabilities come great respon-
sibilities. Here are a few suggestions to help you keep your full-text searches
running as quickly and smoothly as possible:

⻬ Provide large tables with their own catalog.

⻬ Associate similar processing profiles with a single catalog.
⻬ Update full-text indexes in real time.

Reporting Services
What good is having a database that’s chock-full of great information if you
can’t easily access your valuable data? Although Transact-SQL lets you build
very powerful queries, expecting the average user to master the intricacies of
this data access method is not realistic.

SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services offers a collection of very
powerful reporting capabilities that are designed to securely distribute
important data to everyone that needs it. In this section, I take you on a tour
of all the components that make up SQL Server’s reporting infrastructure. As
part of the tour, you’ll get the hang of designing, publishing, and maintaining
your own reports.

The first thing to understand about SQL Server’s reporting architecture is

that it’s modular. This means that you can use the infrastructure as is or
make heavy customizations. I focus on using the reporting technology out of
the box; however, you should note that the amount of customizing that you
can do has no limit.

Take a look at the components that make up the reporting infrastructure:

⻬ Report Server: This is the foundation of SQL Server’s Reporting

Services. It runs as a Windows service and is responsible for coordinat-
ing all aspects of your reporting environment. It uses its own dedicated
database to hold details about what reports have been created and
deployed.
⻬ Reporting Services Configuration Tool: This graphical interface lets
you set up and maintain a broad range of reporting settings.
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 277
⻬ Report Designer: Typically accessed via Visual Studio, this module
offers a broad set of report development functionality that is aimed at
the more sophisticated user. I focus on Report Designer for the balance
of this section.
⻬ Report Builder: This component was designed to meet the needs of the
vast majority of database users who want to quickly and easily generate
reports from their data. Unfortunately, it’s not present in this edition,
but you should be aware that it exists in the pricier versions.
⻬ SQL Server Management Studio Express: This graphical management
and information access tool is available by a free download from
Microsoft. Although you don’t create reports in this environment,
you’re likely to use it to create and maintain your database and its
related information.
⻬ Report Manager: In addition to viewing report content, you use this
browser-based interface to perform a wide variety of reporting access
and administration tasks.

Using these elements, you can construct a wide variety of reports:

⻬ Tabular: Similar to a database table, this type of report is made up of

rows and columns. The data selection criteria determine the exact
number of rows displayed at runtime.
⻬ Matrix: Akin to a spreadsheet’s pivot tables, this class of report arranges
its data into rows and columns, both of which are determined at runtime.
⻬ Graphical: You use this type of report to spice up your data with charts,
graphs, and so on.
⻬ Free-form: Typically used with less-structured data, this report presents
information in a more linear fashion.

With your report set up, you have a number of output options:

⻬ HTML
⻬ Excel
⻬ Comma-separated value (CSV)
⻬ Portable Document Format (PDF)

You can assemble and deliver your reports via several useful avenues:

⻬ E-mail
⻬ Portal
⻬ Browser
⻬ Extensible options
278 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Creating your report

Now that you’re an expert on all of the moving parts found in SQL Server’s
reporting architecture, it’s time to start putting them to work for you. To
begin, I call out those important but somewhat tedious tasks that you need to
take care of before you can get to the fun stuff:

1. Make sure that your computer has the complete reporting support
infrastructure.
This runs the gamut from enough processor horsepower, memory, and
bandwidth to software components. For example, if you grant remote
users access to report content via a browser, you need to ensure that
your computer has a working Web server.
2. Make sure you download and install all the correct database
components.
Simply downloading SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services
isn’t enough; you also should obtain a copy of SQL Express Toolkit,
available for free from Microsoft. Found among its technologies are SQL
Server Management Studio Express as well as SQL Server Business
Intelligence Development Studio, which contains the Report Designer.
You can get the toolkit from the Microsoft Web site.
3. Configure your report server.
You need to perform or verify a number of administrative tasks before
you’re ready to start building reports. You can address all these from
Reporting Services Configuration Manager. For example, to successfully
publish reports, you must set up at least one virtual directory on the
server. As you can see in Figure 18-6, I created a virtual directory to
serve as a destination for my reports.
4. Make sure your database is created and populated.
For the example reports that I show you, the following two tables are all
that’s needed:
CREATE TABLE Clients
(
ClientID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
CompanyName VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
RegionCode CHAR(1) NOT NULL
)

CREATE TABLE Transactions

(
TransactionID INT PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
ClientID INT NOT NULL REFERENCES Clients,
TransactionDate DATETIME NOT NULL,
TransactionAmount DECIMAL(5,2) NOT NULL
)
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 279

Figure 18-6:
Creating a
virtual
directory
in the
Reporting
Services
Configura-
tion
Manager.

With these introductory administrative tasks out of the way, now you’re
ready to create some reports. Just follow these steps:

1. Launch Report Designer.

Report Designer is found within SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio.
It starts up Visual Studio, which is Microsoft’s flagship software develop-
ment platform.
2. Create a new project by choosing File➪New Project.
The New Project dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 18-7. In this exam-
ple, I’m using the Report Server Project Wizard, which is a very handy
tool for quickly designing, developing, and deploying a report.
3. Create a new data source or use an existing one.
You can click the Edit button on the Report Wizard dialog box to
enter the details of your database connection. After completing
this task, you can then test things out, which is what’s happening in
Figure 18-8.
280 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Figure 18-7:
The New
Project
dialog box.

4. Develop your query.

This logic is the foundation of your report. Luckily, the Report Server
Project Wizard includes a tool to help quickly generate your query. You
launch this tool by clicking the Query Builder button, which you now
see in the Report Wizard dialog box.

Figure 18-8:
Testing a
database
connection.
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 281
5. With the Query Builder launched, either directly write your query or
use the Generic Query Designer tool for help.
Click the upper leftmost button to launch this tool. You can use this
tool to graphically develop your query, which is what’s happening in
Figure 18-9.

Figure 18-9:
The report’s
query, as
generated
by the
Generic
Query
Designer.

6. Pick the report type you want to generate.

Your choices are tabular or matrix.
7. Choose the layout for your report.
Figure 18-10 shows how this example report appears.
8. Continue customizing the look and feel of your report.
The wizard includes several dialog boxes specifically designed for this
purpose.
9. Decide how (and where) you want your report published.
Your options here are directly determined by what you did during Step 3
of the previous steps. Figure 18-11 shows that I’m deploying this report
to the virtual directory I created earlier.
282 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Figure 18-10:
The layout
for the new
report.

Figure 18-11:
Choose
where you
want to
publish your
report.

10. Verify your selections and click Finish to generate your new report.
Figure 18-12 shows where you verify your settings, and 18-13 shows the
final output.
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 283

Figure 18-12:
The settings
for the new
report.

Figure 18-13:
The new
report as
seen from
within SQL
Server
Business
Intelligence
Studio.
284 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

You can customize, preview, and even debug your report from within
SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio. In fact, you can even edit the
XML-based report definition language (RDL) file that’s generated as part
of this process. Here’s a small snippet from the file, which shows por-
tions of both the data connection and formatting logic:
<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”utf-8”?>
<Report
xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2005/01/
reportdefinition”
xmlns:rd=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/repor
tdesigner”>
<DataSources>
<DataSource Name=”AdvancedServices”>
<rd:DataSourceID>e2e8470e-a912-4386-9f75-47b5bf26038b</
rd:DataSourceID>
<ConnectionProperties>
<DataProvider>SQL</DataProvider>
<ConnectString>Data Source=VPC01-AAS\SQLEXPRESS;Initial
Catalog=AdvancedServices</ConnectString>
<IntegratedSecurity>true</IntegratedSecurity>
</ConnectionProperties>
</DataSource>
</DataSources>
<rd:ReportID>1e9ca36c-9c3f-4fe1-945d-cc3a9d23490c</rd:ReportID>
<Width>5in</Width>
<Body>
<Height>0.97in</Height>
<ColumnSpacing>0.5in</ColumnSpacing>
<ReportItems>
<Textbox Name=”textbox1”>
<Style>
<FontFamily>Tahoma</FontFamily>

Unless you’re a glutton for punishment, you’ll want to do your report

editing and debugging from within SQL Server Business Intelligence
Development Studio rather than working with source code.
When you’re done, you have a report that’s ready to be published. In the
next section, I show you how to perform this final step.

Publishing your report

After all the work you’ve put in designing, building, and testing your report,
it’s only logical that you make it available for others. You’re almost home;
here’s what you need to do:

1. Launch SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio.

If you left it running from the earlier sequence of steps, you can skip this
step.
 Chapter 18: Full-Text Searching and Reporting Services 285
2. Open the report project you created earlier.
3. Choose Build➪Deploy Report.
If everything goes well, you see output similar to the following:
Build complete -- 0 errors, 0 warnings
----- Deploy started: Project: Report Project4, Configuration: Debug -----
Deploying to http://localhost/ReportServer
Deploying report ‘/Report Project4/Sales By Client’.
Deploy complete -- 0 errors, 0 warnings
======== Build: 1 succeeded or up-to-date, 0 failed, 0 skipped ========
======== Deploy: 1 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped ========

If your reporting plans include browser-based access to information, you

need to install and configure Web server software on your database server.

With your report deployed, gaining access to it is quite easy. Assuming that
you’ve set up the correct virtual directories and your Web server is running,
all you need to do is instruct your users to point their browsers at the right
report server. The users then can view the reports from within their Web
browsers. Figures 18-14 and 18-15 show the sample report from the users’
perspective.

You can print your report only on the client; server-side printing is not
supported.

Figure 18-14:
The newly
created
report,
header view.
286 Part V: Putting the Tools to Work: Programming with SQL Server 2005 Express

Figure 18-15:
The newly
created
report, detail
view.

Maintaining your report

After you build and deploy your report, performing standard maintenance is
easy work. Here’s what to do:

1. Launch SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio.

If you left it running from the earlier sequence of steps, you can skip this
step.
2. Open the report project you created earlier.
3. Make changes as necessary and then save your work.
You may elect to change the look and feel of your report, or you may be
inclined to embark on more substantial alterations to your query logic.
In either case, you can choose File➪Save or click the Save button to
commit your changes.
4. Choose Build➪Deploy Report.
That’s all there is to it: You just need to follow the same set of steps that
you did during the original design cycle.

If you’re considering making radical changes to a report, consider first creating

a backup copy. With your original, working report backed up, you can safely
proceed to make changes to your heart’s content.
 Part VI
Creating SQL
Server 2005 Express
Applications
 In this part . . .
M any of you have chosen and deployed SQL Server
2005 Express as a low-cost, entry-level database
product that just happens to be built on the feature-rich
line of SQL Server database servers. And you may not be
building new applications, but are using this database as
an information store for packaged software solutions and
tools. However, you could be interested in using SQL
Server 2005 Express as the data storage foundation for
new software applications. If that describes your goals,
you’ll find this part to be of interest.

To help make entry-level developers, hobbyists, and stu-

dents aware of its complete line of software development
technologies, Microsoft has introduced a group of power-
ful, yet low-priced tools collectively known as Visual
Studio 2005 Express. In fact, SQL Server 2005 Express is
just one of these offerings. In the first two chapters of this
part, you see how to effectively couple this database
server with two of the more popular application develop-
ment choices: Visual Basic Express and Visual Web
Developer Express.

Regardless of the application software language du jour,

XML has become an extremely popular way of represent-
ing and storing information. The final chapter of this part
explains how to most advantageously meld XML, SQL
Server 2005 Express, and your chosen development
technology.
 Chapter 19

Building a Simple Desktop

Application with Visual
Basic Express
In This Chapter
䊳 Tying Visual Basic 2005 Express together with SQL Server 2005 Express
䊳 Creating a data infrastructure
䊳 Constructing an application
䊳 Packaging your application for distribution

O ne of the most widely adopted software technologies from Microsoft is

Visual Studio, along with languages such as Visual Basic, Visual C++, and
Visual C#. Hundreds of thousands of application developers use this rich,
full-featured platform and associated programming languages to construct soft-
ware solutions. However, mastering all this functionality can be overwhelming,
especially to students, entry-level, or hobbyist software developers.

In an effort to expand its influence with these more casual application devel-
opers, Microsoft has created a line of products that have a shallower learning
curve: You’ll find them easier and faster to get productive with. They also
sport much lower price points. Collectively known as the Express Editions,
these include the following software development technologies:

⻬ Visual Basic 2005 Express

⻬ Visual Web Developer 2005 Express
⻬ Visual C# 2005 Express
⻬ Visual C++ 2005 Express
⻬ Visual J# 2005 Express
290 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

Although each of these programming language environments is somewhat

less functional than the higher-end editions found in Visual Studio, you can
still create very rich applications that you can then easily migrate to the
more full-featured versions later.

Because this chapter’s focus is Visual Basic 2005 Express, the remainder
delves into how to team this programming language with SQL Server 2005
Express to rapidly build software solutions. Visual Basic 2005 Express offers a
tremendous amount of features and capabilities; this chapter covers a relatively
small percentage of this functionality, primarily as it pertains to database
interaction. To find out more, check out a copy of Visual Basic 2005 Express
Edition For Dummies, by Richard Mansfield (Wiley).

Just as Visual Basic 2005 Express represents a more easily understood imple-
mentation of Visual Basic, SQL Server 2005 Express offers a simpler set of fea-
tures than those found in the more robust editions of the database server.
Anticipating that people building applications with Visual Basic 2005 Express
need an easily understood data repository, Microsoft bundles SQL Server 2005
Express with the software development environment. The Visual Basic 2005
Express download package includes the database server. Many developers
find that this database is right for their applications’ storage requirements.

Because they’re designed to work together, the software development plat-

form and database storage engine integrate very nicely. Stay tuned, because a
little later in this chapter, I show you just how seamlessly they interoperate. I
build a grid that lets you enter and search for customer information. To
begin, you see how everything revolves around the concept of a project.
Next, I associate either a new or existing database to the project, and then
place information on a form. After that, you find out how to customize your
application’s behavior, and then easily deploy your finished product.

Laying the Groundwork

for an Application
In this sequence of steps, your job is to prepare a workspace (also known as
a project) that contains all your software logic, as well as linkages to your
SQL Server 2005 Express database.

Creating a project
To begin, you need to set up a project in Visual Basic 2005 Express. Here’s
how to make that happen.
 Chapter 19: Building a Simple Desktop Application with Visual Basic Express 291
1. Launch Visual Basic 2005 Express.
2. Choose File➪New➪Project.
The New Project dialog box opens where you can select the type of pro-
ject you want to create, as shown in Figure 19-1.

Figure 19-1:
Choosing
the type of
new project.

3. Choose the Windows Application option from the New Project dialog
box and click OK.
If you want to build another type of application, just choose the appro-
priate template. For this example, though, I stick to a Windows
Application.
4. In the Name box, enter a name for what you want to call your project,
and then click OK.
Visual Basic 2005 Express then performs some initial housekeeping and
setup. Eventually, a blank form appears on-screen. Your next task is to
associate a database with this project, which you can do now or later.

Creating a new database

With your project now begun, the next step is to either generate a new data-
base from scratch, or associate the project with an existing database. I begin
by showing you how to create a database from scratch; in the next section, I
show you how to connect to an existing database. If you have Visual Basic
2005 Express running, you can skip Steps 1 and 2.

1. Launch Visual Basic 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Project, and then choose the project you’ve
already created.
292 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

3. Choose Project➪Add New Item.

You’re presented with a choice of pre-installed templates as shown in
Figure 19-2.

Figure 19-2:
Adding a
database to
the project.

4. Select the SQL Database template, provide a name for your database,
and click OK.
A new database is created, and then the Data Source Configuration
Wizard launches. In the section coming up, I show you how to create
tables, using this wizard.

Connecting to an existing database

If you already designed and built your database, using another tool, such as
SQL Server Management Studio Express or the SQLCMD utility, then you need
to associate this existing database to your new project. Here’s how to do that.
If you left your project open and Visual Basic 2005 Express running, you can
skip Steps 1 and 2.

1. Launch Visual Basic 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Project, and choose the project you’ve already
created.
3. Choose Data➪Add New Data Source.
The Data Source Configuration Wizard starts.
4. Choose Database from the list, and click Next.
 Chapter 19: Building a Simple Desktop Application with Visual Basic Express 293
5. Click the New Connection button.
The Add Connection dialog box appears, where you can browse for
an existing database or create a new one. Because I’m assuming that
the database already exists, click the Browse button and locate the
database.
6. If necessary, click the Advanced button to configure even more set-
tings for this connection. Click OK when done.
Figure 19-3 shows just how many settings you can configure for a data-
base connection.

Figure 19-3:
Setting
advanced
database
connection
properties.

Although I wish I could give you some hard-and-fast rules about what
settings to use in this dialog box, each environment is different. Trial-
and-error may be your best friends for this job. One area for particular
attention is the User instance property. If you already have a running
SQL Server 2005 Express instance, you want to set this property to
False.
294 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

7. To make sure everything is configured correctly, click the Test

Connection button.
This step is one last sanity check. If you’ve designated your connection
accurately, the test connection happens almost instantaneously. If not,
you need to continue tuning your settings.
8. Choose the database objects that you want to include in your dataset,
and click Finish.
You’re presented with a list showing all potential tables, views, stored
procedures, and functions, as shown in Figure 19-4.

Figure 19-4:
Choosing
objects for
inclusion
into dataset.

You have quite a bit of control here: You can even choose individual
columns within a table for inclusion.
Unless you’re sure that you won’t want a given object in your applica-
tion, include it in your dataset at this time.
After you finish, you see the new connection added to the Data
Connections root node.

Creating new tables

Assuming that you just initialized a new database, you likely want to create
some tables to hold your information. Fortunately, because Visual Basic 2005
Express tightly integrates with SQL Server 2005 Express means that you can
 Chapter 19: Building a Simple Desktop Application with Visual Basic Express 295
create these tables directly from within Visual Basic. You can skip Steps 1
and 2 if you already have the development environment running.

