Tag Archives for learning sql

Creating a Board Game

We’re going to try it. Herch keeps writing down his ideas, some of which were actually mine about a year ago, and some of us will try play testing it tonight. I’ve never created a board game before. I’ve got a feeling I’ll be spending 50 bucks at Toys ‘R’ Us to buy some other games to cannabalize for game board and game pieces.

I did just receive my Rock Band 2 Ion Premium Drum Kit, and it needs to be assembled before I explode from anticipation, but it can wait until tomorrow if it means we have a new board game hit on our hands. But fairly soon I have to get down to the business of learning to play the drums. That’s not even counting what I need to learn for work (I’ve got basic scripting down, but many DBA activities still evade my understanding). Good thing I’ve got vacation time already planned.

Tables and Columns

What have we learned today? Well, these little gems have helped me out immensely today. I’m going to keep them handy for future use.

List all of the Tables in a Database

SELECT Name
FROM SYSOBJECTS
WHERE XTYPE=’U’
ORDER BY Name

List all of the Columns in a Table

SELECT Column_Name
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.Columns
WHERE TABLE_NAME = ‘<Name>’

declare @iamstartingtolikesqlfor real

So today I needed to set up a couple of training environments for sites going live within the next month. Normally this just involves making a copy of the staging db and then configuring the application server to create the training sandbox. Now they can wreck whatever they like and it won’t affect what’s going into production. I get the first one setup and when I go to login with the client, it rejects my username/password. Nope, not a registered user. Not surprised, since I’m new to the team and it can be a painful, time consuming, mind numbing, life shortening process to login to every site in like 4 different environments. I don’t wish that on anyone. So I decided to not even ask for help. I decided to script it.

  • It took me about 20 minutes to track down which table(s) I needed to work with [there were three of them].
  • It took me about 20 minutes to write INSERT statements for each table.
  • It took me about 20 minutes to combine all three statements into one script and declare a few variables so I can reuse this little beauty whenever I need it.

I’ve been using an open source application called The Guide that is really helping me organize my thoughts and my scripts. It’s definitely worth checking out.

And today Blue Coast Burrito came into the office and set up a spread in the break room. Steak burrito, rice, black beans, no cheese, lettuce, pico, ok maybe some cheese, with chips and salsa ~$6. With the weather outside being frightful [35 degrees and Sleet], I was a happy customer.