http://entlib.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=35832

Release Notes

Zen and the Art of Managing Crosscutting Concerns in Enterprise Software Development

A Guide to Developing with Enterprise Library 5.0 (C# Edition) – PREVIEW

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8BDAA836-0BBA-4393-94DB-6C3C4A0C98A1&displaylang=en

The Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 Training Kit includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos. This content is designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2008 features and a variety of framework technologies including: LINQ, C# 3.0, Visual Basic 9, WCF, WF, WPF, ASP.NET AJAX, VSTO, CardSpace, SilverLight, Mobile and Application Lifecycle Management.

http://channel9.msdn.com/learn/courses/vs2010/

The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Course includes videos and hands-on-labs designed to help you learn how to utilize the Visual Studio 2010 features and a variety of framework technologies including: C# 4.0, Visual Basic 10, F#, Parallel Computing Platform, WCF, WF, WPF, ASP.NET AJAX 4.0, ASP.NET MVC Dynamic Data.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=752CB725-969B-4732-A383-ED5740F02E93&displaylang=en

http://www.dominicpettifer.co.uk/Blog/21/dynamic-conditional-order-by-clause-in-sql-server-t-sql

Technical Article – This article shows you how to achieve a conditional Order By clause in your SQL Server Stored Procedures, without having to resort to inline SQL in your applications, or Dynamic SQL (yuck!) in your Stored Procedures.

Inline SQL or Stored Procedures

You’ve probably come across times when you needed to sort a recordset dynamically in a Stored Procedure based on an input parameter. For instance, if you’re displaying records on a webpage with sortable columns, like on most ecommerce sites. You could use an inline SQL statement dynamically built in your ASP/PHP server-side code with string concatenation eg:

string sql = "SELECT * FROM Products ORDER BY ";

if(Request.QueryString["orderBy"] == "NameAsc")
{
sql += "Name ASC";
}
else if(Request.QueryString["orderBy"] == "NameDesc")
{
sql += "Name DESC";
}
else if(......etc etc

However, you’re probably using a Stored Procedure for reasons such as performance (execution plan is cached in a Sproc), maintainability (string concatenation can get messy with complex queries), prevent security vulnerabilities (such as SQL Injection), and maybe you want to achieve efficient database tier paging using SQL Server 2005’s ROW_NUMBER() function.

Introducing the CASE Function

The trick is to use the CASE function, but there are quirks with this that can trip you up. First of all you declare a Stored Procedure with an Order By input parameter and apply the CASE to the Order By clause like this:

CREATE PROCEDURE GetProducts
(
@OrderBy      VARCHAR(50),
@Input2       VARCHAR(30)
)
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON

END

Ascending and Descending actions need to be grouped into separate CASE statements, separated with a comma. In your server-side code/script make sure to append ‘Asc’ or ‘Desc’ onto the order by string, or you could have two Stored procedure input parameters for column name and order by direction if you want.

Multiple Columns with Different DataTypes

You’ll hit problems when you try to include multiple columns with different data types (VARCHAR, INT etc.). Eg:

ORDER BY
CASE
WHEN @OrderBy = 'ProductNameAsc' THEN ProductName
WHEN @OrderBy = 'QuantityAsc' THEN Quantity
END ASC

…will throw an error because ProductName is a VARCHAR and Quantity is an INT…

Conversion failed when converting the nvarchar value ‘Value’ to data type int.
Warning: Null value is eliminated by an aggregate or other SET operation.

I’ve seen people wrap the column around a convert function eg.

WHEN @OrderBy = 'QuantityAsc' THEN CONVERT(VARCHAR(32), Quantity)

DON’T do this as the order by will be different as a string versus it’s original data type (eg. 30 will come before 4 as the first character 3 is earlier in the alphebet then 4). This is especially true with DATETIME types as the CONVERT function could convert to into any number of date time formats (2009/01/15, 01/15/2009 etc.)

