Tagged Questions

2
votes
1answer
155 views

SQL Server - storing ulong as primary key

I need to store ulong values as a primary key in SQL Server. Since SQL Server doesn't have a ulong datatype (or for that matter anything unsigned), the only way to go is to have column as ...
1
vote
1answer
212 views

How can I restore the sql_variant_property of baseType back to a table variable in SQL Server

Ok, I know the title is confusing but here it goes. BTW I am using SQL Server 2008 I have a table that I am trying to use as a storage container. It has 3 columns: reportID integer, dataLabel ...
13
votes
2answers
400 views

Does varchar size matter in temporary tables?

There is a debate at my wife's work about just using varchar(255) for all varchar fields in temporary tables in stored procedures. Basically, one camp wants to use 255 because it will always work ...
1
vote
1answer
937 views

Table schema column data type equivalents for Netezza 6 to SQL Server 2008

I'm trying to find a data type equivalents for data types in Netezza when migrating table schema to SQL Server. Where can I find a complete list? When getting down to brass tacks, I am specifically ...
0
votes
1answer
218 views

timeout on updating nvarchar(max) after converting datatype

I recently Upgraded to 2008 Enterprise and took the opportunity to change the biggest table in my db with the maintenance window. ran the following to change my ntext field ALTER TABLE ...
3
votes
1answer
234 views

Why does using a Real data type in a mathematical equation return an incorrect result?

I was trying to figure out the source of what appeared to be a rounding error today, and discovered that one of the columns used in a mathematical equation was using the real data type, and this is ...
4
votes
1answer
126 views

How to set constraints on UDT in SQL Server 2005 - 2012

I'm creating my UDT: CREATE TYPE [dbo].[Code] FROM VARCHAR(20) NOT NULL As RULES and DEFAULTS are considered deprecated, what is the recommended way to set constraint on my type to make sure that ...
3
votes
2answers
301 views

Change column data type across database

I have a bunch of tables with many columns of data type ntext. I wish to change all such columns in all tables of a particular database to nvarchar(max), because of planned deprecation (EDIT: also ...
3
votes
0answers
527 views

SQL Server Decimal(9, 0) vs INT

One of our customers uses for some columns the datatype DECIMAL(18,0) in his SQL Server 2008R2 database. Because the columns grow quite slowly, he recently proposed to change the datatype to ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views

A Script to insert dummy Data in all tables of Database

I wanted a Script that can loop through all tables and their columns in the database and insert dummy data based on column type and size, so that i can start using the database for testing, and ...
7
votes
1answer
271 views

Why does 10^37 / 1 throw an arithmetic overflow error?

Continuing my recent trend of playing with large numbers, I recently boiled an error I was running into down to the following code: DECLARE @big_number DECIMAL(38,0) = '1' + REPLICATE(0, 37); PRINT ...
5
votes
2answers
967 views

Data type for storing an array of flags (a bitmap/bit array)

I need to store a bit array for each record of a table, supporting the following operations: Testing if a bit is set, and setting a bit (using SQL) Querying and setting the value using ADO 2.8 (not ...
7
votes
2answers
342 views

What is an appropriate datatype for an RFID, and is there a standard definition for the format?

I have a database that tracks people based on RFID tags embedded in their shoes. This data arrives in a VARCHAR(MAX) column with other data mixed in, in no particular order. So far, all the RFID ...
11
votes
3answers
694 views

Does a SQL Server bit column really use a whole byte worth of space?

I was poking around SSMS and noticed the "size" of my INT columns were 4 bytes (expected) but I was a bit shocked to see my BIT columns were a whole byte. Did I misunderstand what I was looking at?
1
vote
1answer
2k views

Column size with datatype decimal

According to BOL for SQL Server 2008 R2 the data type decimal requires the following storage bytes: Precision Storage bytes 1 - 9 => 5 10-19 => 9 20-28 => 13 29-38 ...
8
votes
2answers
463 views

INT or CHAR for a Type Field

What is the best design for a table, a Type field that is of int or char(1)? In other words, given this schema: create table Car ( Name varchar(100) not null, Description varchar(100) not ...
7
votes
2answers
1k views

Why does “SELECT POWER(10.0, 38.0);” throw an arithmetic overflow error?

I'm updating my IDENTITY overflow check script to account for DECIMAL and NUMERIC IDENTITY columns. As part of the check I compute the size of the data type's range for every IDENTITY column; I use ...
3
votes
2answers
734 views

Mapping SQL Server integer to Oracle Datatype

Well I know, that an SQL Server integer is best represented by NUMBER(10). But sometimes I have migrate some maintenance scripts to Oracle and I wonder if I must carefully map integer to NUMBER(10) ...
6
votes
2answers
622 views

Get records between time span

I would like to retrieve records between time spans,All i have is this snippet of string indicating the time span 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM below is the table schema CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Samples]( [RID] ...