1. Launch Visual Basic 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Project, and choose the project you’ve already
created.
3. Choose View➪Database Explorer.
4. Expand the database you chose or created earlier, right-click the
Tables node, and then choose Add New Table.
A table designer window opens.
5. Create as many columns as you need, setting their properties as well.
You can set a variety of properties for each column, including
• Data type
• Size
• Whether to allow nulls
• Primary key status
• Default values
For each table you create, designate a column or group of columns as a
primary key. A primary key preserves data integrity while speeding
access to information as well.
Take a look at Figure 19-5 to see the table I use in this example.
6. When you finish adding your columns, click the Save icon to preserve
your new table.

Figure 19-5:
Creating a
table within
Visual
Basic 2005
Express.
296 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

You can test your new table very quickly from Visual Basic 2005 Express.
Here’s what to do. You can skip Steps 1 and 2 if you have the development
environment running.

1. Launch Visual Basic 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Project, and choose the project you’ve already
created.
3. Choose View➪Database Explorer.
4. Expand the database you chose or created earlier, and then expand
the Tables node.
5. Highlight the table where you want to view data.
6. Choose Data➪Show Table Data.
A fully functional, interactive window opens that lets you view, create,
modify, and delete information in this table. Figure 19-6 shows how the
sample table I create a little earlier in this section appears.

Figure 19-6:
Viewing
table data
within
Visual Basic
2005
Express.

Building the User Interface

Generally, you design and create your database before starting work on the
user interface. After the database is in place, engineering a user interface
takes very little time and effort, as I show you in this section.

As I mention at the start of this chapter, this sample program is a simple data
entry grid that lets users interact with customer information. The first step
on the road to this application is to build a form that houses the data entry
 Chapter 19: Building a Simple Desktop Application with Visual Basic Express 297
grid. You can skip the first two steps if Visual Basic 2005 Express is already
running.

1. Launch Visual Basic 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Project, and choose the project you’ve already
created.
3. Choose Project➪Add Windows Form.
The Add New Item dialog box opens with a collection of forms templates.
4. Choose the Windows Form option.
A new, blank form is created.
5. Choose Data➪Show Data Sources.
An explorer displays all the available data objects that you can include
on your form.
6. Highlight the objects you want to appear, and then drag them onto
the form.
Assuming that everything is running smoothly, you can now run a quick
test to see if all the components are hooked up correctly. You may want
to tinker with the look-and-feel of the form now, or just wait until later.
7. Choose Debug➪Start Debugging.
This step quickly compiles all the components and runs the form. Con-
gratulations! You have a working, albeit rudimentary, Visual Basic 2005
Express form, running in debug mode with full create, read, update, and
delete capabilities for the SQL Server 2005 Express database. Figure 19-7
shows what this form looks like.

Figure 19-7:
A simple,
yet
powerful,
database-
aware form
in Visual
Basic 2005
Express.
298 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

8. Stop debugging by closing the running form, and then save your new
form by clicking the Save icon.

With your table and form now in place, you have tremendous control over
the look-and-feel and behavior of their information. Much of this power doesn’t
even require you to write any code. Continuing with the grid example I just
created, here’s all you need to do to gain access to these properties:

1. Click the object you want to configure.

In this example, try selecting the grid of customer details.
2. On the Properties tab, configure the properties to your liking.
As you can see, there are dozens of tunable parameters.
Try changing only one property at a time; if you change too many at
once, and don’t like the outcome, figuring out what you did wrong may
be difficult.
3. Save your changes.

Making Your Program Functional

By now, things are starting to come together. You’ve built a solid foundation,
and probably even have a basic working application. The next step is to cus-
tomize both the look-and-feel of your software solution, along with providing
any specialized business logic. Finally, after you’re ready to unleash your new
program on the world, Visual Basic 2005 Express offers a robust packaging
and shipping utility to make distribution a snap.

Adding application logic

In most cases, you probably want to customize the behavior of your Visual
Basic 2005 Express application to reflect business rules or other site-specific
behavior. To add customized processing code into your application, follow
these simple steps. If you left your project open and Visual Basic 2005
Express running, you can skip Steps 1 and 2.

1. Launch Visual Basic 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Project, and choose the project you’ve already
created.
3. Switch to Code view of your program by choosing View➪Code.
 Chapter 19: Building a Simple Desktop Application with Visual Basic Express 299
4. Click in the area in the code listing where you want to add the new
application logic.
In this example, I’m adding some code to write information to a file once
the grid is loaded.
5. Insert your code.
You can write your own logic, or you can take advantage of some very
useful features to give you a head start. I describe these in a moment.
6. Click the Save button to record your changes.

Visual Basic 2005 Express offers some great programming productivity tools
that you can use to shorten your development cycle. One of the most inter-
esting of these technologies is known as IntelliSense snippets (blocks of pre-
built code, tailored and customized for specific tasks). If you want to take
advantage of pre-built code snippets, do the following:

1. Make sure you’re viewing the code portion of your application.

2. Click into the area in the code listing where you want to insert
the code.
3. From the main menu, choose Edit➪IntelliSense➪Insert Snippet, or
right-click in the code listing and choose Insert Snippet.
Figure 19-8 shows the first level of IntelliSense snippet categories. I’m
choosing the Processing Drives, Folders, and Files option, which brings
up a listing of specific examples (see Figure 19-9).

Figure 19-8:
High-level
IntelliSense
categories.
300 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

Figure 19-9:
IntelliSense
code
snippets.

After you include the IntelliSense code, your application code looks
something like Figure 19-10.

Figure 19-10:
Two
IntelliSense
code
snippets
inserted into
a file.

4. Make your site-specific changes to the generalized code snippet.

Use the IntelliSense-provided code as a template, overlaying your
own code.
5. When finished, click the Save button to store your changes.
 Chapter 19: Building a Simple Desktop Application with Visual Basic Express 301
Debugging
Unless you are the as-yet-undiscovered perfect programmer, chances are you
need at least one or two testing sessions with your application to make sure
that it performs as expected. To help improve developer productivity, Microsoft
offers an integrated debugger with Visual Basic 2005 Express. You can use this
tool to quickly isolate and then correct any anomalies. All that’s necessary is to
choose the Debug menu for a full selection of program flow control and monitor-
ing capabilities. Take a look at Figure 19-11 for a sample debugging session. In
this example, I’ve deliberately turned off the SQL Server 2005 Express service,
causing the application to fail when it tries to connect to the database.

Figure 19-11:
A sample
debugging
session.

Take the time to learn how to use the debugger. Even if your first few pro-
grams are very simple, you’ll eventually need to fix problems, and the debug-
ger helps shave valuable time off of what is often a very tedious set of tasks.

Packaging and shipping

Traditionally, preparing a software solution for distribution is one of the more
tedious and error-prone tasks. Things have improved significantly with Visual
Basic 2005 Express. When you’re ready to deliver your application, you can
take advantage of the Publish Wizard to automate all the necessary steps.
Here’s all you need to do to take advantage of this technology. If your project
is already open, you can skip the first two steps.
302 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

If you’re distributing an application that makes local calls to a SQL Server

2005 Express database, you need to install the product on each of these com-
puters. If, on the other hand, the application makes remote calls to a central-
ized database, you don’t need to install SQL Server 2005 Express.

1. Launch Visual Basic 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Project, and choose the project you’ve already
created.
3. Make sure you’re done with all development and debugging tasks.
4. Choose Build➪Build, and provide your application name.
This step constructs your application, pulling in all necessary components.
5. When there are no errors from the previous step, choose Build➪
Publish, making sure to provide your application name.
6. Decide where to publish the application, and click Next.
You can choose among
• Disk path
• File share
• FTP server
• Web site
7. Pick the installation option and click Next.
You can choose from
• Web site
• NC path or file share
• CD or DVD ROM
8. Decide whether the application is available both online and offline, or
just online and click Next.
9. Review the build plan, and click Finish.
The wizard now packages your application, making it ready for installa-
tion on remote computers or access by remote users.
 Chapter 20

Building a Simple Web

Application with Visual
Web Developer Express
In This Chapter
䊳 Tying Visual Web Developer 2005 Express together with SQL Server 2005 Express
䊳 Setting up your database and tables
䊳 Creating an application

V isual Studio, in conjunction with languages such as Visual Basic, Visual

C++, and Visual C#, is the development platform of choice for hundreds
of thousands of application developers. They leverage this rich, highly capa-
ble software development technology and associated programming languages
to construct robust software solutions. However, for students, entry-level, or
hobbyist software developers, Visual Studio can be too much of a good thing.

To help boost its presence with this community, Microsoft has created a line
of products that are simply easier to use. Known as the Express Editions, they
include the following languages and application development products:

⻬ Visual Web Developer 2005 Express

⻬ Visual Basic 2005 Express
⻬ Visual C# 2005 Express
⻬ Visual C++ 2005 Express
⻬ Visual J# 2005 Express
304 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

Despite their relative simplicity, you can still construct industrial-strength

applications, using the Express Editions as your foundation. This chapter’s
goal is to help you leverage Visual Web Developer 2005 Express, so I focus on
this software development technology. Unfortunately, because it offers so
much capability, and space is limited, I’m able to cover only a small percent-
age of its database-relevant functionality. If you need more info, check out
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition For Dummies, written by Alan
Simpson (Wiley Publishing).

Visual Web Developer 2005 Express integrates nicely with SQL Server 2005
Express. That’s a theme of this chapter, where I give you repeated examples
of how closely the two products interoperate. In fact, to encourage this cou-
pling, when you download the development platform, Microsoft thoughtfully
bundles the database server. For most developers, SQL Server 2005 Express
does a fine job of meeting their data storage needs. On the other hand, if
you’re inclined to use another database, you’ll find that Visual Web Developer
2005 Express presents no obstacles.

Constructing a new, database-aware application is a cinch with Visual Web

Developer 2005 Express. For the balance of the chapter, I walk you through the
steps necessary to make this a reality. The application that I build is designed
to help an adult education administrator manage student enrollments.

Laying the Groundwork

for an Application
As you may expect from a product named Visual Web Developer 2005
Express, everything revolves around the concept of a Web site. After you set
up a Web site, you can then proceed to designing your database. Keep in
mind that if you want users from computers to have access to your Web site,
you must make sure that you install a Web server, such as Internet
Information Services (IIS) from Microsoft. This is a component included in
most modern versions of its operating systems.

Creating a Web site

To begin, you need to create a Web site in Visual Web Developer 2005
Express. Here’s what to do:

1. Launch Visual Web Developer 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪New➪Web Site.
The New Web Site dialog box appears.
 Chapter 20: Building a Simple Web Application with Visual Developer Express 305
3. Choose the ASP.NET Web Site option.
4. Choose the language you want to use to build your Web site.
You can choose between Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Visual J#. For this
example, I use Visual Basic.
5. Choose where you want to store the Web site.
Your options are the file system, FTP, or HTTP. In this case, I use the file
system.
6. Provide a valid destination for the Web site.
7. Click OK to generate the new Web site.
Figure 20-1 shows what the completed New Web Site dialog box
looks like.
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express then performs some initial house-
keeping and setup. Eventually, a new Web site appears on-screen, as
shown in Figure 20-2. Your next task is to associate a database with this
project, which you can do now or later.

Figure 20-1:
Providing
details for a
new Web
site.
306 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

Figure 20-2:
The
beginnings
of a new
Web site.

Creating a new database

With your Web site a reality, the next step is to either create a new database
from scratch, or associate an existing database. I begin by showing you how
to create a database from scratch; in the next section, I show you how to con-
nect to an existing database. If you have Visual Web Developer 2005 Express
running, you can skip Steps 1 and 2.

1. Launch Visual Web Developer 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Web Site, and choose the Web site you’ve already
created.
3. Right-click at the top of the Solution Explorer, and choose the Add
New Item option.
You’re presented with a choice of pre-installed templates, as shown in
Figure 20-3.
 Chapter 20: Building a Simple Web Application with Visual Developer Express 307

Figure 20-3:
Choosing
a new
database
template.

4. Select the SQL Database template, provide a name for your database,
and click Add.
You may be asked if you want to place the database in the App_Data
folder. Click Yes to this question. The database creation may take some
time to complete.
Step 4 may create an error. If this happens in your environment, just
follow the instructions in the next section.

Connecting to an existing database

If you already designed and built your database, using another tool, such as
SQL Server Management Studio Express or the SQLCMD utility, then you need
to associate this existing database to your new project. Here’s how to do
that. If you left Visual Web Developer 2005 Express running, you can skip
Steps 1 and 2.
308 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

1. Launch Visual Web Developer 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Web Site, and choose the Web site you’ve already
created.
3. In the Database Explorer, right-click Data Connections, and then
choose Add Connection.
If you had a problem with the preceding set of steps, choose the Create
New SQL Server Database option instead.
4. Fill in the name of the database and other details.
If necessary, you can also click the Advanced button to configure even
more settings for this connection.
If you’re creating a new database, Visual Web Developer builds the
empty database for you, as shown in Figure 20-4.

Figure 20-4:
Creating a
new empty
database.
Chapter 20: Building a Simple Web Application with Visual Developer Express 309
Although I wish I could give you some hard-and-fast rules about what
settings to use in this dialog box, each environment is different. Trial-and-
error may be your best friends for this job. One area for particular atten-
tion is the User instance property. If you already have a running SQL
Server 2005 Express instance, you want to set this property to False.
5. To make sure everything is configured correctly, click the Test
Connection button.
This is one last sanity check. If you’ve designated your connection accu-
rately, the test connection happens almost instantaneously. If not, you
need to continue tuning your settings.
6. Click OK to complete creating the new connection.

Creating new tables

Assuming that you’ve just initialized a new database, you’ll likely want to
create some tables to hold your information. Fortunately, the tight integra-
tion of Visual Web Developer 2005 Express with SQL Server 2005 Express
means that you can do so directly from within the product. You can skip
Steps 1 and 2 if you already have the development environment running.

1. Launch Visual Web Developer 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Web Site, and choose the Web site you’ve already
created.
3. Expand the Data Connections entry, and then expand the database’s
folder.
4. Right-click the Tables entry and choose Add New Table.
5. Add columns as needed.
You see something like what’s shown in Figure 20-5.
6. When you finish adding columns, make sure to click the Save icon.
7. Enter a name for the table, and click OK.
After saving the table, you can view it as shown in Figure 20-6.
310 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

Figure 20-5:
Creating a
new table.

Figure 20-6:
Viewing a
new table.
 Chapter 20: Building a Simple Web Application with Visual Developer Express 311
Building the User Interface
Generally, designing and creating your database before starting work on the
user interface is a good idea. After the database and its tables are in place,
the process of incorporating these structures into your Web application is
actually quite simple. In this section, I show you how to take the adult educa-
tion sample database that I show you how to create in the previous section of
the chapter, and turn it into a powerful Web application.

Before beginning, remember that Visual Web Developer 2005 Express is a

functionally rich product, with tons of features that let you build slick Web
sites. Fully exploring all its nooks and crannies would fill up the entire book,
so for brevity’s sake, I keep the example application as straightforward as
possible.

To start, the first step is to construct a user interface that lets the administra-
tor pick a class to view. Here’s how to make that happen. If you have the
product running, you can skip Steps 1 and 2.

1. Launch Visual Web Developer 2005 Express.

2. Choose File➪Open➪Web Site, and choose the Web site you’ve already
created.
3. On the Default.aspx page, switch to Design view by clicking the
Design button at the bottom of the window.
4. Provide some descriptive text to help guide the user.
In this case, I’m adding Select class to view student roster.
With this text in place, adding the first database-aware control to the
form is the next step.
5. Drag a DropDownList control onto the form.
The DropDownList control is just one control that can talk to databases.
In many cases, you can extract a tremendous amount of functionality
from these controls without the need to write any code. But first, you
need to handle some housekeeping chores, and then associate the con-
trol with data.
6. From the DropDownList Tasks menu (accessible by clicking the right-
arrow icon), choose the Enable AutoPostBack option.
Your drop-down selection is automatically sent back to the server,
rather than forcing the user to click a button to initiate the request. With
this step out of the way, the next step is to connect to a data source.
7. Select the Choose Data Source option from the DropDownList
Tasks menu.
The Data Source Configuration Wizard launches, where you can config-
ure this database connection.
312 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

8. Choose the New Data Source option from the Select a Data Source
drop-down list.
9. Click the Database icon.
10. Provide a meaningful name for the data source, or just choose the
default.
11. Select the data connection you just configured, and click Next.
12. Save the connection string to the application configuration file.
With your connection now defined, the next task is to hook up the drop-
down box you just added to the form with the database.
13. Configure the SELECT statement according to your application’s needs.
In this case, I’m asking Visual Web Developer 2005 Express to retrieve
the ClassName from the Classes table.
14. Save the Web page, and then test it by choosing Debug➪Start Without
Debugging, or pressing Ctrl+F5.
If everything went according to plan, you see a very basic, yet database-
aware form, as shown in Figure 20-7.