Instead you have to separate each datatype into separate groups of case statements like this:

SELECT Id, ProductName, Description, Price, Quantity
FROM Products
WHERE ProductName LIKE @Input2
ORDER BY
CASE –- VARCHAR types ascending
WHEN @OrderBy = 'ProductNameAsc' THEN ProductName
END ASC,
CASE –- VARCHAR types descending
WHEN @OrderBy = 'ProductNameDesc' THEN ProductName
END DESC,
CASE -- INT types ascending
WHEN @OrderBy = 'QuantityAsc' THEN Quantity
END ASC,
CASE -- INT types descending
WHEN @OrderBy = 'QuantityDesc' THEN Quantity
END DESC,
CASE -- MONEY types ascending
WHEN @OrderBy = 'PriceAsc' THEN Price
END ASC,
CASE -- MONEY types descending
WHEN @OrderBy = 'PriceDesc' THEN Price
END DESC,
CASE -- Default order by
WHEN 1 = 1 THEN ProductName
END ASC

Remember to provide a default Order By for when none of the CASE statements match.

Paging With ROW_NUMBER()

You can also use this technique with database tier paging using the ROW_NUMBER() function in SQL Server 2005/2008:

SELECT
Id,
ProductName,
Deacription,
Quantity
FROM
(
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(
ORDER BY
CASE
WHEN @OrderBy = 'ProductNameAsc' THEN ProductName
END ASC,
CASE
WHEN @OrderBy = 'ProductNameDesc' THEN ProductName
END DESC,
CASE
WHEN 1 = 1 THEN ProductName
END ASC,
//-- Snip --//
) AS RowNumber,
Id,
ProductName,
Description,
Price,
Quantity
FROM Products
WHERE ProductName LIKE @Input2
) i
WHERE RowNmber BETWEEN @FirstRecord AND @LastRecord
ORDER BY RowNumber ASC

http://p2p.wrox.com/sql-server-2000/832-case-where-clause.html

Hi everybody
Can I use case statement in WHERE clause.
For example

DECLARE @VAR1 nvarchar(50)
DECLARE @VAR2 nvarchar(50)
SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE CASE @VAR1
          WHEN ‘Customers’ THEN CustomerID = @VAR2
          WHEN ‘Employee’ THEN EmployeeID = @VAR2
          END

This is not working OK.
Can someone explain me the right way?
Thanks.
Best regards
Alex

In your situation, where you wish to select on two entirely different columns depending on a parameter, it is probably better to use an IF/ELSE construction, as:

IF @Var1='Customers' THEN
   SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE CustomerID=@Var2;
ELSE
   SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE EmployeeID=@Var2;

It’s important to realize that CASE is an expression and not an executable statement.

The general form of the predicate of a WHERE clause is:

 expression operator expression

where operator is = or <> or > or < etc. The WHERE clause in your query does not follow this form, which is why you were having problems.

If you insist on using the CASE expression, then you can try a couple of ugly alternatives, like:

   SELECT * FROM Orders
    WHERE CustomerID=CASE @Var1 WHEN 'Customers' THEN @Var2 ELSE 0 END
       OR EmployeeID=CASE @Var1 WHEN 'Employees' THEN @Var2 ELSE 0 END

assuming that 0 is not a legal value for either ‘CustomerID’ or ‘EmployeeID’. You could also try a nested CASE like:

   SELECT * FROM Orders
    WHERE 1 =
      CASE @Var1
         WHEN 'Customers' THEN CASE WHEN CustomerID=@Var2 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
         WHEN 'Employees' THEN CASE WHEN EmployeeID=@Var2 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END
      END

I think that the CASE expression doesn’t work well in this situation and that the IF/ELSE is simpler and easier to understand.

