Validating email string without using sp_OACreate in T-SQL
I wanted a way to validate that an email address in a SQL query was well-formed, and found a lot of resources suggesting to create a scalar function that invokes sp_OACreate among others, and return a bit indicating if it was valid or not. That works great, but not for those of us in heightened security environments, where granting execute permissions to system stored procs and functions is not permitted. After searching around I came up with the following function:…
Get the first occurrence of a character in SQL
(Originally posted September 2, 2009) When I need to know the first (or any) occurrence of a character, I’m used to saying something like InStr() for VB or ASP, or String.IndexOf() in .Net, but when I tried to do something like this in SQL for a substring portion of a query I was creating, those obviously aren’t available. In Oracle InStr is available, but we`re talking about SQL. To get the first occurrence of a character in a TEXT field (emphasis…
Enabling editing of SQL 2000 DTS in SSMS 2008 R2
We have some old SQL 2000 DTS Packages that we still maintain, and I’m not continuing to install SQL Enterprise Manager on future versions of my OS just to edit these things, I should be able to edit them in SSMS right? Well, yes, but it requires a couple of steps, that so far in my Google research is never complete…it’s always a part of the entire solution. (PINTA) Well, here’s the entire solution: First, go to http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=11988 and download/install the SQLServer2005_BC.msi…
Custom presence in Lync 2010
I enjoyed using custom presence in Communicator 2007, but when our enterprise switched to Lync 2010 a few months ago, my custom presence migrated through until I switched to a new PC, then the old method of enabling custom presence failed. Why? One registry entry… Here’s how to do it: Create a string key in HKCUSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftCommunicator called CustomStateURL and give it a value of the path to an OCS presence XML file, such as file:///c:/program files/Microsoft Office Communicator/OCSPresence.xml Now, also…
Windows 8 Developer Preview
Following the //build/ conference in Anaheim, I downloaded a copy of Windows 8 developer preview (32 bit) to put on my Dell Mini 12, 1 GHz Atom processor, 1GB RAM, 40GB SSD drive. A little history…I ended up having to put Windows 7 starter edition on it because it was running so horribly. It came with Windows XP SP3, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate and it killed the performance. I later changed it to Windows 7 Starter, and performance improved…