Figure 20-7:
A database-
aware drop-
down list.
Chapter 20: Building a Simple Web Application with Visual Developer Express 313
If you did everything correctly, your drop-down list is now filled in with a list
of classes. With that out of the way, you can move to listing the students that
are in each class. The goal is to let the user view details about each student
in the class, as well as make changes to each entry. Just follow these steps:

1. Open (or reopen) the Web site, and its Default.aspx page.
2. Make sure you’re in Design view.
3. Drag a GridView control onto the page.
You find this control under the Data portion of the Toolbox.
4. On the GridView Tasks menu, choose New Data Source from the
Choose Data Source drop-down list.
Using Steps 9 through 12 in the preceding step list as a guide, fill in the
wizard. You’re prompted, as before, to configure the data source.
5. Select the table(s) and column(s) that you want to display.
In this case, I want to display relevant details about each student in the
class that was selected in the drop-down list, so I pick those columns
from the StudentsClasses table.
To allow editing/inserting/deleting of information, make sure that a pri-
mary key is defined on the table and selected during this part of the
workflow.
6. Click the WHERE button to link the selected value from the drop-
down list to your database query (see Figure 20-8).
The Add WHERE Clause dialog box opens. Fill in these fields:
• Column: This is the table’s column that will be filtered by the
WHERE clause that you’re currently creating.
• Operator: This is the operator (=, >=, <>, and so on) that will be
built into the SQL expression that makes up this WHERE clause.
• Source: This is the location where your application will obtain the
filtering criteria necessary to generate the WHERE clause. You can
choose to retrieve a value from a control, cookie, form, profile,
query string, and session.
• Parameter properties: Depending on which source you chose, this
portion of the dialog box contains additional details about how to
construct the WHERE clause.
7. After you finish assembling your WHERE clause parameters, click Add
to see what you’ve built.
You see the exact SQL expression that your application will use.
314 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

8. Click OK when you finish creating your WHERE clause.

In this example, my goal is to have what the user chooses from the drop-
down list serve as input for the query against the data you plan to dis-
play and/or edit.
9. Click the Advanced button, and enable the Generate INSERT, UPDATE,
and DELETE Statements box.
You can also choose optimistic concurrency if you’re concerned about
data conflicts.
10. With these options chosen, go to the Gridview Tasks menu, and check
the Enabling items that you want.
11. Save the Web page, and then test it by choosing Debug➪Start Without
Debugging, or pressing Ctrl+F5.
If you’ve done everything right, you now have a fully functional Web appli-
cation that not only retrieves information, but also allows data editing.

Figure 20-8:
Setting the
drop-down
list’s output
to help
locate data.
 Chapter 20: Building a Simple Web Application with Visual Developer Express 315
12. Configure the look-and-feel of your application, and then deploy the
Web site.
I’ve saved this step for last, and suggest that you do the same. Don’t
worry about how the application appears until you have all the pieces
working together. Figure 20-9 shows the page with some new fonts and
styles applied. It’s still not done, but it’s closer. Don’t be surprised if you
spend most of your development time working on look-and-feel issues
rather than database and application logic tasks.

Figure 20-9:
Changing
the look and
feel of the
application.
316 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications
 Chapter 21

Using XML with SQL

Server 2005 Express
In This Chapter
䊳 Making sense of XML
䊳 Determining when to use XML
䊳 Storing XML information in your database
䊳 Working with XML data

F or many of you reading this chapter, Extensible Markup Language (XML)

is something that you’ve heard of but know nothing about. Others will be
somewhat informed, and a significantly smaller proportion will be well
versed in this technology.

Regardless of your familiarity with XML, this chapter can help you grasp how
you can blend it with your SQL Server 2005 Express database. To begin, I take
you on a brief tour of XML, followed by an overview of how you can store this
type of information in your database. Finally, you see how to work with XML
data after placing it into SQL Server 2005 Express.

What Is This Thing Called XML?

First specified in the late 1990s, XML has mushroomed into a very popular
method for storing and working with information. It provides a structured,
text-based approach to organizing data. Unlike many earlier file formats and
data structures, which were often proprietary, closed, and required special
software, you can use any text editor or word processor to create and edit
XML information. Many modern applications and tools now support XML as
well, including packages such as Microsoft Office and, of course, SQL Server.
318 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

XML advantages
When compared with alternate means of representing and interchanging
information, XML offers some compelling benefits:

⻬ Standards-based: The XML standard was created and is maintained

under the auspices of the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C). In addi-
tion, numerous standards bodies have in turn created their own XML-
derived standards from this underlying specification.
⻬ Multilanguage: Today, most commercial applications are hardcoded for
more than one language. Global organizations need to track their infor-
mation regardless of its native language. XML supports Unicode, mean-
ing it can encode information in any language.
⻬ Plain text storage: By storing its information in open, plain text files,
rather than locking it inside proprietary formats, XML allows you to
apply a broad range of technologies to work with your data.
⻬ Robust and easily enforced syntax: Don’t be fooled by XML’s openness
and ease-of-use; any XML-based information must adhere to very spe-
cific syntax and formatting rules. These rules allow XML data to easily
interoperate with SQL Server 2005 Express.
⻬ Vendor and platform independence: When choosing a technology stan-
dard, the last thing most customers want is to have that standard tam-
pered with by vendors who may not have their best interests at heart.
Because of many of the reasons I list here, XML is particularly well
suited in protecting you from the vagaries and machinations of hardware
and software vendors.

XML has a few relatively minor drawbacks. They chiefly revolve around the
somewhat cumbersome nature of supporting non-text information (such as
video, music, and other binary data) within an XML document. In addition,
some believe that the parsing and manipulation of XML data is too expensive,
and leads to degraded performance. Finally, a real-world XML document with
many levels of nested data can be very hard to understand by a human reader.

XML structure
What does XML look like? Take a peek at the following small example of a pur-
chase order:

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8”?>

<PO Identifier=”RR89291QQZ” date_generated=”2006-30-Dec”
application=”Optimize v4.3”>
<Customer>
<Name>Soze Imports</Name>
<Identifier>21109332</Identifier>
 Chapter 21: Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express 319
<reg:Instructions xmlns:reg=”http://www.samplenamespace.com/importexport”>
<reg:Restrictions>Not subject to export control</reg:Restrictions>
<reg:Duties>Not subject to duties</reg:Duties>
</reg:Instructions>
</Customer>
<Creator>Michael McManus</Creator>
<Product quantity=”1” price=”9.99”>GG2911</Product>
<Product quantity=”6” price=”54.94”>TK3020</Product>
<ship:Shipment xmlns:ship=”http://www.samplenamespace.com/shipping”>
<ship:ShipDate>6/10/2007</ship:ShipDate>
<ship:Instructions>Contact Mr. Hockney in receiving</ship:Instructions>
<ship:Instructions>Fax bill to Mr. Kobayashi</ship:Instructions>
</ship:Shipment>
</PO>

Confused? Don’t be: The best way to make sense of an XML document is to
look at it line by line, which is what I do next.

<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-8”?>

This first line is known as the XML declaration, and includes details about the
XML version as well as any language encoding. This XML was created to sup-
port version 1.0 of the XML standard, and it’s encoded with Unicode.

<PO Identifier=”RR89291QQZ” date_generated=”2006-30-Dec”

application=”Optimize v4.3”>
...
</PO>

I just said to look at XML on a line-by-line basis, and yet now I show you the
second and very last lines. The reason I did so is to point out that the entire
document is wrapped by the <PO> and </PO> tags, known as the start tag and
end tag, respectively. Everything between these two tags refers to the pur-
chase order, identified by PO in this case. Tags like this one represent an ele-
ment. You can nest elements as well; in fact, most XML data consists of
elements often deeply nested within higher-level elements. In this case, the
PO element is the highest-level element. Everything that you see between the
start tag and end tag is known as content.

What about the Identifier, date_generated, and application entries

that are also on this line? These are attributes, which are additional details
about an element. For example, the purchase order’s date_generated
attribute is set to December 30, 2006. You must enclose all attributes in either
single or double quotes.

<Customer>
<Name>Soze Imports</Name>
<Identifier>21109332</Identifier>
<reg:Instructions xmlns:reg=”http://www.samplenamespace.com/importexport”>
<reg:Restrictions>Not subject to export control</reg:Restrictions>
320 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

<reg:Duties>Not subject to duties</reg:Duties>

</reg:Instructions>
</Customer>

Continuing, you now see a nested element known as Customer, whose start
tag is <Customer> and end tag is </Customer>. This element itself contains
two nested elements, one known as Name, and the other known as
Identifier.

It also contains a nested element known as Instructions. This element and

those nested within it appear to be a little confusing, though. What’s going on?
Looking at the XML document listed earlier in the chapter, you may wonder
how your computer can keep things straight when handling XML received
from different sources. For example, what happens if you receive purchase
orders from two different organizations that use different element names and
attributes that actually mean the same thing? Conversely, what happens if
they use identical element names and attributes that mean different things?

This situation is where namespaces comes to the rescue. Typically available

for consultation and review via the Internet, namespaces are assemblages of
element type and attribute names that help establish order and clear up con-
fusion. By providing a solid point of reference, they also assist when merging
smaller subsets of XML documents.

In this case, the document includes a link to a namespace server:

<reg:Instructions xmlns:reg=”http://www.samplenamespace.com/importexport”>

By specifying this namespace server, any applications that use this XML doc-
ument consult the namespace server for details about any elements or attrib-
utes prefixed with reg. A second namespace server comes up a little later in
the XML.

<Creator>Michael McManus</Creator>

Here’s an example of an element that tracks the purchase order’s creator. It

has no nested elements within; it is, however, nested within the purchase
order element itself.

<Product quantity=”1” price=”9.99”>GG2911</Product>

<Product quantity=”6” price=”54.94”>TK3020</Product>

Now you can see additional elements, both known as Product. These ele-
ments have their own attributes, quantity and price in this case.

<ship:Shipment xmlns:ship=”http://www.samplenamespace.com/shipping”>
<ship:ShipDate>6/10/2007</ship:ShipDate>
<ship:Instructions>Contact Mr. Hockney in receiving</ship:Instructions>
<ship:Instructions>Fax bill to Mr. Kobayashi</ship:Instructions>
</ship:Shipment>
 Chapter 21: Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express 321
Finally, the document contains an element known as Shipment, which itself
contains nested elements called ShipDate and Instructions. Notice that
to clear up confusion with the earlier reference to Instructions, a link is
included to another namespace server:

<ship:Shipment xmlns:ship=”http://www.samplenamespace.com/shipping”>

That’s it — you now know how to parse an XML document. As you may imag-
ine, however, bigger or deeper XML documents are harder to understand.
Fortunately, many tools on the market help you make sense of this kind of
information. For example, Figure 21-1 shows how this document looks inside
Microsoft’s XML Editor. If this tool looks familiar to you, it should: It’s
Microsoft Internet Explorer, which happens to be the default application for
displaying XML documents in Windows.

Figure 21-1:
An XML
document
within the
XML Editor.

One nice thing about using a specialized XML viewer is that you can expand
or collapse various elements. Figure 21-2 shows how I collapsed some of the
inner elements. Imagine how useful this technique would be for an XML docu-
ment containing thousands of lines of detail.

Figure 21-2:
A more
concise
view of an
XML
document.

Other important XML concepts

Getting up to speed on XML often involves digesting an intimidating alphabet
soup of acronyms and other jargon. Earlier in the chapter, I show you some of
322 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

these concepts, but several remain. However, you don’t need to worry: I’m as
concise as possible.

XML documents versus fragments

Think of an XML document as a well-formed, fully complete set of XML-based
information that happens to have a root element. On the other hand, an XML
fragment needs to be well formed, but by definition does not have a root ele-
ment. For example, look at the following fragment of XML, taken from the
sample earlier in the chapter:

<Customer>
<Name>Soze Imports</Name>
<Identifier>21109332</Identifier>
<reg:Instructions xmlns:reg=”http://www.samplenamespace.com/importexport”>
<reg:Restrictions>Not subject to export control</reg:Restrictions>
<reg:Duties>Not subject to duties</reg:Duties>
</reg:Instructions>
</Customer>

This snippet is well-formed XML, and it even contains a reference to a name-

server, but placing it into context is hard: There’s no indication of where it
fits in the larger scheme of things.

XML schema
An XML schema is a data structure that you define to help provide validation
constraints and other details about specific typed XML data (more about that
in the upcoming section). You can specify which attributes are mandatory,
their formats, permissible quantities, and so on. I show you an XML schema
in conjunction with database operations in the “Placing XML into Your SQL
Server 2005 Express Database” section.

Typed versus untyped XML

By referencing an existing XML schema collection, a column, parameter, or
variable is said to be typed. Stand-alone XML that doesn’t reference a schema
is described as untyped. The benefit of typed XML is that SQL Server 2005
Express performs all the data enforcement and validation rules specified in
the XML schema.

When should you use XML?

This XML thing looks pretty good, don’t you think? You’re probably wonder-
ing, though, when you should put XML to work in your environment. XML is
the right tool for the job for many good reasons:
 Chapter 21: Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express 323
⻬ Standardized file format: More and more application developers are
using XML-based files to hold non database-hosted information. For
example, perhaps you’re building a software solution that will maintain
its own configuration files. In the past, you would have likely designed
(and then had to maintain) your own customized text file. With XML,
you can leverage a predefined structure, along with all the software nec-
essary to maintain this data.
In fact, many popular applications are now using XML as an alternative
to previously proprietary layouts. Microsoft Office is a great example:
You can now save Word and Excel documents in XML. Take a look at the
following XML fragment, which was created when I built and saved a
very simple spreadsheet:
<Table ss:ExpandedColumnCount=”2”
ss:ExpandedRowCount=”4” x:FullColumns=”1”
x:FullRows=”1”>
<Row>
<Cell><Data ss:Type=”String”>East</Data></Cell>
<Cell><Data ss:Type=”Number”>20110</Data></Cell>
</Row>
<Row>
<Cell><Data ss:Type=”String”>West</Data></Cell>
<Cell><Data ss:Type=”Number”>43000</Data></Cell>
</Row>
</Table>
⻬ Information interchange: Whether or not you much like XML, you may
not even have a choice about whether or not to use it. For example,
many organizations interchange data with other enterprises. In an
increasing number of cases, this information exchange follows rigid
specifications, which are often XML-based.
⻬ Industry standards: From automotive to zoology, many industry and
trade associations have based data storage and communication stan-
dards on an XML underpinning. If your enterprise wants to work with
information feeds that are built on these guidelines, you need to incor-
porate XML into your plans.

Placing XML into Your SQL Server

2005 Express Database
In this section, you take a look at the interaction between SQL Server 2005
Express and XML. First, because XML is a built-in data type, you can use it
anywhere within the database, Transact-SQL, or any of the supported
324 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

Common Language Runtime (CLR) languages. You are faced, however, with a
2GB limitation for any particular XML document. To find out more about inte-
grating CLR with SQL Server 2005 Express, check out Chapter 16.

In this section, I show how to leverage the XML storage capabilities of SQL
Server 2005 Express. Before I begin, remember that I keep the examples as
straightforward and basic as possible. You can perform some extremely
sophisticated data manipulations, using XML, but starting with a solid foun-
dation is a good idea before attempting more advanced operations. These
examples highlight an application that tracks shipment and part information.

To get started, just follow these steps:

1. Launch your favorite SQL editor, and connect to your database server
and database.
I use SQL Server Management Studio Express, provided by Microsoft via
free download.
2. Decide if you want to create or use an XML schema collection.
In this case, I’ve chosen to create a new XML schema collection, which
creates an element known as parts, which itself contains elements
known as code, name, and price. It also cites that a given part can have
an unlimited number of these nested elements:
CREATE XML SCHEMA COLLECTION Parts AS
N’<?xml version=”1.0” encoding=”UTF-16”?>
<xsd:schema
xmlns:xsd=”http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema”>
<xsd:element name=”parts”>
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:choice minOccurs=”0” maxOccurs=”unbounded” >
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name=”code” type=”xsd:string”/>
<xsd:element name=”name” type=”xsd:string”/>
<xsd:element name=”price” type=”xsd:decimal”/>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:choice>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>
‘
After your XML schema is in place, you can put it to work and associate
it with relevant objects.
3. Design and create your table.
Here’s an example of a table:
 Chapter 21: Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express 325
CREATE TABLE Shipments
(
ShipmentID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
ShipmentDate DATETIME NOT NULL,
ShippedParts XML
)
If you’ve created an XML schema, you can simply reference it as part of
the table creation logic. If I wanted to associate this table with the XML
schema collection that I created earlier, all that’s necessary is to slightly
alter the table definition:
CREATE TABLE Shipments
(
ShipmentID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL,
ShipmentDate DATETIME NOT NULL,
ShippedParts XML (Parts)
)
You can create indexes on XML columns. You have two types of indexes
at your disposal: primary and secondary. A primary index shreds, or dis-
assembles, the XML data that is normally stored in binary large object
(BLOB) format, making information quicker to find. With the primary index
in place, you may then create three distinct types of secondary indexes.
• PATH: This contains the Path ID and Value columns from the pri-
mary XML index.
• PROPERTY: This is made up of the primary key from the underly-
ing table, concatenated with the Path ID and Value columns from
the primary XML index.
• VALUE: This index is the mirror image of the PATH index. It con-
tains the Value and Path ID columns.
The SQL Server 2005 Express query optimizer chooses the proper sec-
ondary index based on the query criteria.
4. Insert data into your table.
Here’s an example of creating a single row with two XML entries.
Normally, this kind of relationship would require you to separate the line
item entries into their own table, because it has two entities:
INSERT INTO Shipments VALUES(1,’<Root>
<Parts OrderID=”1” PurchaseOrderNumber=”NSSDJS#1”>
<DeliveryDate>2006-12-30</DeliveryDate>
<Items>
<ShipmentWeight>2.44</ShipmentWeight>
<LineItem>
<Name>DentaKit for Adults</Name>
326 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

<Code>DK-R001</Code>
<Price>29.95</Price>
</LineItem>
<LineItem>
<Name>Retainer Brite 1 Year</Name>
<Code>DK-RB1Y</Code>
<Price>35.00</Price>
</LineItem>
</Items>
</Parts>
</Root>’)
Notice how seamlessly the SQL and XML code integrate; embedding
XML inside SQL just requires some careful quote mark placement.

Operating on XML-based Information

After you have XML-based data residing in your SQL Server 2005 Express
database (the subject of the preceding section), the next logical step is to
make use of it. Stay tuned — that’s the subject of this section.

As with many other SQL Server 2005 Express technologies, you can take vari-
ous paths when working with XML data. To keep these examples as straight-
forward as possible, I explore a limited subset of these options. In particular, I
steer away from the potentially confusing subject of namespaces. I also use
untyped XML to reduce visual clutter.

To help you locate and modify XML-based information, five data functions
are at your disposal. Table 21-1 highlights these methods, along with their
purposes.

