Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Leading a Development Team

New idea for a Development Team lead.

Depending on the scope of the technical requirements, it is the job of the team lead to review all documentation. PERIOD. From the technical specs the DEV LEAD develops the HLD/LLD specs, make estimates on the Business Analysis for each HLD/LLD.

Next, grant the developer the proper time to analyze the HLD/LLD requirements written by the tech lead. Tech Lead should read the HLD/LLD to ensure they are complete and time the review time and add 1 hour to allow developer the time needed to read the documentation and allow time the developer to ask questions to close gaps on missing requirements.

Once the business and the tech lead sort out these issues a developer should not code until all gaps are filled.

If you do, you will be doing rework on the project, thus costing time which as we all know == MONEY.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Team work

Team work is the key important part of any project along with communication. Always communicate and work hard and do your best.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Assignments

DUhG

If you see that something does not work in Visual Studio because it is not set as an assignment on a property.

 

Include the = symbol.

 

Example

 

li.select;

 

Will not work

 

li.select = true; //will.

 

 

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Change My Documents

Ability to change the My Documents path is restricted.

This setting can restrict the ability to change the current path of My Documents folder.

Click here to run a free scan for registry errors

Description:
Every user on a computer has some files and folders of personal use. The my documents folder is the users personal folder where he normally saves all his documents, pictures, music and other personal files. If more than one user account is created on the computer, windows creates the my documents folder for each account. This setting disables the users ability to change the default location/path of the my documents folder. The user can invoke the my documents properties dialog by right-clicking the folder, but the access to change the folder location is denied. For this, go to start > run menu, enter regedit and navigate to the registry path listed below. You can create a dword value disablepersonaldirchange, if this value does not exist. Now, right-click and modify the value to 1 which can restrict change in folder path. However, if you want to enable the changes, delete the value name disablepersonaldirchange. The changes take effect after a restart or logoff.

Level: Recommended For Experts Only

Registry Entries

Click here to run a free scan for registry errors

·         Path: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\]

·         Location: Current User

·         Value Name: DisablePersonalDirChange

·         Data Type: DWORD (DWORD Value)

·         Enabled Value: 1

·         Disabled Value: 0

·         Action Type: Add an Entry




Screenshots

Click here to run a free scan for registry errors

http://www.liutilities.com/products/registrybooster/tweaklibrary/tweaks/10105/regedit.png

First, click the Start button, and select Run. In the resulting dialog box, type "regedit"

http://www.liutilities.com/products/registrybooster/tweaklibrary/tweaks/10105/10105_1.png

Second, go to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\] and create a DWORD value "DisablePersonalDirChange.

http://www.liutilities.com/products/registrybooster/tweaklibrary/tweaks/10105/10105_2.png

Third, right-click on "DisablePersonalDirChange" and select 'Modify'.

http://www.liutilities.com/products/registrybooster/tweaklibrary/tweaks/10105/10105_data.png

Finally, set the "Value Data" to 1in the textbox provided and click on 'OK' to enable

 

 

Monday, January 26, 2009

For Loop

for (initializer; condition; iterator) {
// code to execute while condition is true
}

Monday, January 12, 2009

Enable Remote Connections in SQL Express

Read the following article http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;914277

 

To enable remote connections on the instance of SQL Server 2005 and to turn on the SQL Server Browser service, use the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration tool. The Surface Area Configuration tool is installed when you install SQL Server 2005.

http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/kbgraphics/public/en-us/uparrow.gifBack to the top

Enable remote connections for SQL Server 2005 Express or SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition

You must enable remote connections for each instance of SQL Server 2005 that you want to connect to from a remote computer. To do this, follow these steps:

1.     Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.

2.     On the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration page, click Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.

3.     On the Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections page, expand Database Engine, click Remote Connections, click Local and remote connections, click the appropriate protocol to enable for your environment, and then click Apply.

Note Click OK when you receive the following message:

Changes to Connection Settings will not take effect until you restart the Database Engine service.