Jeff Mason
Custom Apps, Inc.
www.custom-apps.com

I think this should work for you…

SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE
(
  CASE
    WHEN @VAR1 = ‘Customers’ AND CustomerID = @VAR2 THEN 1
    WHEN @VAR1 = ‘Employee’ AND EmployeeID = @VAR2 THEN 1
    ELSE 0
  END
) = 1

or you could do this …

SELECT *
FROM ORDERS
WHERE (@VAR1 = ‘Customers’ and CustomerID = @VAR2) OR
      (@VAR1 = ‘Employee’ and EmployeeID = @VAR2)

Jeff’s first answer is best (though it doesn’t handle an illegal value for @VAR1) and SBacon’s answer is a close second, but Jeff’s other answers and Craig’s answer are all overkill.

Why not just:

DECLARE @VAR1 nvarchar(50)
DECLARE @VAR2 nvarchar(50)
SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE @VAR2 = ( CASE @VAR1
                WHEN 'Customers' THEN CustomerID
                WHEN 'Employee'  THEN EmployeeID
                ELSE -1
                END )

The ELSE is in there to protect against an illegal value for @VAR1 of course. Jeff’s first answer is best (though it doesn’t handle an illegal value for @VAR1) and SBacon’s answer is a close second, but Jeff’s other answers and Craig’s answer are all overkill.

Why not just:

DECLARE @VAR1 nvarchar(50)
DECLARE @VAR2 nvarchar(50)
SELECT * FROM ORDERS
WHERE @VAR2 = ( CASE @VAR1
                WHEN 'Customers' THEN CustomerID
                WHEN 'Employee'  THEN EmployeeID
                ELSE -1
                END )

The ELSE is in there to protect against an illegal value for @VAR1 of course.

http://www.mssqltips.com/category.asp?catid=81

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1849

Problem
In my last set of tips, I discussed SMO at a basic level.  In this tip I am going to provide examples to SQL Server Database Administrators on how to backup and restore SQL Server databases with SMO.  I will start with how you can issue different types (Full, Differential and Log) of backups with SMO and how to restore them when required programmatically using SMO.

Solution
As I discussed in my last tip, SMO provides utility classes for specific tasks. For backup and restore, it provides two main utility classes (Backup and Restore) which are available in Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo namespace.

Before you start writing SMO code, you need to reference several assemblies which contain the SMO namespaces. For more details on these assemblies and how properly to reference them in your code, refer to my tip Getting started with SQL Server Management Objects (SMO).

Examples

C# Code Block 1 – Full Backups – This example shows how to issue full database backups with SMO. First, create an instance of the Backup class and set the associated properties. With the Action property you can specify the type of backup such as full, files or log backup. With the Database property specify the name of the database being backed up.  The device is the backup media type such as disk or tape, so you need to add a device (one or more) to the Devices collection of backup instance. With the BackupSetName and BackupSetDescription properties you can specify the name and description for the backup set.  The Backup class also has a property called ExpirationDate which indicates how long backup data is considered valid and to expire the backup after that date. The backup object instance generates several events during the backup operation, we can write event-handlers for these events and wire them up with events. This is what I am doing for progress monitoring.  I am wiring up CompletionStatusInPercent and Backup_Completed methods (event-handlers) with PercentComplete and Complete events of backup object instance.  Finally, I am calling the SqlBackup method for starting up the backup operation, SMO provides a variant of this method called SqlBackupAsync if you want to start the backup operation asynchronously.

C# Code Block 2 Differential Backups - The process of issuing differential backups is not much different from issuing full backups. To issue a differential backup, set the property Incremental = true. If you set this property the incremental/differential backup will be taken since last full backup.

C# Code Block 3 Transaction Log Backups - Again the process of issuing transactional log backup is not much different from issuing full backups. To issue transactional log backups, set the property Action = BackupActionType.Log instead of BackupActionType.Database as in the case of a full backup.

C# Code Block 4 Backup with Compression - SQL Server 2008 introduces a new feature to issues backups in a compressed form.  As such, SMO for SQL Server 2008 has been enhanced to support this feature. If you look at the image below you will notice the compressed backup size is almost 25% of full backup, though the level of compression depends on the several factors.