Table 21-1 XML Data Methods

Method Purpose
exist() Check to see if XML information exists
modify() Alter XML data
nodes() Break up XML data, making it conform to relational structure
query() Search XML data
value() Convert XML-formatted information into standard SQL style

For the balance of this chapter, I show you how to use these methods to
achieve your goals. I continually refer to the Shipments table that I lay out in
 Chapter 21: Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express 327
the “Placing XML into Your SQL Server 2005 Express Database” section, ear-
lier in this chapter.

Searching for XML data

In this first example, I’m running a basic search against the table, using the
query() method from the XML ShippedParts column. Notice that I com-
bine a standard WHERE clause with this method:

SELECT ShippedParts.query(‘/Root/Parts/DeliveryDate’)
FROM Shipments
WHERE ShipmentID = 1

This query retrieves the DeliveryDate element. To get a list of all the items
in the document, here’s how the query looks:

SELECT ShippedParts.query(‘/Root/Parts/Items’)
FROM Shipments

Using the exist() method, you can easily create a query that inspects the
XML data and looks for matches:

SELECT ShippedParts.query(‘/Root/Parts/Items/LineItem’)
FROM Shipments
WHERE ShippedParts.exist(‘
/Root/Parts/Items/LineItem[Name=”DentaKit for Adults”]
‘) = 1

This query returns all records that have line items with a product name that
corresponds to DentaKit for Adults.

If you want to retrieve XML information and place it in standard SQL format,
just use the value() method:

SELECT ShippedParts.value(‘
(/Root/Parts/Items/ShipmentWeight)[1]’,’decimal(6,2)
‘)
FROM Shipments

In the preceding example, I’m converting the shipment weight element from
the ShippedParts XML column into a decimal(6,2).

If you want to cut to the chase and just issue plain old SELECT statements,
you must know how SQL Server Management Studio Express displays this
information. Just click any column that contains XML, and you see something
like what’s shown in Figure 21-3.
328 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

Figure 21-3:
XML data in
SQL Server
Management
Studio.

Modifying XML data

Looking at all this nifty XML information is nice, but how easy can you make
alterations? Amending data is actually quite easy. Here’s a statement that
uses the combination of the modify() method and the replace statement
and changes the purchase order number attribute:

UPDATE Shipments
SET ShippedParts.modify(‘
replace value of (/Root/Parts/@PurchaseOrderNumber)[1]
with “TVC-15 PR1DA”
‘)
WHERE ShipmentID = 1

The modify() method expects you to provide a string that conforms to the
XML Data Manipulation Language (XML DML). XML DML extends the stan-
dard XQuery language, making data alterations easier to undertake.

When deleting records, you can use the delete statement from within the
modify() method. Here’s an example of removing the second line item entry
from within the Items node:

UPDATE Shipments
SET ShippedParts.modify(‘delete /Root/Parts/Items/*[2]’)
WHERE ShipmentId = 1

Formatting relational data as XML

What should you do if all your data is locked up in a relational format, yet you
want to work with it in an XML format? This is actually quite simple, as I now
 Chapter 21: Using XML with SQL Server 2005 Express 329
show you. For the purposes of this example, suppose that you track informa-
tion about shipping vendors in two important tables. The first table, Shippers,
holds details about each vendor. The second table, ShippingLocations,
stores information about each location supported by your vendors. In the next
two sample queries, I ask SQL Server 2005 Express to provide a list of all loca-
tions for each shipper.

By using the FOR XML directive, you can instruct SQL Server 2005 Express to
convert the output from a given query into XML. In this first example, I use
the RAW directive to create basic XML output:

SELECT Shippers.ShipperName,
ShipperLocations.LocationName
FROM Shippers, ShipperLocations
WHERE Shippers.ShipperID = ShipperLocations.ShipperID
ORDER BY ShipperName
FOR XML RAW

By using RAW, I’ve asked SQL Server 2005 Express to create generic, non-
nested rows that are prefixed with row:

<row ShipperName=”Federales Pesadillas SA de CV” LocationName=”El Paso” />

<row ShipperName=”Federales Pesadillas SA de CV” LocationName=”Phoenix” />
<row ShipperName=”Federales Pesadillas SA de CV” LocationName=”Los Angeles” />
<row ShipperName=”No Questions Asked Delivery” LocationName=”Jersey City” />
<row ShipperName=”No Questions Asked Delivery” LocationName=”Brooklyn” />
<row ShipperName=”No Questions Asked Delivery” LocationName=”Phoenix” />
<row ShipperName=”No Questions Asked Delivery” LocationName=”Fresno” />
<row ShipperName=”Sumimasen Shipping” LocationName=”Seattle” />
<row ShipperName=”Sumimasen Shipping” LocationName=”Phoenix” />
<row ShipperName=”Sumimasen Shipping” LocationName=”Los Angeles” />
<row ShipperName=”Two Guys and a Truck” LocationName=”Brooklyn” />
<row ShipperName=”Two Guys and a Truck” LocationName=”Jersey City” />
<row ShipperName=”Two Guys and a Truck” LocationName=”Bronx” />

Things get more interesting with the AUTO directive, which returns its results
in a simple tree:

SELECT Shippers.ShipperName,
ShipperLocations.LocationName
FROM Shippers, ShipperLocations
WHERE Shippers.ShipperID = ShipperLocations.ShipperID
ORDER BY ShipperName
FOR XML AUTO

<Shippers ShipperName=”Federales Pesadillas SA de CV”>

<ShipperLocations LocationName=”El Paso” />
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Phoenix” />
330 Part VI: Creating SQL Server 2005 Express Applications

<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Los Angeles” />

</Shippers>
<Shippers ShipperName=”No Questions Asked Delivery”>
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Jersey City” />
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Brooklyn” />
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Phoenix” />
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Fresno” />
</Shippers>
<Shippers ShipperName=”Sumimasen Shipping”>
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Seattle” />
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Phoenix” />
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Los Angeles” />
</Shippers>
<Shippers ShipperName=”Two Guys and a Truck”>
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Brooklyn” />
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Jersey City” />
<ShipperLocations LocationName=”Bronx” />
</Shippers>

This small sample shows how you can format relational data into an XML struc-
ture. You have many other options at your disposal, from controlling the layout
of the tree to producing an XML schema to handling binary information.
 Part VII
The Part of Tens
 In this part . . .
S QL Server 2005 Express is a great choice for a data-
base platform. It combines entry-level simplicity and
price with the power and capabilities of an industrial-
strength database engine. And given the broad reach of
Microsoft’s technologies, a wealth of information is out
there about how to make the most of this product.

To begin, I give ten places you can go to get more help

about SQL Server 2005 Express. Next, even though your
SQL Server 2005 Express experience should go smoothly,
you may get befuddled or things can go wrong. To help
you get over these obstacles, I catalog ten of the most
beneficial troubleshooting tips.
 Chapter 22

Ten Sources of Information on

SQL Server 2005 Express
In This Chapter
䊳 Microsoft SQL Server Web site
䊳 Microsoft Developer Network
䊳 Wikipedia, newsgroups, and user groups
䊳 Magazines and books
䊳 Design, administrative, and database generation tools

A s you embark on your SQL Server 2005 Express journey, you can take
comfort in the fact that there are many others on the same path. In this
chapter, I show you how to leverage some of the abundant resources pro-
vided by your fellow SQL Server devotees to help make your trip smoother.

Microsoft SQL Server Web Site

Here’s a great place to get started finding more about SQL Server 2005 Express.
Aside from the usual market-speak, you find a variety of valuable product and
technical details that you can use to further your understanding of not only SQL
Server 2005 Express, but all the available database editions. You can find it here:

www.microsoft.com/sql/default.mspx
334 Part VII: The Part of Tens

Microsoft Developer Network

In an effort to support software developers, Microsoft offers a comprehensive
set of services known as the Microsoft Developer Network. In addition to the
broad suite of software available for purchase, an extremely content-rich Web
site is available to anyone, whether or not they are a subscriber. It contains
white papers, technical briefs, and a deep knowledge base that you can
search to get answers to your questions. You find it here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/sql

You can also get some great help at the Microsoft TechNet Web site:

www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/default.mspx

Wikipedia
No, this isn’t a misprint: You read correctly. Believe it or not, this Internet-
based, open-source encyclopedia (www.wikipedia.org) is a great source of
information about all technology topics, including relational database theory
and practical application. For example, here’s a link to a very comprehensive
article on database normalization in theory and practice:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization

Newsgroups
These collaborative spaces are an immense help when you’re struggling with
a technical problem. Chances are that someone can address your question. In
the past few years, Google has done a great job helping to organize and
rescue Usenet. It’s easier than ever to access these groups via your browser.
Here’s a link to 27 (at last count) newsgroups focused solely on SQL Server:

http://groups.google.com/groups/dir?lnk=gh&hl=en&sel=33606733

Alternatively, you can just search Google Groups (http://groups.google.

com) for groups with SQL Server in their name.

You can also find some great links to SQL Server newsgroups at Microsoft
TechNet:

www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/server/
sql.mspx
 Chapter 22: Ten Sources of Information on SQL Server 2005 Express 335
Magazines
Several well-written magazines are available that provide significant coverage
of database topics. Some are database-agnostic, while others focus specifi-
cally on this product. These periodicals include

SQL Server Magazine:

www.sqlmag.com
Intelligent Enterprise:
www.intelligententerprise.com/info_centers/database
Databased Advisor:
www.databasedadvisor.com

As an added bonus, many magazines maintain online community message

boards, letting you interact with other readers.

User Groups
These gatherings of like-minded individuals are a great place to enhance your
understanding of SQL Server 2005 Express. Some groups meet virtually, while
others have physical events; some groups span both realms. Two of the
better Internet-focused most relevant user groups include the SQL Server
Worldwide Users Group (www.sswug.org), as well as the Professional
Association for SQL Server (www.sqlpass.org).

On the other hand, if you want to meet and greet your counterparts face-to-
face, chances are that an Internet search can point you toward a good candi-
date user group not too far from you.

Books
While this book helps you get started with SQL Server 2005 Express, many
other titles can give you a broader understanding of building high-quality
database applications. Try looking for well-regarded books that cover any of
these topics; they are all pertinent in the context of SQL Server 2005 Express:

⻬ Relational database design theory and practice

⻬ Best practices for user interface design
⻬ Distributed computing
336 Part VII: The Part of Tens

Database Design Tools

If you’re building a simple application, chances are that you won’t need to
perform any extensive database design and modeling to realize your goals.
However, if you face a more daunting task, you’re wise to look into special-
ized tools that focus on this portion of the application development lifecycle.
Embarcadero Technologies makes a collection of products that add value
throughout the entire process. You find them here:

www.embarcadero.com/products/products.html

Administrative Tools
As I’ve shown throughout the book, SQL Server Management Studio is a great
tool for administering your SQL Server 2005 Express database. However, you
may also be interested in one of the third-party tools out there. I’ve used
TOAD for SQL Server by Quest Software; all the major database platforms
have versions of this product. You can find it here:

www.toadsoft.com/toadsqlserver/toad_sqlserver.htm

Data Generation Tools

Generating sample data by hand is one of the more tedious tasks you face
when building and testing an application for your SQL Server 2005 Express
installation. Fortunately, tools on the market can automate this for you, free-
ing you up to spend your time developing and then tuning your application.
I’ve had great success with the DTM Data Generator, which you find here:

www.sqledit.com/dg/index.html

Blogs
There are some great blogs out there that offer a broad range of information
about SQL Server. You’ll even find postings from the Microsoft product devel-
opment teams. Check out the blogs at technet.com and msdn.com:

http://blogs.technet.com

http://blogs.msdn.com
 Chapter 23

Ten SQL Server 2005 Express

Troubleshooting Tips
In This Chapter
䊳 Getting a copy of SQL Server 2005 Express
䊳 Solving installation, connection, and administration problems
䊳 Mastering security difficulties
䊳 Resolving data inconsistencies
䊳 Setting up automated operations
䊳 Simplifying complicated data structures
䊳 Developing high quality software
䊳 Speeding up a sluggish server

A s an entry-level database server that is built on the same platform as

the entire SQL Server product family, SQL Server 2005 Express com-
bines simplicity with great power and a massive set of features. Naturally, all
these capabilities can a bit confusing at times, so this chapter is dedicated to
helping you rise above some of the most common predicaments that you
likely encounter.

Show Me How I Can Get the Product

If you’re ready to get started with SQL Server 2005 Express, all you need to do
is follow one of the following two paths:

⻬ Check out Microsoft’s Web site. You find a handy download link for SQL
Server at www.microsoft.com/sql.
⻬ Use the enclosed CD. To make things even easier, a copy of SQL Server
2005 Express is on the CD that comes with this book. Simply insert the disc
in your CD drive, and follow the on-screen instructions. You’ll be off and
running in no time. (Appendix D contains more information about the CD.)
338 Part VII: The Part of Tens

I Can’t Install It!

Having some cool new software and not being able to get it installed is not
much fun. Luckily, SQL Server 2005 Express usually installs without a hitch. If
you do encounter an obstacle, use the following checklist to help get you out
of hot water:

1. Make sure you have sufficient permissions to add or remove software.

In general, installing or removing software as an administrator is a good
idea. Otherwise, the operating system may block you from making these
kinds of changes.
2. Remove any previous versions of SQL Server 2005 Express via the
Add/Remove Programs application within the Control Panel.
If you skip this step, the installer probably complains loudly and then
keels over. Even though it’s tedious, take the time to clean things up
before trying to install.
3. Download and deploy the Windows Installer.
If you’re running a more modern version of Windows, you likely already
have the installer on your system.
4. Download and install the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
SQL Server 2005 Express is built upon this framework; if it’s missing, you
can’t install the database.

If you want more ideas about how to have a good installation experience,
have a look at Chapter 2.

I Can’t Connect to the Database!

Connection problems are one of the most common complaints about any
database server, SQL Server 2005 Express included. Happily, you can usually
overcome these complications without too much difficulty. If you can’t con-
nect, try one of these remedies:

⻬ Make sure the database server is running: Unless you request that the
SQL Server 2005 Express service launch when your system boots, you
simply need to start the service. Chapter 2 tells you all about kicking off
the SQL Server 2005 Express service.
⻬ Make sure that you’re using the right protocol: You can use several
communications methods to communicate with SQL Server 2005
Express. In order to successfully converse with the database server, you
need to make sure that both the client and server are speaking on the
 Chapter 23: Ten SQL Server 2005 Express Troubleshooting Tips 339
right channel with the right setup. In particular — because SQL Server
2005 Express defaults to local connections only — if you want remote
access, you must run the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool to
allow both local and remote connections. You can also choose the proto-
col for these conversations. Chapter 3 reveals all that you need to know
to get the dialogue going.
⻬ Adjust your connection string: When you connect to SQL Server 2005
Express, you need to specify a connection string that helps locate the
database server. Often highly site-specific, even the smallest error in this
connection string dooms your conversation from the start. Chapter 4
has all the details about the various flavors of connection string that
you’re likely to encounter.

Show Me How to Administer

My Database
Even though SQL Server 2005 Express is an entry-level database that doesn’t
require much care and feeding, you still need to periodically handle adminis-
trative tasks. Here are two good choices to get the job done quickly and easily:

⻬ SQLCMD utility: This character-based tool ships with every copy of SQL
Server 2005 Express. You can run just about any administrative task by
using direct Transact-SQL or one of the hundreds of built-in system
stored procedures.
⻬ SQL Server Management Studio Express Edition: If you have more of a
hankering for graphical tools, you want to look at this utility. While a full-
featured version ships with the more extensive SQL Server editions, even
this entry-level version available for SQL Server 2005 Express lets you per-
form many administrative chores. And whatever isn’t possible, you can
always handle with direct Transact-SQL or system stored procedures.

I Can’t See My Data!

If you can’t seem to locate information that you know is in your database,
don’t despair: Unless someone has inadvertently deleted data, it’s likely still
patiently waiting inside your database. In many cases, difficulties like this one
really are symptoms of an underlying permission problem.

Because it’s built on the enterprise-class SQL Server database platform, SQL
Server 2005 Express offers all the security capabilities of its bigger siblings.
Unfortunately, all this power can sometimes translate into unforeseen security
340 Part VII: The Part of Tens

obstacles. These aren’t hard to overcome, but you do need to know how to
correctly configure your permissions. Check out Chapter 11 to get a handle
on all that you can do with security in SQL Server 2005 Express.

My Data Is Messed Up!

Unless you believe in gremlins or other supernatural entities that descend
out of the ether and wreak havoc on your data, chances are that any informa-
tion problems are due to one of a relatively small number of errors and omis-
sions. Here’s what to watch out for:

⻬ Referential integrity issues: To help keep all your data synchronized,

SQL Server 2005 Express offers referential integrity features. These pre-
vent you or your applications from inadvertently altering rows from one
table without making corresponding changes in another table. To get a
better idea of how to use referential integrity to your advantage, take a
look at Chapter 8.
⻬ Failure to use transactions: Transactions help certify that your data-
base interactions happen in logically consistent groups. Without proper
transactions, an operation may update one table but fail to do the same
for other tables. The result is damaged data integrity. Chapter 12 is
designed to help you make the most of transactions.
⻬ Incorrectly defined columns: Believe it or not, sometimes database
designers choose the wrong kind of data type when setting up their
tables. For example, a particular field may need to contain currency
amounts, which include decimals. Yet when they write the SQL to create
the table, they choose the INTEGER data type for this column. This data
type means that SQL Server 2005 Express discards any fractional
amounts from that column.
Another common problem sees database designers not providing
enough space for character-based fields. Again, SQL Server 2005 Express
cheerfully tosses away any extra data, leading to damaged information
and unhappy users.

