SQL Server Magazine

Managing Hierarchical Rowsets

Build a sample application in Visual Studio that can be used to manage hierarchical rowsets populated by stored procedures.

Managing Hierarchical Rowsets

Additional Features

To make the sample TableAdapter application more useful as a general demonstration, I added several features that illustrate a few tricky technical points, including how to import a picture, handle new row initialization, and provide a list of addresses.

Managing ReportViewer Parameters

How do you filter a Reporting Services report at runtime? Stumped? SQL Server guru William Vaughn explains how you can use the ReportViewer control in server mode to collect, validate, and pass parameters to Reporting Services.

Query vs. Report Parameters

What you need to understand the distinction between query and report parameters.

ADO.NET 2.0: Smarter, Faster, Better

The latest release of Microsoft’s data-access tool, ADO.NET 2.0, has a slew of new features designed to solve specific developer problems. Get an overview of what the new release can do to solve your development dilemmas.

Putting Back Missing Visual Studio 2003 Features

In Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft has hidden some commonly used features. Here's how to get back the features you're used to.

Smarter T-SQL Debugging in Visual Studio 2005

T-SQL debugging in earlier versions of Visual Studio required creative workarounds. In Visual Studio 2005, the problems are fixed--and new features make debugging easier.

Reporting Services Tip: Resolving 403.9 Errors on Windows XP

Here's a handy workaround to help you avoid errors that cause Microsoft IIS to lock up when when you're working with SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services on Windows XP.

MSDE Reborn

Microsoft has introduced SQL Server 2005 Express Edition to replace Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine (MSDE). Find out what’s changed and what’s remained the same!

Beyond T-SQL: Digging into the CLR

Creating this sample credit card encryption application can teach you a lot about the realities of building, testing, and deploying CLR-based stored procedures--and about how the CLR provides functionality that T-SQL can't.

.NET Safety Settings

Microsoft provides three security permission settings as part of SQL Server 2005's protection layer. Here's a quick primer on what the three settings mean.

Mapping T-SQL Data Types to SqlTypes

Use this short list to see how you match T-SQL data types to data types that the SqlClient.SqlTypes namespace exposes.

Developing CLR-Based Stored Procedures

See how Common Language Runtime (CLR) stored procedures work and how they fit into the larger scheme of a high-performance database system by walking through a CLR assembly project that captures and encrypts credit card information.

T-SQL and SQL CLR Debugging

Learn the magic key for enabling cross-process debugging.

TIP: Managing Stored Procedures with Multiplication

Sometimes, T-SQL stored procedures are too large to manage. Often, using multiple shorter stored procedures is better than using one long stored procedure.

The .NET Connection Pool Lifeguard

ADO.NET connection pooling improves the performance of .NET applications, but a busy application can sometimes accumulate connections, overflowing the pool and sinking performance. Here's how you can keep a watchful eye on your connection pools.

Swimming in the .NET Connection Pool

If you’re diving into ADO.NET, you might be wondering how you can use connection pooling to improve your applications’ performance. Here are some basic connection-pooling concepts you’ll need to know when you’re ready to get your feet wet.

Much ADO About Nothing

Developers need to know how to test for and set NULL values in their applications. Here are some tried-and-true techniques you can use in Visual Basic and Visual Basic .NET.

Using T-SQL to Avoid Unwanted NULLs

Here's how to use the IsNULL() function in T-SQL to avoid returning NULL values from your queries.