4.     On the Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections page, expand Database Engine, click Service, click Stop, wait until the MSSQLSERVER service stops, and then click Start to restart the MSSQLSERVER service.

http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/kbgraphics/public/en-us/uparrow.gifBack to the top

Enable the SQL Server Browser service

If you are running SQL Server 2005 by using an instance name and you are not using a specific TCP/IP port number in your connection string, you must enable the SQL Server Browser service to allow for remote connections. For example, SQL Server 2005 Express is installed with a default instance name of Computer Name\SQLEXPRESS. You are only required to enable the SQL Server Browser service one time, regardless of how many instances of SQL Server 2005 you are running. To enable the SQL Server Browser service, follow these steps.

Important These steps may increase your security risk. These steps may also make your computer or your network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We recommend the process that this article describes to enable programs to operate as they are designed to, or to implement specific program capabilities. Before you make these changes, we recommend that you evaluate the risks that are associated with implementing this process in your particular environment. If you choose to implement this process, take any appropriate additional steps to help protect your system. We recommend that you use this process only if you really require this process.

1.     Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Surface Area Configuration.

2.     On the SQL Server 2005 Surface Area Configuration page, click Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections.

3.     On the Surface Area Configuration for Services and Connections page, click SQL Server Browser, click Automatic for Startup type, and then click Apply.

Note When you click the Automatic option, the SQL Server Browser service starts automatically every time that you start Microsoft Windows.

4.     Click Start, and then click OK.

Note When you run the SQL Server Browser service on a computer, the computer displays the instance names and the connection information for each instance of SQL Server that is running on the computer. This risk can be reduced by not enabling the SQL Server Browser service and by connecting to the instance of SQL Server directly through an assigned TCP port. Connecting directly to an instance of SQL Server through a TCP port is beyond the scope of this article. For more information about the SQL Server Browser server and connecting to an instance of SQL Server, see the following topics in SQL Server Books Online:

  • SQL Server Browser Service
  • Connecting to the SQL Server Database Engine
  • Client Network Configuration

http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/kbgraphics/public/en-us/uparrow.gifBack to the top

Create exceptions in Windows Firewall

These steps apply to the version of Windows Firewall that is included in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and in Windows Server 2003. If you are using a different firewall system, see your firewall documentation for more information.

If you are running a firewall on the computer that is running SQL Server 2005, external connections to SQL Server 2005 will be blocked unless SQL Server 2005 and the SQL Server Browser service can communicate through the firewall. You must create an exception for each instance of SQL Server 2005 that you want to accept remote connections and an exception for the SQL Server Browser service.

SQL Server 2005 uses an instance ID as part of the path when you install its program files. To create an exception for each instance of SQL Server, you must identify the correct instance ID. To obtain an instance ID, follow these steps:

1.     Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server 2005, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Configuration Manager.

2.     In SQL Server Configuration Manager, click the SQL Server Browser service in the right pane, right-click the instance name in the main window, and then click Properties.

3.     On the SQL Server Browser Properties page, click the Advanced tab, locate the instance ID in the property list, and then click OK.

To open Windows Firewall, click Start, click Run, type firewall.cpl, and then click OK.

Create an exception for SQL Server 2005 in Windows Firewall

To create an exception for SQL Server 2005 in Windows Firewall, follow these steps:

1.     In Windows Firewall, click the Exceptions tab, and then click Add Program.

2.     In the Add a Program window, click Browse.

3.     Click the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe executable program, click Open, and then click OK.

Note The path may be different depending on where SQL Server 2005 is installed. MSSQL.1 is a placeholder for the instance ID that you obtained in step 3 of the previous procedure.

4.     Repeat steps 1 through 3 for each instance of SQL Server 2005 that needs an exception.

Create an exception for the SQL Server Browser service in Windows Firewall

To create an exception for the SQL Server Browser service in Windows Firewall, follow these steps:

1.     In Windows Firewall, click the Exceptions tab, and then click Add Program.

2.     In the Add a Program window, click Browse.

3.     Click the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe executable program, click Open, and then click OK.