C# Code Block 5 Full or Differential Restores – Thus far we have worked through SMO backup examples. Now let’s change gears to restore with SMO.  SMO provides a Restore class to restore a database, similar to the Backup class.  With these classes it is necessary to specify the Action property to indicate the type of restore i.e. database, files or log.  In a scenario where if you have additional differential or log backups to be restored after it is necessary to specify the NoRecovery = true except for the final restore.  In this example, I am wiring up events of the Restore object instance to event-handlers for progress monitoring. Finally the SqlRestore method is called to start the restoration. If you want to start the restore operation asynchronously you would need to call SqlRestoreAsync method instead.

To restore a database SQL Server needs to acquire exclusive lock on the database being restored.  If you try to restore a database which is in use, SQL Server will throw the following exception:

C# Code Block 6 Transaction Log Restore – The process of restoring a transactional log is similar to restoring a full or differential backup. While restoring a transactional log, it is necessary to set the property Action = RestoreActionType.Log instead of RestoreActionType.Database as in case of full/differential restore.  Here is an example:

C# Code Block 7 Database Restore to a new location – At times you need to create a new database and restore to a new physical location which differs from the original database. For that purpose, the Restore class has the RelocateFiles collection which can be completed for each file with the new location as shown in the code below.

Complete code listing (created on SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, though there is not much difference if you are using it on SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005) can be found in the below text box.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Common;
namespace BackupAndRestoreWithSMO2008
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Server myServer = new Server(@”ARSHADALI-LAP\ARSHADALI”);
            try
            {
                //Using windows authentication
                myServer.ConnectionContext.LoginSecure = true;
                myServer.ConnectionContext.Connect();
                Database myDatabase = myServer.Databases["AdventureWorks"];
                BackupDatabaseFull(myServer, myDatabase);
                //BackupDatabaseDifferential(myServer, myDatabase);
                //BackupDatabaseLog(myServer, myDatabase);
                //BackupDatabaseFullWithCompression(myServer, myDatabase);
               
