SQL Server Agent is a Microsoft Windows service that executes scheduled administrative tasks, which are called jobs in SQL Server.
You can create SQL Server Agent jobs with T-SQL or with the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) GUI.
Here’s how to do it using the SSMS GUI.
Continue readingIf you’ve created a SQL Server Agent job, and you’re now trying to test it to see if it will run properly, you may encounter an ugly error message that reads, among other things, “SQLServerAgent is not currently running so it cannot be notified of this action”.
Fortunately, this is easy to fix.
Continue readingIf you were trying to create a SQL Server Agent job for the first time, but a message popped up that confused you, read on.
Continue readingIf you’re creating a SQL Server Agent job for the first time, you might find that you need to enable the SQL Server Agent extended stored procedures (SQL Server Agent XPs) first.
When you use the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) tool to start the SQL Server Agent service, these extended stored procedures are enabled automatically.
When you use T-SQL, you can enable the SQL Server Agent XPs with the sp_configure stored procedure.
SQL Server error Msg 206, Level 16 is a common error to get when inserting data into a table.
It happens when you’re trying to insert data into a column that is incompatible with the data type you’re trying to insert.
This could happen if you accidentally try to insert data into the wrong column (or even the wrong table). But it could also happen if you incorrectly assume that SQL Server will convert the data for you.
To fix this issue, make sure you’re inserting the correct data type.
Continue readingThis page contains direct links to SQL tutorials and reference articles for beginners.
Continue readingIf you’re familiar with creating partitioned tables in SQL Server, you might be used to creating a separate filegroup for each partition. This has its benefits, and may very well be the method you would choose in most scenarios.
However, you also have the option of mapping multiple partitions to a single filegroup.
In this article I share two examples of mapping multiple partitions to a single filegroup.
In SQL, most RDBMSs allow you to rename a table using the ALTER TABLE statement, which is the statement used to modify the definition of an existing table.
Some RDBMs also include a RENAME statement for renaming tables.
But if you use SQL Server, you’ll need to use the sp_rename stored procedure.
In SQL, if you want to remove a table from a database, you need to use the DROP TABLE statement.
That destroys the table and all its data.
Continue readingNormally if you need to drop a foreign key in SQL, you’d use the ALTER TABLE statement. But if you’re using SQLite, that’s not an option.