Note The path may be different depending on where SQL Server 2005 is installed.

http://support.microsoft.com/library/images/support/kbgraphics/public/en-us/uparrow.gifBack to the top


APPLIES TO

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition

 

 

 

Friday, January 02, 2009

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all and I am looking forward to a happy, prosperous, healthy and knowledge filled year.  I wish everyone goodness and joy.  Remember to focus on your family and loved ones.

 

This year I will be looking to achieve a weekly blog post to reflect on the week.

 

Moojjoo

Sunday, December 21, 2008

12/21/2008 - Code thoughts

I have been wondering what a laptop is like with just ubuntu.  I am a .NET guy and I would have to convert to Apache, PHP, mySQL.  Which are all free.

 

__________________________________________

Robert B. Dannelly, Jr. MCTS

http://www.mmwebs.com/

http://moojjoo.blogspot.com/

 

Friday, December 19, 2008

Configure Firefox to work with localhost.

Here is the Solution for Other Users
Firefox - Enter username and password for "" at http://localhost - Solution
IIS uses Integrated Authentication and by default IE has the ability to use your windows user account...but don't worry, so does Firefox but you'll have to make a quick configuration change.

1) Open up Firefox and type in about:config as the url

2) In the Filter Type in ntlm

3) Double click "network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris" and type in localhost and hit enter

4) Write Thank You To Blogger


As Always, Hope this helped you out.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming, SANTA, SANTA....

December post

Well, I must say life has been busy for November I got handed over 43 servers for a true dev to prod environment of SharePoint.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Outlook notes on desktop

Credit to http://www.onetipaday.com/2006/10/15/how-to-save-put-outlook-notes-on-your-desktop

I often use the Microsoft Outlook Notes to store To-Do lists that are not related to work. I discovered this great tip a few months which allows me to put my notes on my desktop, and I love it as it means I can access my notes without having to open up Outlook.

To create a note in Outlook:

1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Note.
2. Type the text of the note.
3. To close the note, click the × in the upper-right corner of the note.

Then to put the notes on your desktop do the following:

1. Right-click the desktop, point to New, and click Shortcut.
2. In the Type the location of the item box, type the following path: “C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OfficeXX\OUTLOOK.EXE” /c ipm.stickynote (note OfficeXX - XX needs to be replaced with your version of Office.
3. Click Next, name the shortcut, and then click Finish.

Now, when you double-click the shortcut, an Outlook note will appear on your desktop.

Excel Services Event ID: 5226

If you have installed SharePoint per default configurations you will most likely not get issues like this, but in most enterprise installs logs and temp files are relocated. To fix the error below. Please review error then read below for solution.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Office SharePoint Server
Event Category: Excel Calculation Services
Event ID: 5226
Date: 10/15/2008
Time: 9:32:36 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CR2RCHIISIME
Description:
Unable to create or access workbook cache at D:\Temp\Excel Server\FileCache\BaselII-CIT-SSP-423345403\Charts. Excel Services is unable to function without a workbook cache.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Solution I manually created the D:\Temp\Excel Server\FileCache\BaselII-CIT-SSP-423345403\Charts directory then on the Security tab for the Temp directory, the WSS_ADMIN_WPG Windows group should have Full Control and the WSS_WPG Windows group should have Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, and Read permissions or higher on the folder. If they do not, assign these permissions by using the procedure in the "Assign sufficient permissions" section.

Also, this solution works if you get Trace Log errors.

Friday, August 01, 2008

Date in Task Bar

Got this from Windows XP site. Worth re-post

To display the date as well as the time, you need to make the taskbar "taller" by dragging the top edge upward. This procedure is fairly simple but it does require reasonably precise mouse handling. If you are new to computing and still developing your mouse-skills, expanding the taskbar, or returning it to the default height, may prove to be a little problematical. If you are not yet confident with fiddly mouse manipulation, I would suggest that you postpone using this tip until you gain more mousing experience.