                RestoreDatabase(myServer, myDatabase);
                //RestoreDatabaseLog(myServer, myDatabase);
                //RestoreDatabaseWithDifferentNameAndLocation(myServer, myDatabase);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                Console.WriteLine(ex.InnerException.Message);
            }
            finally
            {
                if (myServer.ConnectionContext.IsOpen)
                    myServer.ConnectionContext.Disconnect();
                Console.WriteLine(“Press any key to terminate…”);
                Console.ReadKey();
            }
        }
        private static void BackupDatabaseFull(Server myServer, Database myDatabase)
        {
            Backup bkpDBFull = new Backup();
            /* Specify whether you want to back up database or files or log */
            bkpDBFull.Action = BackupActionType.Database;
            /* Specify the name of the database to back up */
            bkpDBFull.Database = myDatabase.Name;
            /* You can take backup on several media type (disk or tape), here I am using
             * File type and storing backup on the file system */
            bkpDBFull.Devices.AddDevice(@”D:\AdventureWorksFull.bak”, DeviceType.File);
            bkpDBFull.BackupSetName = “Adventureworks database Backup”;
            bkpDBFull.BackupSetDescription = “Adventureworks database – Full Backup”;
            /* You can specify the expiration date for your backup data
             * after that date backup data would not be relevant */
            bkpDBFull.ExpirationDate = DateTime.Today.AddDays(10);
            /* You can specify Initialize = false (default) to create a new
             * backup set which will be appended as last backup set on the media. You can
             * specify Initialize = true to make the backup as first set on the mediuam and
             * to overwrite any other existing backup sets if the all the backup sets have
             * expired and specified backup set name matches with the name on the medium */
            bkpDBFull.Initialize = false;
            /* Wiring up events for progress monitoring */
            bkpDBFull.PercentComplete += CompletionStatusInPercent;
            bkpDBFull.Complete += Backup_Completed;
            /* SqlBackup method starts to take back up
             * You cab also use SqlBackupAsync method to perform backup
             * operation asynchronously */
            bkpDBFull.SqlBackup(myServer);
        }
        private static void BackupDatabaseDifferential(Server myServer, Database myDatabase)
        {
            Backup bkpDBDifferential = new Backup();
            /* Specify whether you want to back up database or files or log */
            bkpDBDifferential.Action = BackupActionType.Database;
            /* Specify the name of the database to back up */
            bkpDBDifferential.Database = myDatabase.Name;
            /* You can take backup on several media type (disk or tape), here I am using
             * File type and storing backup on the file system */
            bkpDBDifferential.Devices.AddDevice(@”D:\AdventureWorksDifferential.bak”, DeviceType.File);
            bkpDBDifferential.BackupSetName = “Adventureworks database Backup”;
            bkpDBDifferential.BackupSetDescription = “Adventureworks database – Differential Backup”;
            /* You can specify the expiration date for your backup data
             * after that date backup data would not be relevant */
            bkpDBDifferential.ExpirationDate = DateTime.Today.AddDays(10);
            /* You can specify Initialize = false (default) to create a new
             * backup set which will be appended as last backup set on the media. You can
             * specify Initialize = true to make the backup as first set on the mediuam and
             * to overwrite any other existing backup sets if the all the backup sets have
             * expired and specified backup set name matches with the name on the medium */
            bkpDBDifferential.Initialize = false;
            /* You can specify Incremental = false (default) to perform full backup
             * or Incremental = true to perform differential backup since most recent
             * full backup */
            bkpDBDifferential.Incremental = true;
            /* Wiring up events for progress monitoring */
            bkpDBDifferential.PercentComplete += CompletionStatusInPercent;
            bkpDBDifferential.Complete += Backup_Completed;
            /* SqlBackup method starts to take back up
             * You cab also use SqlBackupAsync method to perform backup
             * operation asynchronously */
            bkpDBDifferential.SqlBackup(myServer);
        }
        private static void BackupDatabaseLog(Server myServer, Database myDatabase)
        {
            Backup bkpDBLog = new Backup();
            /* Specify whether you want to back up database or files or log */
            bkpDBLog.Action = BackupActionType.Log;
            /* Specify the name of the database to back up */
            bkpDBLog.Database = myDatabase.Name;
            /* You can take backup on several media type (disk or tape), here I am using
             * File type and storing backup on the file system */
            bkpDBLog.Devices.AddDevice(@”D:\AdventureWorksLog.bak”, DeviceType.File);
            bkpDBLog.BackupSetName = “Adventureworks database Backup”;
            bkpDBLog.BackupSetDescription = “Adventureworks database – Log Backup”;
            /* You can specify the expiration date for your backup data
             * after that date backup data would not be relevant */
            bkpDBLog.ExpirationDate = DateTime.Today.AddDays(10);
            /* You can specify Initialize = false (default) to create a new
             * backup set which will be appended as last backup set on the media. You can
             * specify Initialize = true to make the backup as first set on the mediuam and
             * to overwrite any other existing backup sets if the all the backup sets have
             * expired and specified backup set name matches with the name on the medium */
            bkpDBLog.Initialize = false;
            /* Wiring up events for progress monitoring */
            bkpDBLog.PercentComplete += CompletionStatusInPercent;
            bkpDBLog.Complete += Backup_Completed;
            /* SqlBackup method starts to take back up
             * You cab also use SqlBackupAsync method to perform backup
             * operation asynchronously */
            bkpDBLog.SqlBackup(myServer);
        }
        private static void BackupDatabaseFullWithCompression(Server myServer, Database myDatabase)
        {
            Backup bkpDBFullWithCompression = new Backup();
            /* Specify whether you want to back up database or files or log */
            bkpDBFullWithCompression.Action = BackupActionType.Database;
            /* Specify the name of the database to back up */
            bkpDBFullWithCompression.Database = myDatabase.Name;
            /* You can use back up compression technique of SQL Server 2008,
             * specify CompressionOption property to On for compressed backup */
            bkpDBFullWithCompression.CompressionOption = BackupCompressionOptions.On;
            bkpDBFullWithCompression.Devices.AddDevice(@”D:\AdventureWorksFullWithCompression.bak”, DeviceType.File);
            bkpDBFullWithCompression.BackupSetName = “Adventureworks database Backup – Compressed”;
            bkpDBFullWithCompression.BackupSetDescription = “Adventureworks database – Full Backup with Compressin – only in SQL Server 2008″;
            bkpDBFullWithCompression.SqlBackup(myServer);
        }
        private static void CompletionStatusInPercent(object sender, PercentCompleteEventArgs args)
        {
            Console.Clear();
            Console.WriteLine(“Percent completed: {0}%.”, args.Percent);
        }
        private static void Backup_Completed(object sender, ServerMessageEventArgs args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(“Hurray…Backup completed.” );
            Console.WriteLine(args.Error.Message);
        }
        private static void Restore_Completed(object sender, ServerMessageEventArgs args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(“Hurray…Restore completed.”);
            Console.WriteLine(args.Error.Message);
        }
        private static void RestoreDatabase(Server myServer, Database myDatabase)
        {
            Restore restoreDB = new Restore();
            restoreDB.Database = myDatabase.Name;
            /* Specify whether you want to restore database or files or log etc */
            restoreDB.Action = RestoreActionType.Database;
            restoreDB.Devices.AddDevice(@”D:\AdventureWorksFull.bak”, DeviceType.File);
            /* You can specify ReplaceDatabase = false (default) to not create a new image
             * of the database, the specified database must exist on SQL Server instance.
             * If you can specify ReplaceDatabase = true to create new database image
             * regardless of the existence of specified database with same name */
            restoreDB.ReplaceDatabase = true;

