How to Get the Recovery Model of a Database in SQL Server using T-SQL

In SQL Server, a recovery model is a database property that controls how transactions are logged, whether the transaction log requires (and allows) backing up, and what kinds of restore operations are available. Databases can use one of the following three recovery models: simple, full, and bulk-logged.

You can query the sys.databases catalog view to get a list of databases and their recovery models.

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Fix Msg 529 “Explicit conversion from data type int to xml is not allowed” in SQL Server

If you’re getting SQL Server error Msg 529 that reads something like Explicit conversion from data type int to xml is not allowed, it’s probably because you’re trying to perform a data type conversion that’s not permitted.

SQL Server doesn’t allow certain conversions. If you try to perform such a conversion, you’ll get this error.

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How to Check a Column’s Data Type in SQL

In SQL, the columns information schema view, which returns information about columns, is an ISO standard view that is supported by most of the major RDBMSs. You can use this view to get information about a column’s data type.

Most of the major RDBMs also provide other methods for getting column information.

Here are examples of getting the data type of a column in various SQL databases.

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Fix Msg 8117 “Operand data type varchar is invalid for sum operator” in SQL Server

If you’re getting SQL Server error Msg 8117 with the message Operand data type varchar is invalid for sum operator, it’s because you’re passing the wrong data type to an operator or function.

In this case, the error indicates that we’re passing a string to the SUM() function. The SUM() function does not operate on strings. It only works on numeric types.

The same error (Msg 8117) can also occur in other contexts – it’s not limited to the SUM() function.

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