Here's how to expand the taskbar:

The taskbar needs to be "unlocked" before you can expand it. To check, right-click the taskbar and ensure that "Lock the Taskbar" is not ticked. If there is a tick, click "Lock the Taskbar" to untick it.

Close any running programs so that the taskbar is uncluttered and easier to manipulate.

Move your mouse to the top edge of the taskbar until the cursor turns into a doubled-ended arrow.

With the doubled-ended arrow displayed, hold down the left mouse button and drag the taskbar upward until it is about twice the normal height.

The day and date should now be displayed below the Notification Area clock.

If desired, you can now re-lock the taskbar.
The expanded taskbar not only permanently displays the day and date, it also provides extra display space for taskbar and notification area icons. Of course, the downside of an expanded taskbar is that you have less screen display area for programs and files.

To return the taskbar to its original height, follow the procedure outlined above but reverse the drag direction specified in step 4. That is, with the doubled-ended arrow displayed, hold down the left mouse button and drag the taskbar towards the bottom of the screen until it is the normal height.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

SQL Server Reporting Services Datasource Security

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms160330.aspx

Stored Credentials
You can store the credentials used to access an external data source. Credentials are stored in reversible encryption in the report server database. You can specify one set of stored credentials for each data source used in a report. The credentials you provide retrieve the same data for every user who runs the report.

Stored credentials are recommended as part of a strategy for accessing remote database servers. Stored credentials are required if you want to support subscriptions, or schedule report history generation or report snapshot refreshes. When a report runs as as a background process, the report server is the agent that executes the report. Because there is no user context in place, the report server must get credential information from the report server database in order to connect to a data source.

The user name and password that you specify can be Windows credentials or a database login. If you specify Windows credentials, the report server passes the credentials to Windows for subsequent authentication. Otherwise, the credentials are passed to the database server for authentication.

Windows Integrated Security
When you use the Windows Integrated Security option, the report server passes the security token of the user accessing the report to the server hosting the external data source. In this case, the user is not prompted to type a user name or password.

This approach is recommended if Kerberos is enabled. If Kerberos is not enabled, you should only use this approach if all the servers that you want to access are located on the same computer.

In other words each user would need to be added access to the Database Hosted on SQL Server

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

SQL Network Interfaces, error: 26 - Error Locating Server/Instance Specified or Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL S

The problem was that the remote connection needed to utilize Named Pipes, but in order to utilize Named Pipes both the machine hosting the instance of SQL and the my local machine must have the alias:

With Supports instruction I went to SQL Server configuration Manager, expanded SQL Native Client Configuration and right clicked Aliases and created the alias on the machine and did the same for my personal machine and what do you know, it worked.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

How to determine what ports are open

start -> run -> cmd
netstat -na

look for :3306 and LISTEN on the same line...

OR..also from command prompt

telnet localhost 3306

Friday, June 27, 2008

Vitual PC 2007

Well, it has been a while since I have blogged due to the project I am working on at work. The project MOSS 2007 from dev, test, and prod.

Before dev there is a place called pre-dev, where developers like myself need a place to develop, so this past March I attended the SharePoint 2007 conference where I met some great resources and obtained a VHD of MOSS 2007 and learned that most developer's develop in this fashion by downloading and installing the software from the MSDN Subscription, and routing code to a source control server.

Well I installed and could not get it to run, due to my lack of knowledge of Virtual PC 2007. I have a laptop with 1 gig of RAM and a external HD with 500 gig so I installed the VHD and fired up the Virtual PC, but I kept getting an error. Not enough memory on the host machine.

I thought to myself, "That is strange 1 gig should be enough memory to get my image up and running." Well it turns out I had to much memory allocated to the VM, so I set it back to 512mb and bam... The VM started to run, but it is also running dog slow, so in closing have 2 gig of RAM so you can allocate 1 gig to the VM.

Hope this helps out my fellow developers.