            /* If you have differential or log restore to be followed, you would need
             * to specify NoRecovery = true, this will ensure no recovery is done after the
             * restore and subsequent restores are allowed. It means it will database
             * in the Restoring state. */
            restoreDB.NoRecovery = true;
            /* Wiring up events for progress monitoring */
            restoreDB.PercentComplete += CompletionStatusInPercent;
            restoreDB.Complete += Restore_Completed;
            /* SqlRestore method starts to restore database
             * You cab also use SqlRestoreAsync method to perform restore
             * operation asynchronously */
            restoreDB.SqlRestore(myServer);
        }
        private static void RestoreDatabaseLog(Server myServer, Database myDatabase)
        {
            Restore restoreDBLog = new Restore();
            restoreDBLog.Database = myDatabase.Name;
            restoreDBLog.Action = RestoreActionType.Log;
            restoreDBLog.Devices.AddDevice(@”D:\AdventureWorksLog.bak”, DeviceType.File);
            /* You can specify NoRecovery = false (default) so that transactions are
             * rolled forward and recovered. */
            restoreDBLog.NoRecovery = false;
            /* Wiring up events for progress monitoring */
            restoreDBLog.PercentComplete += CompletionStatusInPercent;
            restoreDBLog.Complete += Restore_Completed;
            /* SqlRestore method starts to restore database
             * You cab also use SqlRestoreAsync method to perform restore
             * operation asynchronously */
            restoreDBLog.SqlRestore(myServer);
        }
        private static void RestoreDatabaseWithDifferentNameAndLocation(Server myServer, Database myDatabase)
        {
            Restore restoreDB = new Restore();
            restoreDB.Database = myDatabase.Name + “New”;
            /* Specify whether you want to restore database or files or log etc */
            restoreDB.Action = RestoreActionType.Database;
            restoreDB.Devices.AddDevice(@”D:\AdventureWorksFull.bak”, DeviceType.File);
            /* You can specify ReplaceDatabase = false (default) to not create a new image
             * of the database, the specified database must exist on SQL Server instance.
             * You can specify ReplaceDatabase = true to create new database image
             * regardless of the existence of specified database with same name */
            restoreDB.ReplaceDatabase = true;
            /* If you have differential or log restore to be followed, you would need
             * to specify NoRecovery = true, this will ensure no recovery is done after the
             * restore and subsequent restores are allowed. It means it will database
             * in the Restoring state. */
            restoreDB.NoRecovery = false;
            /* RelocateFiles collection allows you to specify the logical file names and
             * physical file names (new locations) if you want to restore to a different location.*/
            restoreDB.RelocateFiles.Add(new RelocateFile(“AdventureWorks_Data”, @”D:\AdventureWorksNew_Data.mdf”));
            restoreDB.RelocateFiles.Add(new RelocateFile(“AdventureWorks_Log”, @”D:\AdventureWorksNew_Log.ldf”));
            /* Wiring up events for progress monitoring */
            restoreDB.PercentComplete += CompletionStatusInPercent;
            restoreDB.Complete += Restore_Completed;
            /* SqlRestore method starts to restore database
             * You cab also use SqlRestoreAsync method to perform restore
             * operation asynchronously */
            restoreDB.SqlRestore(myServer);
        }
    }
}