I Want to Automate Some Operations

SQL Server 2005 Express offers two very helpful features that you can use to
help streamline common database tasks:

⻬ Stored procedures and functions. Stored procedures and functions are

bits of logically grouped application software that you can write in a
variety of programming languages, including Transact-SQL, Visual Basic,
 Chapter 23: Ten SQL Server 2005 Express Troubleshooting Tips 341
Visual C#, and so on. After you create them, you then place these proce-
dures inside the SQL Server engine, where anyone with the right permis-
sion can run them. They centralize your application logic, and generally
help performance to boot. If you’re curious about stored procedures and
functions, check out Chapter 14.
⻬ Triggers. Think of a trigger as a very specialized stored procedure, one
that gets run when a certain event happens. For example, you may want
to send an e-mail alert when inventory drops below a certain level.
That’s a great use of a trigger; you can probably think of many more that
apply in your organization. You can also use triggers to help you admin-
ister your database server, as well as run administrative operations. If
you want to get a better handle on triggers, have a look at Chapter 15.

I Want to Simplify My Data

As a database administrator, making sense of your information can be confus-
ing, especially if your environment sports a substantial number of tables with
complex interrelationships. If you find it difficult, imagine how laborious it is
for your users and application developers. Luckily, none of you has to suffer
in silence. One way to create a more transparent picture of your data is to
take advantage of views.

Think of a view as a window into your information, one that can span the
entire database to retrieve results. By pre-building all the joins and stripping
out any extraneous details, you can make this window much simpler than the
underlying data. The end result is that your users and developers can work
with the view, rather than the base database tables. To see how views can
make things better for your enterprise, take a look at Chapter 10.

I Want to Build Good Software

If you’re looking to construct some high quality software, I have good news
for you. A wide range of excellent tools work really well with all the SQL
Server products, including the Express edition. Here are three that you
should look into:

⻬ Visual Studio: This flagship of Microsoft’s development tool product

family is feature-packed, supports several popular programming lan-
guages, and you can use it to build the most rich and complex applica-
tions. On the other hand, if you don’t need all that power, check out the
next products on my list.
⻬ Visual Web Developer 2005 Express: This entry-level product is
designed and priced so that a large audience can use the technology to
342 Part VII: The Part of Tens

create Web-driven, database-ready applications. In Chapter 20, I show

how this product seamlessly works with SQL Server 2005 Express.
⻬ Visual Basic Express: Visual Basic is an extremely popular programming
language, especially for traditional client/server applications. This
Express version is aimed at the same audience as Visual Web Developer
2005: Developers who want a low-priced, easier-to-use tool that still
offers substantial capabilities.

If you have a different taste in programming languages, don’t worry: You can
develop software that works with SQL Server 2005 Express in just about any
language. In fact, Microsoft offers Express editions of its Visual Studio prod-
uct for other languages, such as Java, C++, and C#.

My Database Server Is Too Slow!

Before you toss your slow-running database server out the window, you can
run a few effortless checks to identify and remedy the source of the headache:

⻬ Are your tables indexed correctly? Without a doubt, improper or miss-

ing indexes cause most of the performance problems that plague the
average database application. You need to take the time to make sure
that you’ve placed indexes in the right places. Chapter 10 is a great
place to start on the path to good indexing.
⻬ Is there enough memory? Don’t shortchange your database server by
denying it the memory it needs to get the job done quickly. You can
quickly tell if you’re running out of memory by launching the Windows
Task Manager, and studying the amount of available physical memory. If
this number is approaching zero, you’re asking your server to do too
much work with too little memory.
⻬ Are there too many users and applications? Sometimes, no matter how
much memory you install, or how well your tables are indexed, you
approach the limit of what a database server can handle. There’s no
hard-and-fast way to tell if you’re on the brink, but if you exhaust all
your other options and you can’t coax any more speed out of your
server, you should distribute your workload among multiple servers.
 Part VIII
Appendixes
 In this part . . .
N ow that you know SQL Server 2005 Express
backwards-and-forwards, I have just a few more
topics to discuss.

To begin, I describe what criteria you should use when

determining if the time is right to upgrade to a higher-
capacity version of SQL Server. Next, you see how easy
you can populate your SQL Server 2005 Express database
with information from other sources. You also find a glos-
sary of important relational database and SQL Server 2005
Express terms. Finally, I also relate what you can find on the
CD that accompanies this book, as well as how to use it.
 Appendix A

Upgrading to SQL Server 2005

In This Chapter
䊳 Deciding whether to migrate
䊳 Planning to migrate
䊳 Completing the migration

S QL Server 2005 Express is an entry-level, yet highly capable database

that is built on the mainline SQL Server platform. This architecture offers
you a relatively easy upward migration path. After you use SQL Server Express
for some time, you may run up against some of its built-in constraints, which
gets you thinking about migrating to one of its more powerful siblings.

In this chapter, I show you how to make an informed decision about whether
to upgrade or not. Assuming that you elect to follow the upgrade path, you
find out how to create a workable plan, as well as how to leverage an excel-
lent utility that makes migrations a snap.

Why Migrate?
For many SQL Server 2005 Express installations, this question never arises.
The product will faithfully serve your needs, and there will be no need to look
for an alternative. However, a significant number of database administrators
find themselves bumping up against some of the product’s inherent limita-
tions. Here are a few of these barriers:

⻬ Memory: Even if you fill your server with memory, SQL Server 2005
Express doesn’t take advantage of any more than 1GB of RAM. For small
to mid-sized applications, this limitation isn’t a problem. However, larger
solutions may need more.
⻬ Database size: If you’re building a solution that needs to hold large
amounts of data in a single database, you may not be happy with the
4GB limitation per database in SQL Server 2005 Express.
⻬ Multi-processors: SQL Server 2005 Express takes advantage of only one
physical processor-based CPU, regardless of how many are available
346 Part VIII: Appendixes

on your database server. Note that a multi-core CPU still counts as a

single CPU.
⻬ Full-text searching: This feature helps you index and then query large
blocks of text-based information. SQL Server 2005 Express doesn’t
include full-text searching, which means that any searches that you run
against large blocks of text-based information aren’t as fast as with one of
the more full-featured editions. SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced
Services does offer full-text search capabilities, and this edition is also
free. See Chapter 18 for details.
⻬ Analysis services: If your environment contains large volumes of data
that needs to be crunched to come up with recognizable patterns, the
lack of these analytic services is a significant limitation in SQL Server
2005 Express. However, third-party applications can take up much of this
slack. Note, however, that these additional applications may end up
costing much more than simply upgrading to a more powerful SQL
Server 2005 edition.
⻬ Reporting services: If your goal is to easily create and distribute
reports, you might find the baseline edition of SQL Server 2005 Express
too constraining in its capabilities. However, the still-free but more pow-
erful SQL Server 2005 Express with Advanced Services includes a very
helpful set of reporting features. Chapter 18 is filled with important
details about this impressive edition.
⻬ Automated server administration: SQL Server 2005 Express is the only
edition of this product that does not ship with SQL Server Agent. This
sophisticated feature serves as a single point of control for executing a
wide variety of tasks. These tasks can be launched based on user inter-
action, by schedule, or in response to one or more events. If your data-
base environment requires this level of automation, consider upgrading
to another edition.
⻬ Database mail: This capability, not present in SQL Server 2005 Express,
lets you create and send e-mail messages directly from the database
engine. However, you’re still free to embed mail creation logic inside
your applications no matter what edition you select.
⻬ Backup/recovery options: Your data archiving choices are somewhat
more reduced for SQL Server 2005 Express than in the more full-featured
editions. Despite this restriction, you can still safeguard your information.

Coming Up with a Good Migration Plan

Upgrading your database without a solid migration plan is foolhardy. Luckily,
you don’t need to do too much work to create a trustworthy strategy. Just take
all the following points into consideration as you make your arrangements:
 Appendix A: Upgrading to SQL Server 2005 347
⻬ Data archiving: By far, this task is the most important to complete during
your migration. In addition to preserving your information, backing up
your data yields a nice peace-of-mind benefit.
⻬ Migration timing: Attempting to upgrade your database in the middle of
a very hectic workload is not the best idea; you’re much better off pick-
ing a quiet time to undertake this effort.
⻬ Application compatibility: In the vast majority of cases, your applications
work just fine with the more full-featured SQL Server editions. However, to
be safe you should check with your software provider for confirmation.
⻬ Other housekeeping: This catchall is for those little, but important,
responsibilities that are part of any software upgrade. You want to make
sure that you update the configuration for components such as your
ODBC instance names, scripts, and so on.
⻬ Testing: Naturally, even the best migration plan won’t fly unless you allo-
cate enough time and resources to test your new configuration prior to
going live.

Delivering on the Migration

If you’ve made it this far, you’re probably serious about carrying out your
database upgrade. In this section, I show you how easily you can get the job
done. In fact, this operation can be as simple as backing up your SQL Server
2005 Express database and then restoring it into another edition of the prod-
uct. Check out Chapter 13 for more on backup and restore. Another approach
would be to use SQL Server Management Studio (which ships with all other
editions of SQL Server) to simply copy the database between database servers.

However, for the balance of this chapter, I focus on the excellent Import and
Export Wizard, which is part of SQL Server Management Studio. Understanding
this utility is important; you may find it very useful for other types of data
migration, such as importing information from other brands of database
server. The one assumption that I make here is that you can connect to both
your existing SQL Server 2005 Express database server as well as your new
database server.

Your first goal is to create a new database; here’s how to proceed:

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Connect to the database server that’s the destination for your upgrade.
3. Right-click the Databases folder, and choose New Database.
You’re creating a new, empty database and then importing the structure
and all data from the existing database.
4. Fill in all the necessary details about your new database.
348 Part VIII: Appendixes

5. After you finish creating your new database, click OK to confirm

your work.

Your new database is now ready to receive all your data from SQL Server
2005 Express. Just follow these steps to finish the job; you can skip Steps 1
and 2 if you left SQL Server Management Studio running from the previous
set of instructions.

1. Start SQL Server Management Studio.

2. Connect to the database server that is the destination for your upgrade.
3. Expand the Databases folder.
4. Right-click the database you just created, and choose Tasks➪
Import Data.
The SQL Server Import and Export Wizard launches.
5. From the Data Source drop-down list, choose SQL Native Client.
As shown in Figure A-1, there are many other types of connectivity
options, which are useful if you’re trying to move data among other
types of information sources.

Figure A-1:
Choosing a
data source.

6. Choose your new database server from the Server Name drop-down
list and select either Windows or SQL Server authentication.
7. Select your new database.
Figure A-2 shows how the Choose a Destination screen appears after you
make choices in Steps 5 through 7.
8. Click Next.
 Appendix A: Upgrading to SQL Server 2005 349

Figure A-2:
Destination
server
details.

9. On the Specify Table Copy or Query screen, decide whether you want
the wizard to copy all data, or if you want to provide a query to
restrict the result set. Then click Next to continue.
For this example, stick with a full database copy (as I’ve done in
Figure A-3).

Figure A-3:
Choosing
whether to
copy all
data or
provide a
filtering
query.

10. On the next screen of the wizard (shown in Figure A-4), pick one or
more tables and views to copy, and click Next.
350 Part VIII: Appendixes

Because you’re upgrading your entire database, choose all tables and
views. If your new database already has tables in place, you can edit the
field mappings by clicking the Edit button for the tables in question.

Figure A-4:
Selecting
tables and
views for
import.

11. Decide if you want to run the job immediately, or save it for later.
Click Next to continue.
For this example, keep going and run the job right now.
After you click Next, the wizard gives you one last chance to change
your mind before it starts its work, as you can see in Figure A-5.

Figure A-5:
Confirming
your
selections.
 Appendix A: Upgrading to SQL Server 2005 351
12. Verify your choices and click Finish.
13. Check for any errors after the job runs.
Figure A-6 shows the report that the wizard creates upon completion. No
rows have been copied; in this case, my SQL Server 2005 Express source
database was empty because my goal was to simply replicate the data-
base structure. In reality, you see accurate row counts for each table.

Figure A-6:
Post-import
report.

With the migration finished, you have one more important task to complete:
Back up your new database so that you preserve your information in a pris-
tine state.
352 Part VIII: Appendixes
 Appendix B

Migrating to SQL Server

2005 Express
In This Chapter
䊳 Preparing for your migration
䊳 Delivering a successful migration
䊳 Finishing your migration

T here are many good reasons to choose a functionally rich yet low-priced
database platform like SQL Server 2005 Express. Regardless of your ration-
ale for making this decision, you can use the information found in this appen-
dix to help guide you through the important process of safely and securely
moving your data from its existing locations to your new SQL Server 2005
Express instance. On the other hand, if all you seek is more details on the
process of installing your database server, check out Chapter 2.

Getting Ready to Migrate

Although rushing out and upgrading your existing database to SQL Server
2005 Express is tempting, you may regret your haste later. Taking a little time
and planning your upgrade properly is much better.

Proper planning prevents

poor performance
When performing any type of software upgrade, you never want to put your-
self into a position where you have no way backward or forward. A good plan
prevents that unpleasant scenario from ever arising. With that in mind, what
should you include in your migration plan? While all the following topics may
354 Part VIII: Appendixes

not apply to your enterprise, chances are that many of them are worth
considering.

⻬ Are your hardware and software sufficient? SQL Server 2005 Express
doesn’t require a supercomputer, but it does have some basic hardware
and software prerequisites that you want to make sure your environ-
ment meets. Chapter 2 addresses these preconditions.
⻬ Does SQL Server 2005 Express meet your needs? In Chapter 1, I high-
light some features and limitations of this product; it’s worth reviewing
before attempting a migration.
⻬ What applications are affected? Make an inventory of those applica-
tions that are affected by the upgrade, and check that they work with
SQL Server 2005 Express. The odds are that most general-purpose,
ODBC-capable solutions can interact with this product. The same can’t
be said for heavyweight enterprise applications. To be safe, check with
the solution provider.
⻬ When is the right time to upgrade? Ideally, you want to perform your
upgrade during a period of reduced activity, while also factoring in time
to restore your original configuration should things go askew. Juggling a
particularly busy workload and a software upgrade at the same time is
not fun.
⻬ Are there major product differences? Given that its architecture is
based on the powerful SQL Server platform, chances are that SQL Server
2005 Express is more feature-rich and functional than your existing data-
base product. Still, double-checking this assumption is worth your time,
especially if your current database has highly specialized features that
are necessary for your environment.
⻬ Should you work in parallel? In many cases, working in parallel is the
safest way to test a new software configuration. You could assign a
group of users to work with SQL Server 2005 Express, manage any prob-
lems, and then switch everyone to the new platform after you resolve
these issues.
If you go the parallel route, be sure that you keep track of data modifica-
tions in both the new and old systems. Otherwise, you run the risk of
losing information when the upgrade is complete.

Safeguarding your existing information

As I state in the previous section, the worst possible thing that can happen
during an upgrade is to find that you have no way to go back to your older
configuration should something go wrong. To prevent that possibility,
 Appendix B: Migrating to SQL Server 2005 Express 355
backing up your current software and information is essential before begin-
ning the upgrade process. If anything goes awry, you now have a way of
recovering.

Completing a Successful Migration

With the vital preparation out of the way, you can now perform the migration
itself. In this section, I show you how to upgrade from three popular data
storage formats:

⻬ Microsoft Access
⻬ Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE)
⻬ Text files

An important point to note is that Microsoft’s SQL Server Management Studio

offers an excellent Import and Export Wizard that you can use to interchange
information among a wide variety of data sources and formats, including the
previous formats. I describe how to use this wizard in Appendix A, so I
assume that you’re using an alternate data migration technology.

Microsoft Access
Up until now, many of you have used Microsoft Access as your database envi-
ronment. It’s a good choice for many entry-level, single-user applications, but
a time comes when you need to upgrade to a more powerful and flexible data-
base platform such as SQL Server 2005 Express. Fortunately, making this
transition is quite easy.

You may take several iterations to get the import process working correctly.
Don’t despair: You can keep fine-tuning your import effort until you get it
right. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Launch Microsoft Access.

2. Make a backup of your existing database.
3. Launch the Upsizing Wizard (its initial screen is shown in Figure B-1)
by choosing Tools➪Database Utilities➪Upsizing Wizard.
Depending on the version and configuration of your Microsoft Access envi-
ronment, you may see some installation messages from your server. These
may require you to insert your original program disks for this product.
356 Part VIII: Appendixes

Figure B-1:
Choosing
to create
a new
database or
load existing
database.

4. Choose either to create a new database in SQL Server 2005 Express or

to use an existing one. Click Next when ready.
Although copying the Microsoft Access .mdb file onto your database
server is probably faster, it’s not essential; you can connect remotely.
5. Fill in the login details for your SQL Server 2005 Express server, along
with the name of the new or existing database you want to populate
(see Figure B-2), and then click Next.
If you’re confused about how to connect to the database server, check
out Chapter 4 for some guidance on this topic.
6. Pick one or more tables to upgrade (as shown in Figure B-3), and click
Next.
Unless you have a good reason not to, you’re smart to upgrade all the
tables at one time.
 Appendix B: Migrating to SQL Server 2005 Express 357

Figure B-2:
Connecting
to the
database,
and
providing a
database
name.

Figure B-3:
Upgrading
all tables.
358 Part VIII: Appendixes

7. On the next screen of the wizard (shown in Figure B-4), choose

whether to export table attributes as well as data, and click Next.
Generally, accepting the default values for these settings is a good idea.
If you have any problems during the data migration, you may want to
uncheck some of the table attributes in this dialog box. For example, the
table relationships setting may cause trouble during the import process.
Trial-and-error is definitely the watchword.
8. Choose whether you want the Upsizing Wizard to create a new
Microsoft Access application that will make use of your new SQL
Server 2005 Express database. Click Next when you’re ready to
proceed.
If you already have an application in place that uses the current
Microsoft Access database, let the wizard create a new client/server
application. Otherwise, you can choose the No Application Changes
option (see Figure B-5).
9. Click Finish for the wizard to complete its work.
If everything is okay, you see a series of status messages letting you
know that the wizard is doing its job. When complete, the wizard pro-
duces a rather lengthy report telling you what happened (a portion of
which is shown in Figure B-6).