OUT... Moojjoo

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Upgrading from SQL Express 2005 to SQL 2005 Developer Edition

Upgrading from SQL Express 2005 to SQL 2005 Developer Edition (2 hours)


Note: First ensure you have access to the following key in the registry


You are most likely an admin if you are installing Developer Edition of SQL 2005 so be sure the following setting is set.


Go to Start > Run > enter regedit>


SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WMI\Security ß Give Admins Full Contrl (Be sure to change this back so you don’t get yourself into trouble)
>








Next slap the DVD or CD’s into your Rom Drive>


Start > Run > cmd>




Follow the prompts>










User your UID, PWD and Domain>


Your good to go when you see:>






Don't forget Service Pack 2

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

MCTS - SharePoint Developer

Passed the Microsoft Exam SharePoint 2007 Developer

I am now officially and Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Back versus Attaching to MDF

Chintal my new programming parnter taught an old dog a new trick today. Instead of backing up and restoring databases simply open Windows Explorer and copy the .MDF and .LDF and zip move, copy, cut and attach back with SQL Server Management Studio SSMS.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Working with Infrastructure in the Enterprise as a Programmer Analyst

For 10 years I have been working as an analyst first then putting on the programmer hat and developing applications. In corporate America you need to concentrate on your ability to work with your infrastructure architects and be very open minded. I have learned that you must take time to explain in great detail what your solution design is doing. Most web solutions involve web servers and database servers along with needing separate environments for development, user acceptance testing and production. Your solution may be Intranet or Internet, but the key to working with your infrastructure architect is to document, document, document. Use applications such as Visio to convey to them what you are trying to accomplish in the form of a picture (Remember a picture speaks a thousand words). It will save you your sanity and provide a great working relationship with your architect. Humans are not mind readers so document and draw your solution with time and patience. And last, but not least be sure to consult with your architect and have your environments built before coding a solution and ensure all the environment mirror one another, that way you will not freak out when your app works in one environment and not the other.

Words of Wisdom from an individual who loves what they do, but has pulled a bit of hair out learning the ropes.

Thanks to my mentors

Doug Cain
Larry Leonard
Eddie Clodfelter
Troy Tucker
Robert Petree
Shaun Todd
Saran
Garry Blanks
Kelly O'Donnell

Monday, February 04, 2008

Start explorer in C:

Start Windows Explorer In The C Drive
In the Explorer property sheet use this path and switches in the target:

C:\windows\explorer.exe /n,/e,c:\

Since the first days Windows Explorer appeared, the list of switches reproduced below has been floating around the internet. I'm not sure who was the first to assemble the list but here it is in its entirety. Play around with it and see if one of the views is what you're seeking. Just copy and paste the bold text into the Target line on the Property Sheet of Windows Explorer. If it's not what you expected you can always switch back to the default view by using C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe in the Target line.

"My Computer" highlighted in left side with all drives visible but not expanded and C: highlighted in right side: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/select,c:

Desktop highlighted and nothing expanded: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/n,/select,/root,c:

All drives visible and the system drive highlighted and expanded in full screen: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/select

All drives visible and the system drive expanded in small screen: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/select,%systemroot%

Only Windows Directory visible highlighted and expanded: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,/root,%systemroot%

All drives visible but only C: highlighted and expanded: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,c:

Nothing expanded and My Computer highlighted in right side: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /n,/e,/select,

Opens the Windows folder as a folder: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe %systemroot%

Opens as "My Computer": %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe %systemroot%,

This opens the Desktop folder with "My Computer" highlighted: %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe %systemroot%,/select,

"Desktop" highlighted in the left side and no drives visible:
%systemroot%\explorer.exe /e,/root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D},/select

"My Computer" highlighted in left side and all drives visible but none expanded:
%systemroot%\explorer.exe /e,/root,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

"Desktop" in left side highlighted and "My Computer" highlighted in right side and no drives visible:
%systemroot%\explorer.exe /e,/select,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Kill Instance of Application

Recently I was receiving an issue with an application I am supporting.
 