Notes:

• Location of assemblies in SQL Server 2005 is the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\SDK\Assemblies folder.
• Location of assemblies in SQL Server 2008 is the C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\SDK\Assemblies folder.
• In SQL Server 2005, the Backup and Restore classes are available in the Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo namespace and in the Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo (microsoft.sqlserver.smo.dll) assembly.
• In SQL Server 2008, the Backup and Restore classes are available in the Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo namespace and in the Microsoft.SqlServer.SmoExtended (microsoft.sqlserver.smoextended.dll) assembly.
• If you are restoring a transaction log, you can specify a particular point in time with ToPointInTime property of the Restore class.
• The Restore class methods (SqlVerify, SqlVerifyAsync and SqlVerifyLatest) to verify and validate (backup set is complete and the entire backup is readable) the backup media before restoration.
• The SQL Server service account must have access to the folders where backup or restore operations are executed.
• You need to have sufficient permissions to perform backup and restore operations. For example, for backup you need to be either in sysadmin/db_owner/db_backupoperator role or must have BACKUP DATABASE or BACKUP LOG permission on the database.
• If you try to connect SQL Server 2008 from SMO 2005, you will get an exception “SQL Server <10.0> version is not supported”.

Next Steps

• Review the following tips:
  • Getting started with SQL Server Management Objects (SMO)
  • SQL Script Generation Programmatically with SMO
  • Exploring Database Backup Compression in SQL Server 2008
• Review Backup and Restore classes on MSDN.
• Review the MSSQLTips Backup and Recovery category with 40+ tips.

Readers Who Read This Tip Also Read

• How to identify when a database was restored, the source of the backup and the date of the backup
• How to Backup and Restore a SQL Server FILESTREAM Enabled Database
• Restore a SQL Server Database to a New Database to Minimize Downtime
• Mirrored Database Backup Feature in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008
• Copy Only Backup for SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008
• More…

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1745

http://www.mssqltips.com/tip.asp?tip=1759

Problem
In a previous tip on using Using PowerShell with SQL Server Management Objects (SMO), you’ve seen how you can use Windows PowerShell and SMO to administer SQL Server databases. I would like to translate some of the Transact-SQL scripts that I use every day, starting with the simple ones like retrieving a list of databases and their properties for auditing purposes.

Solution
One of the things that we do as DBAs is to retrieve a list of databases and their properties for auditing and reporting purposes. We check for properties such as recovery model, available free space, autoshrink, etc., and generate action items based on them. We’ve already seen how to access the Server object – its properties and methods – using SMO. We will dig into the object hierarchy and look at the different members of the Server object. A SQL Server instance can be described using different properties like instance name, logins, settings, all of which are members of the Server object.