Figure B-4:
Exporting
table
attributes.
 Appendix B: Migrating to SQL Server 2005 Express 359

Figure B-5:
Setting
application
properties.

Figure B-6:
The
Upsizing
Wizard
report.
360 Part VIII: Appendixes

Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE)

Prior to SQL Server 2005 Express, many Microsoft developers took advantage
of earlier free database servers, known either as the Microsoft Data Engine
(MSDE) or MSDE 2000, depending on the version. Upgrading from these prior
packages is quite easy; in fact, if you installed MSDE using an MSI setup, the
installation program automatically handles the upgrade for you.

Use the default instance name for your new SQL Server 2005 Express instance
if you directly installed MSDE.

On the other hand, if you installed MSDE as part of a larger packaged soft-
ware installation, just follow these steps to ensure that your database gets
moved to the new server.

1. Install SQL Server 2005 Express using a different instance name than
your MSDE instance.
Use the Named Instance option to request this alteration.
2. When SQL Server 2005 Express is installed, detach the database from
your earlier MSDE instance.
3. Attach the database to SQL Server 2005 Express.

Alternatively, you can run the SQL Server 2005 Express setup program in
custom mode. You can then specify the instance name of your existing MSDE
environment, and you’ll be asked if you want to upgrade this database to SQL
Server 2005 Express.

Text files
If you’ve been storing your information in text files, you’ll find SQL Server
2005 Express to be a much safer and more powerful alternative. However, you
must do some work to get your data migrated. Here’s what you need to do to
make the leap forward:

1. Decide on a database and table structure for SQL Server 2005 Express.
In order to import data, you need a destination. You can elect to create a
one-to-one correlation between your text file–based data and its new
home in SQL Server 2005 Express. On the other hand, you can choose to
create a by-the-book relational database design. In either case, some
planning and thought are required on your part.
To find out more about designing relational databases, have a look at
Chapters 8 and 9.
2. Run the bcp utility, instructing it where to find the data source and
destination.
 Appendix B: Migrating to SQL Server 2005 Express 361
This feature-rich, command-line application allows data to move
between SQL Server 2005 Express and external solutions and file for-
mats. You can feed this utility many parameters and settings to help it
gracefully handle your import files; once determined, you can then save
the settings in format files. Figure B-7 shows the available settings for
this application.
I discuss how to use bcp in more detail in Chapter 9.
3. Alternatively, run one of the many third-party utilities available for
data migration.
While the bcp utility is very powerful, you may find it too cumbersome
and arcane to be useful. However, the software market abounds in inde-
pendent tools that do nothing but move information among various for-
mats; one of these tools may make sense for you.
You can even use tools like Microsoft Access and Excel as import utili-
ties, but you have to set up ODBC connections and perform other gym-
nastics that are handled more naturally by bcp or a specialized,
third-party data migration utility.

Figure B-7:
bcp utility
variables.

Wrapping Up Your Migration

If you’ve made it this far without major complications, congratulations!
You’re not quite done yet, however. You need to take a few more simple —
yet vital — steps to guarantee complete success.

First, backing up your brand-new SQL Server 2005 Express database is essen-
tial. Doing so gives you a way out in case anything goes wrong after you start
using the database server.

With the backup out of the way, the next order of business is to create an
ODBC data source. You can skip this step if you have no applications or tools
that use ODBC as their primary communication mechanism with your data-
base. However, odds are you need to complete this step. Here’s how to do it:
362 Part VIII: Appendixes

1. Launch the Windows Control Panel and then choose Administrative

Tools➪ODBC.
2. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator dialog box, click either the
User DSN or System DSN tab.
Selecting the System DSN tab is generally a good idea; your data source
is then visible to other users on your computer.
3. From the list of drivers, pick either the SQL Native Client or the SQL
Server driver.
The SQL Native Client is the more current connectivity driver, so I rec-
ommend that you select this option.
4. Enter the name and description of your connection, pick the server,
and click Next.
5. Choose the authentication method you want, and click Next.
6. Choose your default database and click Next.
7. Fill in the final settings, and click Finish.
8. Test your new ODBC connection.
The SQL Native Client offers a very useful feature to help validate that
your connection was set up correctly. Just click the Test Data Source
button (shown in Figure B-8) to launch this verification utility. Figure B-9
show a successful connection.

With these last steps out of the way, you can now confidently start using your
SQL Server 2005 Express database.

Figure B-8:
Summary
of ODBC
settings.
 Appendix B: Migrating to SQL Server 2005 Express 363

Figure B-9:
A suc-
cessful
connection.
364 Part VIII: Appendixes
 Appendix C

Glossary
Advanced Services: A more capable version of SQL Server 2005 Express.
While this edition maintains its sibling’s free price point, it includes some
advanced technologies such as full-text searching and reporting services.

article: A database object (such as a table, stored procedure, or view) that is

contained within a publication. See also replication.

assembly: Application logic that is stored in, and managed by, the SQL Server
2005 Express database server, including objects such as triggers, CLR soft-
ware, and stored procedures. See also Common Language Runtime (CLR).

attribute: Information, contained in the form of name-value pairs, located

after the start tag of an XML element. See also element; content.

backup: The process of copying your database’s information to another form

of media, such as tape or disk. A good backup strategy is vital for any produc-
tion SQL Server 2005 Express environment. See also full backup; full differ-
ential backup.

backup device: A hardware unit that hosts the media for your database back-
ups. You configure your backup to work with this object. These devices are
typically disk or tape drives. See also backup.

Business Intelligence Development Studio: Found in the SQL Server toolkit,

this environment makes it easy to create and deploy useful reports. See also
reporting services.

checkpoint: Like any modern relational database management system, SQL

Server 2005 Express performs much of its work within high-performance
memory. However, to make any data alterations permanent, eventually memory
must preserve data onto disk drives. The checkpoint process is how the data-
base server accomplishes this synchronization.

column: Stored within tables, a column contains a particular piece of infor-

mation. For example, if you’re tracking details about a customer, you likely
place this data in a table. Within the table, you have columns to monitor
things such as name, address, and so on. See also table.
366 Part VIII: Appendixes

Common Language Runtime (CLR): When building a database application,

many developers choose to use SQL Server’s internal language, Transact-
SQL. However, other programming languages (such as Visual Basic, Visual C#,
and so on) offer better performance and functionality for certain tasks, such
as parsing a string or solving sophisticated mathematical computations, than
Transact-SQL. CLR is a Microsoft software development and integration tech-
nology that allows you to build software and store it within SQL Server 2005
Express using one of these other languages. In most cases, however, using
Transact-SQL will be the right choice.

composite index: This index is made up of two or more columns. See also
column.

content: All information contained between the start and end tag of an XML
element. See also element; attribute.

database server: A sophisticated software product that hosts a broad range

of data, making it available for many concurrent clients. SQL Server 2005
Express is one example of a database server. Other vendors, such as Oracle
and IBM, offer their versions of this type of product.

distributor: A central database server that acts as an administrator and coor-

dinator for replication. See also replication.

Document Type Definition (DTD): A specification that describes the struc-

ture and format of an XML document. Generally included at the top of the
XML document, it helps people and applications better understand and work
with the XML-based information. See also XML.

element: Surrounded by a start and end tag, this XML-based information may
also include attributes and content. Elements may contain other nested, child
elements. See also attribute; content.

file backup: A type of backup relevant only when there are multiple filegroups.
See also filegroup.

filegroup: Collections of SQL Server 2005 Express data files. For performance
and administrative reasons, you can place user objects into their own, dedi-
cated filegroups. See also master data file (MDF); file backup.

first normal form: One of the three normal forms that make up relational
database guidelines, this rule states that a table should not have any repeating
fields. See also normalization; second normal form; third normal form.

foreign key: Information that establishes a relationship between two or more

tables. By preventing erroneous data modifications, this association helps
preserve data integrity. See also primary key.
 Appendix C: Glossary 367
full backup: As its name implies, this type of backup archives all information
within a database. Should the database be lost or damaged, you can restore it
to its state as of the time you created the full backup. See also full differen-
tial backup; partial backup; restore.

full differential backup: Identical to a full backup, with one major difference:
A full differential backup archives only information that has changed since
the last full backup. This backup can be very handy if only small portions of
your database change on a regular basis; by running differential backups you
don’t need to incur the time and media costs of full backups. See also
backup; full backup.

full text catalog: The file system-based object that holds the contents of all
full-text indexes.

full-text search: The ability, present in SQL Server 2005 Express with
Advanced Services, to quickly and efficiently search large quantities of text-
based information.

function: A centralized, server-based routine that can be included as part of

your Transact-SQL statements. Typically used to streamline logic and reduce
the amount of required programming effort, you can build your own func-
tions. You can also take advantage of the many built-in functions offered by
SQL Server Express 2005. One difference between functions and stored proce-
dures is that the former must return a value; it’s optional with the latter. See
also stored procedure.

index: An internal database structure, sometimes defined by the database

administrator, and sometimes automatically created by SQL Server 2005
Express. Indexes enable speedy access to information, as well as perform
integrity and other validations to safeguard data. See also unique index;
composite index.

isolation level: A configurable setting that affects how a transaction interacts

with other SQL Server Express users and processes. Increasingly stringent
isolation levels are

Read uncommitted Snapshot

Read committed Serializable
Repeatable read

These isolation levels interact with your application, allowing or denying visi-
bility to modified data depending on the setting. See also transactions.
368 Part VIII: Appendixes

log file: A file system–based, internal database construct that records data
and table modifications, and restores information to its previous state should
the application rollback a transaction.

logical design: The abstract design and structure of your relational database.
Focusing on the high-level objects, and their interrelationships, this design is
usually generated during the analysis phase of most projects. It then serves
as a guideline for creating the actual implementation of your SQL Server 2005
Express database. See also physical design.

master data file (MDF): SQL Server 2005 Express databases contain two
types of operating system files: MDF and log files. This class of file stores
data, and is dedicated to one-and-only-one database. See also log file;
filegroup.

named pipes: A communication method between two processes. In the con-

text of SQL Server 2005 Express, this is a means for a database client to com-
municate with the database server. See also protocol.

namespace: A collection of element and attribute names designed to reduce

confusion and ambiguity when dealing with database objects as well as XML
documents. See also XML.

normalization: A series of database design recommendations that dictate

how information should be dispersed among tables, as well as how these
tables should relate. See also first normal form; second normal form; and
third normal form.

optimizer: The optimizer is an internal technology that is responsible for

selecting the most efficient means to accessing or altering information. It
uses detailed statistics about the database to make the right decision.

partial backup: An operation that archives a subset of your database,

including

Data from the primary filegroup

Any requested read-only files
All read-write filegroups

See also partial differential backup; full backup; full differential backup.

partial differential backup: Archives only those portions of the last partial
backup that have changed since the partial backup was completed. See also
partial backup; full backup; full differential backup.
 Appendix C: Glossary 369
permission: A privilege that you grant to a principle. After it’s authorized, the
principle may then interact with one or more securables. See also principal;
securable.

physical design: The actual tables, columns, indexes, and other data struc-
tures used to store information in a SQL Server 2005 Express database.
Development projects typically progress from a logical database design to a
physical database design. See also logical design.

primary key: This column, or group of columns, provides a unique definition

for a given row. By definition, no two rows in the same table can have the
same primary key value. See also foreign key.

principal: Any user or process that you can authorize to interact with your
SQL Server 2005 Express database. See also securable.

procedural language: A general-purpose programming language containing

full logic and flow control capabilities. Typically compiled to binary code,
these languages can usually handle more complex algorithms at higher per-
formance than interpreted database-centric languages such as Transact-SQL.
See also Common Language Runtime (CLR).

protocol: To communicate effectively, client applications and database

servers need a commonly agreed-upon approach. A protocol is a communica-
tion standard adhered to by both parties that makes these conversations
possible. See also TCP/IP; named pipes.

publication: A single unit containing one to many articles, available for repli-
cation to other database servers. See also replication.

publish-and-subscribe: An architecture that allows easy interchange of infor-

mation among distributed computers and processes. Data may be pushed by
a publisher, or pulled by a subscriber. See also replication.

publisher: A specific database server that offers information to other data-

bases using replication technology. See also replication.

record: A grouping of information typically returned from a query or other

database operation. It may consist of data from only one table, or it may be
an aggregation of information dispersed among many tables. See also row.

recovery model: A preset plan used by SQL Server 2005 Express when
archiving and restoring information. See also backup; restore.
370 Part VIII: Appendixes

referential integrity: A set of rules enforced by the database server, the

user’s application, or both that protects the quality and consistency of infor-
mation stored in the database.

replication: A process whereby information is published from a database

server and sent to one or more subscribers. Data may be transferred proac-
tively by the publisher, or may be requested by the subscribers. See also
publish-and-subscribe.

reporting services: The collection of technologies, found in SQL Server 2005

Express with Advanced Services, that make it easy to design, develop, and
deploy reports for users regardless of their location. See also Business
Intelligence Development Studio.

restore: The process of reinstating archived information onto your database

server. See also backup; recovery model.

row: An individual entry from a given table. For example, a table may contain
details about thousands of customers; a specific customer’s data is in one
row. See also record.

schema: A group of database objects that make up a given namespace.

Objects include tables, views, and statements that grant or revoke access to
other securable objects. No two objects in any namespace may have the
same name.

second normal form: Data is said to be in the second normal form if it com-
plies with the first normal form, as well as having one or more columns in a
table that uniquely identify each row. See also first normal form; third
normal form.

securable: This represents any type of object that can be given its own secu-
rity setting. Some examples of securables include tables, views, and users.
See also principal.

SQL Server Management Studio Express: Provided by Microsoft, this graphi-

cal tool lets you perform common database administration tasks as well as
run direct Transact-SQL statements.

stored procedure: Centralized, server-based application code. Typically used

to standardize business logic and reduce the amount of required program-
ming effort, you can build your own stored procedures, or leverage the many
built-in stored procedures offered by SQL Server 2005 Express. One differ-
ence between stored procedures and functions is that the latter must return
a value; it’s optional with the former. See also Common Language Runtime
(CLR); functions.
 Appendix C: Glossary 371
Structured Query Language (SQL): Originally developed by IBM, this
standards-based language allows access to information stored in a relational
database. See also Transact-SQL.

subqueries: A nested query that returns information to an outer query,

thereby helping the outer query correctly identify results.

subscriber: A database server that collects replicated, published information

sent by one or more publishers. See also replication.

subscription: An appeal, sent to a publisher, requesting a publication to be

sent via replication. See also replication.

table: These contain logical groupings of information about a given topic. For
example, if you’re interested in students and their grades, your application
would have at least two tables: One to track details about students, and one
to monitor their test scores. See also column.

TCP/IP: An abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, this

standard protocol makes up the foundation of most computer-to-computer
communication across the Internet as well as on local networks.

third normal form: Table data that complies with both the first and second
normal forms, and also directly relates to each rows primary key. See also
first normal form; second normal form.

transactions: To prevent data corruption or other inconsistent results,

developers use transactions to logically group sets of related database access
statements into one work unit. If something goes wrong during the processing
of these statements, it’s easy to rollback, or cancel, the transaction so that
none of the changes take place. On the other hand, if everything completes
normally, the transaction ensures that all the alterations are made at the
same time.

Transact-SQL: Microsoft’s implementation of SQL. It includes a number of

enhancements that make it easier to develop powerful database applications.
These additions include conditional logic, variables, and error-handling logic.
See also Structured Query Language (SQL).

trigger: Stored in and managed by your database server, this software exe-
cutes when a certain event occurs. These events can range from information
creation or modification to structural changes to your database. After the
event occurs, the trigger executes, causing a predetermined set of actions to
take place. These actions can encompass data validation, alerts, warnings,
and other administrative operations. Triggers can invoke other triggers and
stored procedures. See also stored procedure.
372 Part VIII: Appendixes

unique index: Sometimes created explicitly by the user, and sometimes cre-
ated automatically by the database server, by guaranteeing one-and-only-one
value for a given table, this structure speeds access to information as well as
preserves data integrity. See also index.

view: A virtual grouping of one or more tables, often done to reduce complex-
ity while increasing security and reliability. An administrator defines the view,
which is then available for developers and users to access instead of working
with the underlying tables.

Visual Studio: Microsoft’s flagship development environment, supporting a

wide variety of programming languages with a full set of professional features
and capabilities for the modern software developer. See also Visual Studio
Express.

Visual Studio Express: An easy-to-learn, integrated collection of software

development and data management tools provided by Microsoft. These tools
are aimed at entry-level developers, students, and hobbyists.

XML: A standards-based, structured way of representing and working with

information in easily readable text files. Consisting of nested elements that
contain content and attributes, XML has become the de facto standard for
transmitting data among disparate systems. SQL Server 2005 Express sup-
ports storing and working with XML data. See also element; attribute;
content.

XQuery: Designed to interrogate XML-based data, this standards-based

query language also has some programming capabilities. See also XML.
 Appendix D

About the CD-ROM

I n Chapter 2, I describe several different ways that you can obtain and
install your own copy of the SQL Server 2005 Express software. One of the
easiest methods is simply to install the product from the CD that comes with
this book.

System Requirements
Make sure your computer meets the minimum system requirements listed. If
your computer doesn’t match most of these requirements, you may have
problems installing or running the contents of the CD:

⻬ A PC with a 600 MHZ Pentium III or faster processor.

⻬ Any of the following Windows operating systems:
• Windows Server 2003 with SP1
• Windows Small Business Server 2003 with SP1
• Windows XP Home Edition with SP2 or later
• Windows XP Media Center Edition with SP2 or later
• Windows XP Professional Edition with SP2 or later
• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition with SP2 or later
• Windows 2000 Advanced Server with SP4
• Windows 2000 Professional Edition with SP4 or later
• Windows 2000 Server with SP4 or later
⻬ The Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0.
⻬ At least 192MB of total RAM installed on your computer. 512MB of RAM
is recommended.
374 Part VIII: Appendixes

⻬ At least 500MB of available disk space. If you’re storing a lot of informa-

tion in your database, you need more disk space.
⻬ Administrative privileges on the computer. If you have insufficient per-
mission, Windows blocks any software installation.
⻬ A CD-ROM drive.