Problem
The application is a .NET Console application that using Microsoft Word to create reports. The problem is that an exception error would occur if Microsoft Word (WINWORD = Instance Name) was running.
 
Solution

// Code to kill Word issues if WINWORD is running on the current machine

// if word is running the reports will throw an exception so

// we must ensure the Microsoft Word application is not running

Process[] wordProcess = System.Diagnostics.Process.GetProcessesByName("WINWORD");
if
(wordProcess.Length <= 1)
{

 foreach (Process p in wordProcess)

{

p.Kill();

}

}

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Year End

Well, another year is coming to an end and what a year it has been. I have seen my Wife and daughter grow to be best little buddies. Also my daughter learning at an incredible pace. As for my life in the development world I took on a new job. Switched from R.J. Reynolds to Bank of America in July.This was a great move with more challenging work. This year I can add to my resume that I am a Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Guru, Microsoft InfoPath Developer, .NET Web Service Developer, along with SQL Server Reporting Services. Visual Studio 2008, so that will be my new challenge next year.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

dbcc checkident('table_name', reseed, 0)
 
Reset Database identity

Friday, December 14, 2007

Answer Re: A transport-level error has occurred when sending the request to the server
Answer Was this post helpful ?
Reply Quote

For some reason the connection was made through Named Pipes instead of Shared Memory (the default for local connections), which suggests that SqlClient did not recognize the connection was local, and most likely tunneled Named Pipes over TCP, hence, disconnecting the network has impact. 

How do you specify the server name - perhaps by its fully qualified domain name (FQDN), or IP address? 

If you specify it by the hostname or "." or "(localhost)" SqlClient should recognize the local connection, and you should not see the error. 

Stored Procs

Please be aware if you are inserting data into a data field with a value type of int and allows null be sure to set the @Param int = null

This will prevent errors when submitting.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

InfoPath class file from export

xsd.exe myschema.xsd /classes /l:cs /n:[NAMESPACE]

Identity Information

Introduction

 

About Identity Columns

If you have worked with SQL Server, you are probably familiar with identity columns. These are equivalent to the "AutoNumber" columns in Access. The main purpose of these columns is to provide a primary key to the table when a primary key cannot be defined using other fields in the table.

 

These columns are like any other column except that their value is not inserted by the user, but by the system itself.

Syntax

IDENTITY [ ( seed , increment ) ]

Where:

seed - Is the value that is used for the very first row that is inserted into the table.

increment- Is the incremental value that is added to the previous identity value and thereby to get new value for the new row that is going to be added.

Note: You must specify both the seed and increment or neither. If neither is specified, the default is (1,1).

 

A few things you need to know about the identity columns:

·         They should be of data type int, smallint, tinyint, decimal or numeric with scale 0.

·         They cannot contain null values

·         They cannot have any default values

·         The identity increment is an integral value (1, -1, 5, etc.) and cannot contain decimals. Also, it cannot be 0.

·         Identity Seed is 1 by default, and so is the Identity Increment. If you leave the seed field empty, it becomes 0.

 

 

Functions associated with IDENTITY column

·               @@IDENTITY
When a record is inserted into a table with an identity column, the function @@IDENTITY returns the last identity value that was inserted in the database.

Syntax

@@IDENTITY

 

I emphasize the phrase "last identity value" here because this may be different from the identity value of that particular table where the record was inserted.

Why? When a record is inserted and if there is any underlying trigger that modifies other tables, the value can be different. If a trigger adds a record into another table, which happens to have an identity column, @@IDENTITY will now return this new value instead.

 

·               Scope_IDENTITY

Returns the last IDENTITY value inserted into an IDENTITY column in the same scope. A scope is a stored procedure, function, or batch. Thus, two statements are in the same scope if they are in the same stored procedure, function, or batch. It may be more clear from the example below.

Syntax

SCOPE_IDENTITY()

 

·               IDENT_CURRENT

Returns the last identity value generated for a specified table in any session and any scope.

Syntax

IDENT_CURRENT('table_name')

 

·               IDENT_SEED

Returns the seed value specified during the creation of an identity column in a table that has an identity column.