What would be of main interest for this tip is the Databases property. This property represents a collection of database objects defined on a SQL Server instance, regardless whether they are system or user databases. Let’s start by retrieving all the members of the Databases property. The script below is the same as the one in the previous scripts with the addition of a Get-Member cmdlet to retrieve the list of members for the Databases property, specifying Property as the MemberType which just means to retrieve all the database properties. Be sure not to get confused with the terms – the Databases property of the Server object is a collection of database objects and the database objects themselves have their own properties.

From the list of properties from the Database object, let’s select the most common ones – Name, Collation, CompatibilityLevel, AutoShrink, RecoveryModel, Size and SpaceAvailable

Notice that it is pretty simple and straight-forward. Since the $dbs variable contains a collection of database objects, you can now pipe the results so a Select-Object cmdlet, which we just refer to as SELECT. You can then make this script dynamic by introducing variables and saving it as a PowerShell script which we have done in previous tips.

Reading from a Text File

There are a couple of ways to list the servers that you manage, but for simplicity’s sake, we’ll use a simple text file. What we will do is store the names of the SQL Server instances that you administer in a text file named SQL_Servers.txt and pass the contents in a variable named $instance. We will use the Get-Content cmdlet to read thru the contents of the text file and the ForEach-Object cmdlet to iterate thru the collection. The script would look something like the one below. You can either write it in a script file or type it directly in the PowerShell console

Generate Fancy Reports – Enter Microsoft Excel

Let’s admit it, Microsoft Excel happens to be the most popular application to generate spreadsheets and reports so it does make sense to make the most out of it with any reports that we need to generate. IT Managers and key stakeholders would like to see either graphs with colors instead of just numerical values within reports. What we will do is to use PowerShell to automate report creation for our database audit report with Excel. There are a few key things that we need to understand about the process. First, we will be calling Excel thru COM automation and not as a .NET application. We used the New-Object cmdlet to create an instance of the Excel object, the -ComObject parameter to create a new COM object of type Excel.Application which is the ProgID of the object we want to create and assign it the variable $Excel.

You might be interested to find out what other COM components are available on a Windows machine for you to use. To retrieve their ProgID values, you can query the registry with a one-liner like the one below (this was derived from the PowerShell team blog)

So much for COM objects as we only need the Excel.Application at this point. Next, we set the Visible property of the Excel object to True so we can see what is happening

Next, we use the Add() method to add a new workbook to the instance of the Excel object and use the Item property to create an object reference to the first worksheet in the workbook. The variable $Sheet will hold that pointer to the worksheet and will be referred to in most of the code

You can add as many workbooks as you want, but one would be enough for our purpose. Now, to actually work with Excel we need to reference row and column numbers. To do that, we call the Cells property of the Excel object to return the cell or cells in the active sheet. We can then modify the cells like providing a value, changing the Font properties, etc. An example to assign a value to a cell in row 1, column 1 and change the Font property to Bold is shown below.

Saving the code and running it in PowerShell will open up an Excel spreadsheet that will look something like the one below

You can either call the SaveAs() method of the Worksheet object $Sheet to save the Excel spreadsheet or just leave it as it is.

Imagine dealing with row and column values that are dynamic since there would be a fair amount of databases on each of your SQL Server instances. Below is a PowerShell script that takes into account what we have just covered with SMO and Excel to create a fancy report

Running the script in PowerShell will generate an Excel spreadsheet similar to the one below, highlighting those properties that need immediate attention using some fancy colors from the definitions available here.

Next Steps

• Download and install Windows PowerShell
• Check out the article on How to Use Windows PowerShell to Automate Microsoft Excel from Microsoft TechNet
• Read more on the SMO Class Library to translate SQL Server objects that we are already familiar with to SMO objects
• Find out more about the Excel 2003 Object Model to incorporate it in your automated report generation

Readers Who Read This Tip Also Read

• Backup SQL Server Databases with a Windows PowerShell Script
• Generating SQL Scripts using Windows PowerShell
• Checking SQL Server Agent jobs using Windows PowerShell
• Check the Last SQL Server Backup Date using Windows PowerShell
• Using PowerShell with SQL Server Management Objects (SMO)
• More…