If you need more information on the basics, check out PCs For Dummies, by
Dan Gookin; or any of the Windows For Dummies titles by Andy Rathbone (all
published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.).

What You’ll Find

The CD contains a free, fully functional copy of Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Express Edition with Advanced Services, including a series of associated
programs and utilities listed here:

⻬ The database server and all supporting files.

⻬ The character-based SQLCMD utility, through which you can directly
enter SQL to work with your database.
⻬ The bcp utility, which you use to interchange information between SQL
Server 2005 Express and other applications.
⻬ The SQL Server Configuration Manager, which helps you construct and
tune your environment.
⻬ The SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool, which lets administra-
tors enable or disable protocols, services, and features. This can help
improve security.
⻬ SQL Server Management Studio Express Edition, an easy-to-use yet pow-
erful database administration application.

You can use this database platform alone, or in combination with popular
development tools from Microsoft and other vendors. You can even use it as an
information repository for office productivity software such as Microsoft Excel,
PowerPoint, and other data analysis and business intelligence technologies.
 Appendix D: About the CD-ROM 375
If You Have Problems (Of the CD Kind)
SQL Server 2005 Express installed for me with no problems. I’ve tested all the
scripts and application code. Alas, your computer may differ, and some pro-
grams may not install correctly or work properly for some reason.

The three most likely problems are that you don’t have administrative privi-
leges, don’t have enough memory (RAM) for the programs you want to use,
or you have other applications running that are affecting installation or run-
ning of a program. If you get error messages like Not enough memory or
Setup cannot continue, try one or more of these methods and then try
using the software again:

⻬ Turn off any antivirus software that you have on your computer.
Installers sometimes mimic virus activity and may make your computer
incorrectly believe that virus is infecting it.
⻬ Close all running programs. The more programs you’re running, the
less memory is available to other programs. Installers also typically
update files and programs. So if you keep other programs running,
installation may not work properly.
⻬ Add more RAM to your computer. This is, admittedly, a drastic and
somewhat expensive step. However, if you’re running any of the
Windows operating systems I listed earlier in this chapter, adding more
memory can really help the speed of your computer and allow more pro-
grams to run at the same time.
376 Part VIII: Appendixes
 Index
assembly, 242, 365
•A• atomicity of transaction, 195
Access (Microsoft) attributes, XML, 96, 319, 365
accessing database using, 128 authentication mode, specifying, 30, 186
migrating from, 355–359 AUTO directive, 329
ACID test, 194–195 autogrowth feature, 61
actions triggered by events. See triggers automated server administration, 346
ad-hoc remote queries, enabling, 38 automatic performance tuning, 12
administration AVG() function, 141
automated, 346
features for, 13, 20–22, 58–60, 339
with SQL Server Management Studio
•B•
Express, 60, 67–68, 339 backup devices, 365
with SQLCMD, 59, 339 backups
third-party tools for, 60 best practices for, 206–207
administrators, 183 definition of, 365
Advanced Services edition, 263–267 exporting data as, 210
ALTER DATABASE command, 206 features for, 15
ALTER TABLE statement, 117–118 full backups, 207, 367
analysis services, 14, 57, 346 full differential backups, 207, 367
antivirus software, 375 limitations of, 346
application developers, 182 partial backups, 207, 368
application development platforms, 130 partial differential backups, 207, 368
application power users, 182 performing, 208–209
application users, 182 recovery models for, 15, 205–206, 369
applications replication for, 84
adding, effect on database size, 56 restoring, 15, 207, 210–212, 370
desktop, creating, 290–298 strategy for, 204–205
desktop, customizing, 298–300 bcp utility, 135–136, 210
desktop, debugging, 301 BEGIN TRANSACTION statement, 198, 202
desktop, packaging and shipping, 301–302 bigint data type, 94
error handling for, 256–257 binary data type, 94
features for, 19–20 bit data type, 94
performance of, 82, 342 blogs, 336
processes used by, controlling, 73 books. See publications (resources)
stability of, 252 Boolean searches, 139
Web, database for, 306–310 buffer cache, 203
Web, user interface for, 311–315 built-in functions, SQL, 140–141
Web, Web site for, 304–306 BULK INSERT statement, 134–136
archives. See backups bulkadmin server role, 180
articles, 86, 365 bulk-logged recovery model, 205–206
378 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

business analysis services, 14 parameters for, 72–74

business rules of protocols, 39–42
triggers for, 231 of publications, 88–89
violations of, from lost data integrity, 194 of replication, 87–90
with sp_configure procedure, 70–71
•C• of SQL Native Client, 41
of subscriptions, 89–90
calculated values, normalizing, 104–105 of surface area, 36–38
CD included with this book of TCP/IP, 42
contents of, 375 for users, 68, 73–74
installing SQL Server 2005 Express, 374 connection string, 339
problems with, 375–376 connections to database
system requirements for, 373–374 limiting number of, 72
central processing unit. See CPU with ODBC, 46, 48, 362–363
change-tracking population, 270 problems with, 338–339
char data type, 94 surface area for, configuring, 36–37
character-based utilities. See SQLCMD viewing in Object Explorer, 108
utility with Visual Basic 2005 Express, 292–294
CHECK constraint, 121, 160–161 with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express,
CHECKPOINT command, 204 307–309
checkpoints, 196, 203–204, 365 consistency of transaction, 195, 252
child and parent differences, 194 constraints. See also foreign keys;
CLR (Common Language Runtime). See primary keys
SQLCLR CHECK constraint, 121, 160–161
clustered index, 169 definition of, 120–121, 157
collation settings, 30 NOT NULL constraint, 159–160
columns UNIQUE constraint, 120, 160
definition of, 365 CONTAINS predicate, 273–274
designing, 97–98, 340 CONTAINSTABLE function, 273
filter columns, indexes on, 148, 168 content, XML, 319, 366
for full-text searching, 269 conventions used in this book, 2, 5
join columns, indexes on, 148 COUNT() function, 141
output columns, renaming, 142 CPU (central processing unit)
sort columns, indexes on, 148–149, load on, 216
168–169 multiple, not used, 13, 57, 346
XML columns, indexes on, 167, 325 requirements for, 25
COMMIT TRANSACTION statement, upgrading, 79
199, 202 CREATE FULLTEXT CATALOG
Common Language Runtime. See SQLCLR command, 272
composite indexes, 366 CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX command, 272
computer requirements CREATE FUNCTION statement, 218
for CD, 373–374 CREATE INDEX statement, 150, 170
for SQL Server 2005 Express, 24–26 CREATE PROCEDURE statement, 217
configuration CREATE TABLE statement, 114, 115–116
features for, 20–22, 70 CREATE TRIGGER statement, 236
during installation, 29–31 CREATE TYPE statement, 95
optional features to install, 35 CUBE clause, SELECT statement, 172–173
 Index 379
designing, 96–98
•D• diagramming, 98–99
data access tools, 128 e-mail, sending from database, 346
data conversion problems, 259 error handling in, 254–256
Data Definition Language (DDL), triggers files associated with, 61
for, 229–230 formatting data as XML, 328–330
data files. See database; files full-text search support for, 270–272
data generation tools, 336 inserting data in, 131–136
data integrity migrating, 346–351
ACID test for, 194–195 modifying data in, 150–152
definition of, 193 naming, 61
error handling and, 252 normalization of, 100–105, 368
isolation levels for, 196–198 owner of, 61
loss of, situations causing, 194 performance of, improving, 81–82
problems with, 340 performance of, monitoring, 76–79
transaction structures for, 196 planning, 18–19
triggers for, 231 renaming, 113
data loss, protecting against. See also size of, increasing, reasons for, 56
backups; security size of, limits on, 12, 16, 57, 345
exporting data, 210 size of, managing, 61
synchronization of memory and disk statistics for, 82
storage, 203–204 system databases, 33, 108
transactions for, 201–203 viewing in Object Explorer, 108–109
Data Manipulation Language (DML), XML in, 323–326
triggers for, 230 database administrators, 183
data types, 93–95 database design tools, 336
database. See also connections to database mirroring, 14, 58
database; queries (searches) database roles, 181, 188
accessing, tools for, 128–131 database scope, 179
accessing, with Transact-SQL, 125–127 database server. See also SQL Server 2005
administering, automated, 346 Express
administering, features for, 13, 20–22, definition of, 366
58–60, 339 load on, 216, 218
administering, third-party tools for, 60 redundant hardware, 206
administering, with SQL Server replication of, 16, 83–90, 370
Management Studio Express, 60, SQL Server, 1, 10–11, 333
67–68, 339 standby server, 206
administering, with SQLCMD, 59, 339 database users, 182
creating, test database, 33 Databased Advisor (magazine), 335
creating, with SQL Server Management dates, data types for, 94, 173–174
Studio Express, 60–63, 111–112 datetime data type, 94
creating, with Visual Basic 2005 Express, db_accessadmin database role, 181
291–292 db_backupoperator database role, 181
creating, with Visual Web Developer 2005 dbcreator server role, 180
Express, 306–307 db_datareader database role, 181
data types allowed in, 93–95 db_datawriter database role, 181
definition of, 9–10 db_ddladmin database role, 181
deleting, 113 db_denydatareader database role, 181
deleting data from, 152–156 db_denydatawriter database role, 181
380 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

db_owner database role, 181 error handling

db_securityadmin database role, 181 for applications, 256–257
DDL (Data Definition Language), triggers data conversion problems, 259
for, 229–230 for database errors, 254–256
debugging, 261, 301 database schema problems, 258–259
decimal data type, 94 defining errors, 260–262
defragmenting disks, 81 examples of, 257–260
DELETE statement, 152–153, 154–156 functions for, 254
design of database, 96–99, 368, 369 information about errors, 252–254
desktop applications reasons for, 251–252
creating, 290–298 referential integrity violation, 259–260
customizing, 298–300 reporting for, 31
debugging, 301 in Transact-SQL, 126, 127
packaging and shipping, 301–302 triggers and, 260
diagram of database, 98–99, 109 @@ERROR operation, 256
dirty pages, 203 ERROR_LINE() function, 254
dirty read, 197 ERROR_MESSAGE() function, 254
DISABLE TRIGGER statement, 237–238 ERROR_NUMBER() function, 254
disk load, 216 ERROR_PROCEDURE() function, 254
disk space requirements, 25 ERROR_SEVERITY() function, 254
diskadmin server role, 180 ERROR_STATE() function, 254
distributed enterprise, features for, 16–17 events, tracing, 72
distribution across multiple servers. events, triggers for. See triggers
See replication Excel (Microsoft), 128
distributor, 87, 366 exclusive locks, 196
divide-by-zero, user configurations for, 74 exist() method, 167, 326
DML (Data Manipulation Language), Express edition. See SQL Server 2005
triggers for, 230 Express
documents, XML, 322 Extensible Markup Language. See XML
DROP TABLE statement, 119, 153
DROP TRIGGER statement, 239
DTD (Document Type Definition), 366 •F•
DTM Data Generator, 336 failover clustering, 14, 58
durability of transaction, 195 file backups, 366. See also backups
filegroups, 366
•E• files
database files, 61
elements, XML, 319, 320, 366 format files, generating, 135–136
e-mail, sending from database, 346 log files, 61, 109, 368
Embarcadero Technologies database MDF (master data file), 17, 18–19, 368
design tools, 336 text files, migrating from, 360–361
ENABLE TRIGGER statement, 238 filter columns, indexes on, 148, 168
Enabled property, TCP/IP, 42 filter, full-text engine, 269
end tags, XML, 319 first normal form, 100–101, 366
enterprise applications, 130 float data type, 94
enterprise, distributed, 16–17 FOR XML directive, 329
Enterprise edition, 10 foreign keys
entities, 96 creating, 133
entity relationship model, 97 definition of, 159, 366
 Index 381
enforcing relationships, 120, 121–123
indexes on, 148, 168 •H•
format files, generating, 135–136 hardware partitioning, 105
FREETEXT predicate, 273, 274 HAVING clause, SELECT statement, 173
FREETEXTTABLE function, 273 high availability, features for, 58
full backups, 207, 367 historical data, not normalizing, 104
full differential backups, 207, 367 horizontal partitioning, 105
full population of full-text index, 270
full recovery model, 205
full-text catalog, 269, 367 •I•
full-text engine, 268–269
icons used in this book, 5
full-text engine filter daemon, 269
image data type, 94
full-text index, 268, 269–270
Import and Export Wizard, 347–351
full-text searching
incremental-timestamp population, 270
advantages of, 268
independent systems vendor (ISV), 17
components of, 268–269
indexes. See also foreign keys;
definition of, 13, 57, 269–270, 346, 367
primary keys
examples of, 273–276
clustered index, 169
functions for, 273
composite indexes, 366
performance of, 268, 276
creating, 150, 169–170
predicates for, 273
definition of, 146, 367
proximity search, 275–276
designing, 81–82, 97–98, 147–149, 168–169
using, 270–273
on filter columns, 148, 168
functions. See also stored procedures
on foreign keys, 148, 168
advantages of, 216–217, 340–341
on join columns, 148
built-in functions, SQL, 140–141
listing, 146–147
calling, 226
multiple column indexes, 149
compared to stored procedures, 219
optimizer for, 146
definition of, 215, 367
primary indexes, 167, 325
for error handling, 254
on primary keys, 147, 168
examples of, 218
problems with, 342
for full-text searching, 273
secondary indexes, 167, 325
improving performance using, 82, 216
on sort columns, 148–149, 168–169
security and, 217
unique indexes, 372
when not to use, 218–219
XML-based indexes, 167, 325
writing, in SQLCLR, 225–226, 248–250
indexing, online, 14, 58
writing, in Transact-SQL, 224–225
INSERT statement, 133–134
installation
•G• of Advanced Services edition, 264–267
antivirus software interfering with, 375
garbage collection, 242 from CD, 374
Gookin, Dan (PCs For Dummies), 374 configuration during, 29–31
graphical management, 264 optional features to install, 35
GROUP BY clause, SELECT statement, preparation for, 24–26
171–172 problems with, 338, 375
GUID (Global Unique Identifier), 159 procedure for, 26–31
testing, 31–34
382 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

instance name, 30 memory

instances, user, 69, 72 adding, 80, 342, 376
int data type, 94 recommendations for, 25
integration services, 14, 57–58 shared memory protocol, 40
integrity of data. See data integrity synchronizing with disk, 203–204
integrity of transaction, 195 upgrading because of limitations on, 345
Intelligent Enterprise (magazine), 335 used by SQL Server 2005 Express, 12, 57
interoperability, 12 virtual memory, adjusting, 80
isolation levels, 196–198, 367 merge replication, 85
ISV (independent systems vendor), 17 Microsoft Access
accessing database using, 128
•J• migrating from, 355–359
Microsoft Computer Management
join columns, indexes on, 148 console, 20
joins, in queries, 142–144 Microsoft Desktop/Data Engine (MSDE),
18, 360
Microsoft Developer Network, 334
•K• Microsoft Excel, 128
Keep Alive property, TCP/IP, 42 Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), 257
keys. See foreign keys; indexes; Microsoft Management Console (MMC),
primary keys Performance Snap-in, 75–76
Microsoft .NET Framework, 26, 27, 242
Microsoft Query, 128–130
•L• Microsoft TechNet Web site, 334
Microsoft Visual Studio. See Visual Studio
Listen All property, TCP/IP, 42
2005 Express
localization, in full-text searching, 268
Microsoft Windows. See Windows
locks, 196
migrating to SQL Server 2005 Express. See
log cache, 196
also upgrading to SQL Server 2005
log files, 61, 109, 368
backups for, 354–355
logical design, 96–97, 368
from Microsoft Access, 355–359
logins. See also principals; users
from MSDE, 360
authorized, listing, 184
ODBC data source for, 361–363
creating, 67–68, 185–187
planning, 353–354
from text files, 360–361
•M• MIN() function, 141
model database, 33
magazines, 335. See also publications modify() method, 167, 326, 328
(resources) money data type, 94
management. See administration; monitoring
configuration; monitoring database activity, 22
Mansfield, Richard (Visual Basic 2005 performance, 75–79
Express Edition For Dummies), 290 replication, 90
many-to-many relationships, 119 msdb database, 33
master database, 33 MSDE (Microsoft Desktop/Data Engine),
MAX() function, 141 18, 360
MDF (master data file), 17, 18–19, 368 multi-processors, 13, 57, 345–346
 Index 383
orphans, 194
•N• Output window, 110
named pipes, 39, 368
namespace, 320–321, 368
nchar data type, 94
•P•
.NET Framework (Microsoft), 26, 27, 242 padding, user configurations for, 74
network load, 216 parent and child differences, 194
newsgroups, 334 partial backups, 207, 368
No Delay property, TCP/IP, 42 partial differential backups, 207, 368
nodes() method, 167, 326 partial updates, 194
noise words, in full-text searching, 269 partitioning, 14, 58, 105
normalization PCs For Dummies (Gookin), 374
definition of, 100, 368 PERCENT directive, SQL, 155–156
first normal form, 100–101, 366 performance
second normal form, 101–103, 370 of applications, 82, 342
third normal form, 103–104, 371 automatic performance tuning, 12
when not to use, 104–105 of full-text searching, 268, 276
NOT NULL constraint, 159–160 functions affecting, 82, 216
notification services, 14–15, 58 improving, 79–82
ntext data type, 94 isolation levels affecting, 198
NULL, user configurations for, 74 memory affecting, 80, 342, 376
numeric data type, 94 monitoring, 75–79
nvarchar data type, 94 problems with, 342
of queries, improving, 146–150
server load and, 216, 218
•O• SQLCLR and, 225, 243, 244
Object Explorer, 108–110 statistics and, 82
Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), stored procedures affecting, 216
38, 257 XML and, 318
object securable, 179 permissions
ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) definition of, 369
connecting to server with, 46–49 modifying, 190
error handling and, 256–257 problems with, 339–340
migration using, 361–363 revoking, 190
OEM (original equipment setting by securable, 189–190
manufacturer), 17 setting for users, 68, 188–189, 190–191
office productivity tools, 128 triggers for, 231
one-to-many relationships, 119 phantom data, 197
one-to-one relationships, 119 physical design, 97–98, 369
online indexing, 14, 58 population of full-text index, 270
online restore feature, 14, 58 precision, user configurations for, 74
Open Database Connectivity. See ODBC predicates, full-text, 273
operating systems supported, 25, 373 primary indexes, XML, 167, 325
operators, 182 primary keys
optimizer, 146, 368 creating, 132, 158–159
ORDER BY clause, SELECT statement, 140 definition of, 101, 158, 369
original equipment manufacturer enforcing relationships using, 120
(OEM), 17 GUIDs as, 159
indexes on, 147, 168
384 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