Syntax

IDENT_SEED('table_name')

 

·               IDENT_INCR

Returns the increment value specified during the creation of an identity column in a table that has an identity column.

Syntax

IDENT_INCR('table_name')


Examples and Tips

 

Example

-- Consider the 2 Tables

CREATE TABLE Student(studId int IDENTITY(1,1), studName varchar(30))

CREATE TABLE Copy_Student(sid int IDENTITY(100,1))

GO

 

--Create trigger for insert on table Student

CREATE TRIGGER trgStudent ON Student FOR INSERT

AS

BEGIN

   INSERT INTO Copy_Student DEFAULT VALUES

END

GO

 

--Check The Tables

SELECT  *  FROM Student    --No records

SELECT  *  FROM Copy_Student --No records

GO

--Now do the following to check out the difference

 

 

INSERT INTO Student(studName) VALUES('Anjali Chelawat')

 

SELECT @@IDENTITY AS [IDENTITY]

 

--Returns the value 100, which was inserted by the trigger that is by the second insert statement.

 

 

SELECT SCOPE_IDENTITY() AS [SCOPE_IDENTITY] 

 

--Returns the value 1, which was inserted by the Student table INSERT Statement before the trigger's insert statement.

 

 

SELECT IDENT_CURRENT('student') AS [IDENT_CURRENT]

 

--Returns last identity value inserted into Student.

 

 

 

SELECT IDENT_CURRENT('copy_student') AS [IDENT_CURRENT]

 

--Returns last identity value inserted into Copy_Student.

 

 

SELECT IDENT_INCR('student') AS [IDENT_INCR]

 

-- Returns the increment value of the identity column of the table Student. The value provided at the time of creation of the identity column

 

 

SELECT IDENT_SEED('student') AS [IDENT_SEED]

 

-- Returns the seed value of the identity column of the table Student. The value provided at the time of creation of the identity column

 

 

 

A Few Tips

·         Allowing inserts to identity columns:

 

If you are inserting data from some other source to a table with an identity column and you need to ensure you retain the identity values, you can temporarily allow inserts to the identity column. Without doing so explicitly you will receive an error if you attempt to insert a value into the identity column. For example, if I have a table named MYTABLE and I want to allow inserts into the identity column, I can execute the following:

Syntax

set identity_ insert  table_name on

 

Once you execute the command you will be able to insert values into the table's identity column. This will stay in effect in until you turn it off by executing the following:

 

Syntax

 

set identity_insert table_name off

 

Note: Be aware that at any time, only a single table in a session can have the identity_insert set to on.  If you attempt to enable this for a table and another table already has this enabled, you will receive an error and will not be able to do so until you first turn this off for the other table. Also, if the value used for the identity is larger than the current identity value then the new value will be used for the identity seed for the column.  

 

 

·         Reseeding the identity value:

 

You can reseed the identity value, that is, to have the identity values reset or start at a new predefined value by using DBCC CHECKIDENT.  For example, if I have a table named MYTABLE and I want to reseed the identity column to 30 I would execute the following:

 

dbcc checkident (‘table_name’, reseed, 30)

 

If you wanted to reseed the table to start with an identity of 1 with the next insert then you would reseed the table's identity to 0.  The identity seed is what the value is currently at, meaning that the next value will increment the seed and use that.  However, one thing to keep in mind is that if you set the identity seed below values that you currently have in the table, that you will violate the identity column's uniqueness constraint as soon as the values start to overlap.  The identity value will not just “skip” values that already exist in the table.

 

 

 

Points To Remember

·   IDENT_CURRENT returns the last identity value generated for a specific table in any session and any scope.

·   @@IDENTITY returns the last identity value generated for any table in the current session, across all scopes.

·   SCOPE_IDENTITY returns the last identity value generated for any table in the current session and the current scope.

 

Credit to:

All About IDENTITY Columns in Sql Server 2000
by Anjali Chelawat
Published on 10/5/2006