principals. See also logins; users

database roles for, 181 •Q•
definition of, 180, 369 queries (searches)
permissions for, 369 ad-hoc remote queries, enabling, 38
server roles for, 180 Boolean searches, 139
privileges. See permissions built-in functions in, 140–141
problems. See troubleshooting filtering results of, 138–140, 173
procedural language, 369 full-text searching, 13, 57, 346
procedures. See stored procedures grouping results of, 171–172
processadmin server role, 180 joining tables in, 142–144
processes, controlling, 73. See also logins performance of, improving, 146–150
processors. See CPU in Query window, 110–111
Professional Association for SQL Server renaming output columns of, 142
user group, 335 SELECT statement, 136–140
programming, 341–342. See also sorting results of, 140
applications; error handling; functions; subqueries in, 145–146, 371
SQLCLR; stored procedures; triggers summarizing results of, 172–173
programming languages Query Editor, 110
configuring, 73 query() method, 167, 326, 327
portability of, 216 Query (Microsoft), 128–130
supported by SQLCLR, 241 Query window, 110–111
supported by Visual Studio 2005 Quest Software, TOAD for SQL Server, 336
Express, 49 quotes, user configurations for, 74
project, creating, 290–291
protocol handler, full-text engine, 269
protocols, 39–42, 369 •R•
proximity search, 275–276
RAISERROR statement, 260–262
public database role, 181
RAM (Random Access Memory)
publications (replication)
adding, 80, 342, 376
configuring, 88–89
recommendations for, 25
definition of, 86, 369
upgrading because of limitations on, 345
features for, 86–87
used by SQL Server 2005 Express, 12, 57
limits on, 85
Rathbone, Andy (Windows For Dummies),
publications (resources)
374
Databased Advisor, 335
RAW directive, 329
Intelligent Enterprise, 335
RDBMS (relational database management
PCs For Dummies (Gookin), 374
system), 2
relevant topics for, 335
READ COMMITTED isolation level, 197
SQL Server Magazine, 335
READ UNCOMMITTED isolation level, 197
Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition For
real data type, 94
Dummies (Mansfield), 290
records, 369
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express For
recovery model. See also backups
Dummies (Simpson), 304
definition of, 369
Windows For Dummies (Rathbone), 374
features for, 15
publish-and-subscribe architecture, 369
setting, 206
publisher, 87, 369
types of, 205–206
 Index 385
referential integrity Reporting Services Configuration Tool,
definition of, 370 276, 278
problems with, 340 reporting users, 182
violation of, 259–260 resources. See publications (resources);
relational data, formatting as XML, 328–330 web site resources
relational database, 10. See also database restoring backups
relational database management system definition of, 370
(RDBMS), 2 features for, 15
relationships performing, 210–212
classes of, 119 testing procedure for, 207
creating, 121–123 roles
designing, 97–98 database roles, 181, 188
enforcing, 120 default role for new users, 181
modifying, 123–124 server roles, 68, 180, 187
removing, 123–124 ROLLBACK TRANSACTION statement,
remote connections, configuring, 36–37, 73 199, 202
REPEATABLE READ isolation level, 197 ROLLUP clause, SELECT statement, 172
replication routines. See functions; stored procedures
advantages of, 84 rows, 370
configuring, 87–90
definition of, 83, 370
distributed enterprise using, 16 •S•
limitations of, 85–86 schema scope, 179
monitoring, 90 schema, XML, 322, 324–325, 370
publishing, configuring, 88–89 scope of a trigger, 228
publishing, definition of, 86, 369 scopes enclosing securables, 179
publishing, features for, 86–87 scripts, SQL, 64–66
publishing, limits on, 85 searches. See full-text searching; queries
subscribing, configuring, 89–90 second normal form, 101–103, 370
subscribing, definition of, 87, 371 secondary indexes, XML, 167, 325
subscribing, limits on, 85–86 securables
transactional replication, 85, 87–90 definition of, 178–179, 370
types of, 85 scopes of, 179
viewing in Object Explorer, 109 setting for users, 68, 188–189
when to use, 84 setting permissions by, 189–190
Report Builder, 277 security. See also permissions; roles;
Report Designer, 277, 279 securables
Report Manager, 277 authentication mode, specifying, 30, 186
Report Server, 14, 276 authorized logins, listing, 184
reporting services authorized users, listing, 184–185
components of, 276–277 features for, 12
creating reports, 278–284 problems with, 339–340
definition of, 14, 264, 346 reasons for, 177–178
delivery options, 277 SQLCLR and, 242, 243
installation, 264–266 stored procedures and functions for,
maintaining reports, 286 217, 223
output options, 277 viewing in Object Explorer, 109
publishing reports, 284–286 securityadmin server role, 180
types of reports, 277
386 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

SELECT statement snapshot replication, 85

building, 136–138 SOHO (small office/home office), 15–16
built-in functions in, 140–141 sort columns, indexes on, 148–149, 168–169
filtering results of, 138–140, 173 sp_columns stored procedure, 222
grouping results of, 171–172 sp_configure stored procedure, 70–71,
joining tables in, 142–144 73–74, 245
performance of, improving, 146–150 sp_datatype_info stored procedure,
renaming output columns of, 142 222
sorting results of, 140 sp_defaultdb stored procedure, 223
subqueries in, 145–146 sp_depends stored procedure, 222
summarizing results of, 172–173 sp_helpdb stored procedure, 222
SERIALIZABLE isolation level, 197 sp_helptext stored procedure,
server. See database server 232–233, 238
server roles sp_password stored procedure, 223
assigning to logins, 187 SQL Common Language Runtime. See
assigning to users, 68 SQLCLR
list of, 180 SQL Native Client
server scope, 179 configuring, 41
serveradmin server role, 180 migration using, 348, 362–363
service account, specifying, 30 ODBC connection using, 46, 48, 362–363
Service Broker, enabling, 38 SQL scripts, 64–66
services. See also reporting services SQL Server
Advanced Services edition, 263–267 definition of, 1
analysis services, 14, 57, 346 editions of, 10–11, 263–264
business analysis services, 14 Web site for, 333
integration services, 14, 57–58 SQL Server Browser service, 37
notification services, 14–15, 58 SQL Server Business Intelligence
SQL Server Browser service, 37 Development Studio, 284–286
surface area for, configuring, 36–37 SQL Server Configuration Manager, 40
XML Web Services, enabling, 38 SQL Server Magazine, 335
SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SQL Server Management Studio Express
statement, 198 (SSMSE)
setupadmin server role, 180 accessing database, 128
severity of errors, 253 administration, 60, 67–68, 339
shared locks, 196 backups, 208–209
shared memory protocol, 40 configuring replication, 88–90
simple recovery model, 206, 207–209 configuring server, 70
Simpson, Alan (Visual Web Developer 2005 connecting to server, 44–45
Express For Dummies), 304 creating database, 60–63, 111–112
size of database creating indexes, 169–170
increasing, reasons for, 56 creating logins, 67–68, 186–187
limits on, 12, 16, 57, 345 creating relationships, 121–123
managing with autogrowth feature, 61 creating tables, 114
smalldatetime data type, 94 creating users, 187–189
smallint data type, 94 definition of, 21–22, 370
smallmoney data type, 94 deleting database, 113
SNAPSHOT isolation level, 197 diagramming database, 98–99
 Index 387
downloading and installing, 31, 108 upgrading, to SQL Server 2005, 345–351
features of, 108 user groups for, 335
generating SQL scripts, 64–66 Web site for, 24, 333, 337
Import and Export Wizard, 347–351 when to use, 15–17
listing triggers, 232 SQL Server 2005 Express database. See
modifying relationships, 123–124 database
monitoring replication, 90 SQL Server 2005 Network Configuration, 41
Object Explorer in, 108–110 SQL Server 2005 Services, 41
Query window in, 110–111 SQL Server 2005 Standard, 10
removing relationships, 123–124 SQL Server 2005, upgrading to, 345–351
renaming database, 113 SQL Server 2005 Workgroup, 10–11
reporting services using, 277 SQL Server Worldwide Users Group, 335
restoring backups, 210–212 SQL (Structured Query Language),
setting permissions, 189–190 2, 126, 371. See also SQLCMD utility;
starting, 108 Transact-SQL
testing installation, 32–33 SQLClient API, error handling and, 257
Web site for, 108 SQLCLR (SQL Common Language Runtime)
writing triggers, 234–236 advantages of, 243
SQL Server Surface Area Configuration, 36, definition of, 14, 241–242, 366
37, 38, 70 enabling, 38
SQL Server 2005 Enterprise, 10 objects that can be built using, 243–244
SQL Server 2005 Express programming languages supported
Advanced Services edition, 263–264 by, 241
blogs about, 336 using, 245–246
cost of, 1, 3 when to use, 244
definition of, 1, 11 writing functions in, 225–226, 248–250
downloading, 24, 337 writing stored procedures in, 225–226,
feature limitations, 13, 14, 56–58, 85–86, 246–248
345–346 writing triggers in, 228
features of, 12–15 SQLCMD utility
installing, 26–31, 35, 338, 374 administration using, 59, 339
integration with Visual Studio, 11, 13, 19 connecting to server with, 43–44
knowledge helpful to learning, 1–2 creating tables, 115–116
migrating to, backups for, 354–355 definition of, 21
migrating to, from Microsoft Access, parameters for, 44, 116
355–359 testing installation using, 33–34
migrating to, from MSDE, 360 SQLException exceptions, 257
migrating to, from text files, 360–361 SQLGetDiagRec operation, 257
migrating to, ODBC data source for, SQLSTATE error code, 256
361–363 SSMSE. See SQL Server Management
migrating to, planning for, 353–354 Studio Express
newsgroups for, 334 Standard edition, 10
obtaining, 23–24 start tags, XML, 319
system requirements for, 24–26 statistics for database, improving
upgrading, capabilities for, 12 performance based on, 82
upgrading, reasons for, 56–58
388 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

stored procedures. See also functions creating, with Visual Basic 2005 Express,
advantages of, 216–217, 340–341 294–296
calling, 226 creating, with Visual Web Developer 2005
compared to functions, 219 Express, 309–310
definition of, 215, 370 definition of, 371
examples of, 217–218 deleting, 118–119
improving performance using, 82 deleting data from, 152–156
listing triggers using, 232–233 designing, 81, 97–98, 340
running from SQLCMD, 22 grouping with views, 161–165, 341, 372
security and, 217 inserting data in, 131–136
system stored procedures, 219–223 joining, in queries, 142–144
viewing in Object Explorer, 109 modifying, 116–118
when not to use, 218–219 modifying data in, 150–152
writing, in SQLCLR, 225–226 rows in, 370
writing, in Transact-SQL, 224–225 viewing in Object Explorer, 109
Structured Query Language (SQL), 2, 126, tags, XML, 319
371. See also SQLCMD utility; TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/
Transact-SQL Internet Protocol), 39, 42, 371
subqueries, 145–146, 371 tempdb database, 33
subscribers, 87, 371 text data type, 94
subscriptions text files, migrating from, 360–361
configuring, 89–90 third normal form, 103–104, 371
definition of, 87, 371 threading, 242
limits on, 85–86 time, data types for, 94, 173–174
SUM() function, 140–141 timestamp data type, 94, 173–174
surface area, configuring, 36–39 tinyint data type, 94
syntax errors, 258 TLA (three-letter acronym), 241
sysadmin server role, 180 TOAD for SQL Server (Quest
sys.sql_modules table, 229 Software), 336
system administrators, 183 TOP extension, SQL, 154–155
system databases, 33, 108 tracing events, 72
system requirements trade-secret algorithms, 244
for CD, 373–374 transactional replication, 85, 87–90
for SQL Server 2005 Express, 24–26 transactions
system stored procedures, 219–223 ACID test for, 194–195
sys.trigger_events table, 229 checkpoints for, 196
sys.triggers table, 229 definition of, 202–203, 371
error handling and, 252
•T• isolation levels for, 196–198, 367
locks for, 196
tables. See also queries (searches) log cache for, 196
columns in, 97–98, 340, 365 reasons for, 201–202, 340
creating, methods for, 113–115 transaction log for, 196
creating, with SQL, 115–116 user configurations for, 73–74
creating, with SQL Server Management using, 198–199, 202
Studio Express, 63–64
 Index 389
Transact-SQL. See also SQL (Structured untyped XML, 322
Query Language) UPDATE statement, 151–152
conditional logic in, 126 upgrading CPU, 79
definition of, 125–126, 371 upgrading memory, 345
error handling in, 126, 127 upgrading to SQL Server 2005. See also
features of, 126–127 migrating to SQL Server 2005 Express
variables in, 126 features for, 12
writing stored procedures or functions in, procedure for, 345–351
224–225 reasons for, 56–58
writing triggers in, 228 user groups, 335
XML data, working with, 167 user instances, 69, 72
transitive dependency, 103 user interface, creating, 296–298, 311–315
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet user-defined data types, 95
Protocol (TCP/IP), 39, 42, 371 users. See also logins; principals
triggers authorized, listing, 184–185
advantages of, 341 configuring, 68, 73–74
configuring, 72–73 creating, 187–189
definition of, 227–228, 229, 371 effect on performance, 342
deleting, 239 limiting number of connections by, 72
disabling, 237–238 mapping to Windows users, 68
enabling, 238 number of, database size and, 56
error handling and, 260 permissions for, 189–190, 190–191
improving performance using, 82 roles for, 68, 180–181
invoking, 237 securables for, setting, 68, 188–189
listing, 232–233 types of, 181–183
modifying, 238
scope of, 228
types of, 229–230 •V•
when to use, 231 value() method, 167, 326, 327
writing, 228, 233–236 varbinary data type, 95
troubleshooting varchar data type, 95
CD included with this book, 375–376 vertical partitioning, 105
data access problems, 339–340 views
data integrity problems, 340 creating, 163–165
database connection problems, 338–339 definition of, 161, 372
installation problems, 338 listing, 161–163
performance problems, 342 multiple table views, 164–165
TRUNCATE TABLE statement, 153 reasons to use, 341
truncation, user configurations for, 74 single table views, 163–164
TRY...CATCH block, 254–256 viewing in Object Explorer, 109
typed XML, 322 Virtual Interface Adapter (VIA), 39
virtual memory, adjusting, 80
•U• Visual Basic 2005 Express
connecting to existing database, 292–294
UNIQUE constraint, 120, 160 creating a database, 291–292
unique indexes, 372 creating a project, 290–291
uniqueidentifier data type, 95
390 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition For Dummies

Visual Basic 2005 Express (continued) SQL Server, 333

creating tables, 294–296 SQL Server Management Studio
creating user interface, 296–298 Express, 108
customizing application, 298–300 SQL Server 2005 editions, 11
debugging application, 301 SQL Server 2005 Express, 24, 333, 337
definition of, 342 TOAD for SQL Server, 336
packaging and shipping application, user groups, 335
301–302 Wikipedia, 334
Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition For Web sites, creating for Web application,
Dummies (Mansfield), 290 304–306
Visual Studio, 372 WHERE clause
Visual Studio 2005 Express DELETE statement, 154
accessing database using, 130 SELECT statement, 139
components of, 11, 24 Wikipedia Web site, 334
connecting to server with, 49–51 Windows For Dummies (Rathbone), 374
definition of, 11, 341, 372 Windows (Microsoft)
integration with SQL Server 2005 Express, authentication using, 30, 186
13, 19 mapping users to, 68
programming languages supported by, 49 operating systems supported, 25, 373
SQL Server 2005 Express included Windows Task Manager, 75
with, 24 word breaker and stemmer, 269
SQLCLR and, 245–246 Workgroup edition, 10–11
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express
connecting to existing database, 307–309
creating database, 306–307 •X•
creating tables, 309–310 Xcopy deployment, 18–19
creating user interface, 311–315 xml data type, 95, 166–167
creating Web site, 304–306 XML (Extensible Markup Language)
definition of, 341–342 advantages of, 318
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express For data methods for, 326–327
Dummies (Simpson), 304 definition of, 165–166, 317, 372
disadvantages of, 318
•W• documents, compared to fragments, 322
features for, 166–167
Web applications formatting relational data as, 328–330
database for, 306–310 modifying, 328
user interface for, 311–315 searching, 327–328
Web site for, 304–306 storing in database, 323–326
Web Services, XML, enabling, 38 structure of, 318–321
Web site resources typed and untyped, 322
blogs, 336 viewing, 321
DTM Data Generator, 336 when to use, 322–323
Embarcadero Technologies database XML schema, 322, 324–325
design tools, 336 XML Web Services, enabling, 38
Microsoft Developer Network, 334 xp_cmdshell utility, enabling, 38
Microsoft TechNet, 334 XQuery, 167, 372
newsgroups, 334
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This program was reproduced by Wiley Publishing, Inc. under a special
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PLEASE DO NOT RETURN IT TO OR CONTACT MICROSOFT CORPORATION
FOR SOFTWARE SUPPORT. This product is provided for free, and no support
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