T-SQL Record Separatorhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/t-sql-record-separator.html

11 October 2011 I have googled, binged and asked but to no avail. Some self-proclaimed IT experts in forums said "why would you want to do that?". Unhelpful Bellends. It's a bit like asking me "Why can't I turn on my computer" and me replying "why would you want to do...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

DataJumble - Shuffling characters in a data valuehttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/data-shuffling-function.html

01 August 2012 This was called a Data-Scrambling Function but it depends on what you mean by "scrambling". This is a function which merely uses the same characters but switches their order randomly, so I've renamed it DataJumble as opposed to my article on...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: *

Drop If Object Existshttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/drop-if-object-exists.html

03 August 2012 What? Some people have been suggesting you can use "CREATE OR REPLACE... VIEW... FUNCTION" but my SQL Server 2008 Management Studio doesn't like this and refuses to understand what I'm trying to do. Why? As this data seemed to be across various...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: *

Copy a table with structure and data into a temporary tablehttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/copy-a-table-with-structure-and-data-into-a-temporary-table.html

03 August 2012 Why? Hmm... I was writing a stored procedure that will scramble data given a table as a parameter. Because I only want to update a temporary table and not the original (source) table, I needed the following stored procedure (or part of). What? This will...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: *

T-SQL example of Case-Sensitive Soundexhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/t-sql-example-of-case-sensitive-soundex.html

10 October 2012 What? This article is for demonstrating how to use a SOUNDEX in a select and then listing all the variations based on case-sensitivity. Why? We have a database with data in it. For a particular column we have setup default values, let's use the example...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

DataTumble - Randomize Data Rowshttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/datatumble-randomize-data-rows.html

07 December 2012 What? This is a stored procedure I've nabbed from some consultants from my day job. It shuffles the records and matching data values: Before: ID Name DateOfBirth --------- ------------ ----------- 1 John Smith 1988-06-24 2 Fred Bloggs 1972-11-17 3...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: *

DataScramble - Randomizing data rowshttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/datascramble-randomizing-data-rows.html

07 December 2012 What? Along with my DataJumble function and DataTumble procedure which also help scramble database tables sent to suppliers/developers, this is a function which simply finds random characters and inserts these. I would recommend using the DataTumble...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

CharIndex Reverse - find occurrence starting from end of string in TSQLhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/charindex-reverse-find-occurrence-starting-from-end-of-string-in-tsql.html

28 January 2013 What? This is a quick note on finding the last occurrence of a string in a longer string. This has to be in Transact SQL for a SQL Server instance only and not filtered by other code. Why? I have a string such as the following (column positions added...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

T-SQL Conversion failed when converting the varchar to data type inthttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/t-sql-conversion-failed-when-converting-the-varchar-to-data-type-int.html

14 May 2013 What? A very quick note in case I forget this one. If you are trying to join two tables and receiving the error "Conversion failed when converting the varchar value 'B110' to data type int" then read on. How? So where does the 'B110' string come from,...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

Split a row into multiple rows based on a column valuehttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/split-a-row-into-multiple-rows-based-on-a-column-value.html

23 August 2013 Applies to Transact-SQL (T-SQL) What? This is a quick article on how to split a single row into multipe rows based on the value of a column in the same table. Why? I have a table that has all the days of sickness of employees. This table contains, which...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: *

Compare two databases using T-SQLhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/compare-two-databases-using-t-sql.html

24 September 2013 Applies to: MS SQL Server Management Studio 2008 Two Transact-SQL databases What? A quick article on how to compare two Microsoft databases using the tools provided with SQL Server and without having to download any third-party products. Why? I googled...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

Convert to Proper Case in T-SQLhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/convert-to-proper-case-in-t-sql.html

04 June 2014 What? So this is an article exploring how to convert UPPERCASE text into mixed case. The feed is originally for a personnel feed so it won't be converting long paragraphs of English text. Instead it will be applied to names and addresses as well as job...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

Joomla: Unable to find install packagehttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/cms/joomla/joomla-unable-to-find-install-package.html

05 September 2009 This issue happened with a friend who was trying to upload extensions. You should find that the configuration file is unwriteable (and that you can't change it using the joomla interface). In the end to resolve this, he had to do a fresh install and...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Joomla
• Language: en-GB

T-SQL functions to convert Strings to Tableshttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/t-sql/t-sql-functions-to-convert-strings-to-tables.html

20 August 2014 Applies to: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Microsoft SQL Server 2012 What? These were in a solution and I thought I'd note them on my site so I can refer to them more easily. How? Let's start with a function that just converts a string of words delimited...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Transact-SQL
• Language: en-GB

Basic Oracle Function Structurehttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/oracle-pl-sql/basic-oracle-function-structure.html

15 January 2012 What? I need to refer to how to create a function in Oracle PL/SQL and sites on the net just attempt to overcomplicate everything and have forgotten how it is to be new to Oracle. I need a function in it's simplest form and if I want to torture my...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

Basic Oracle Stored Procedure Structurehttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/oracle-pl-sql/basic-oracle-stored-procedure-structure.html

16 January 2012 Previously For a basic Oracle function, visit my article Basic Oracle Function Structure. For a more advanced version which uses cursors to work with SSRS, see my article Oracle Stored Procedures in SSRS. What? I asked someone for a simple, easy and...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

No rows returned in Oracle causes SP to failhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/oracle-pl-sql/no-rows-returned-in-oracle-causes-sp-to-fail.html

24 January 2012 Why? We have a stored procedure which contains two select queries. The first query will retrieve a student ID number where the input parameter is the student's username. The second query will return data using the student ID number found in the first...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

Data Randomization Function in Oracle PL/SQLhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/oracle-pl-sql/data-randomization-function-in-oracle-plsql.html

22 August 2012 What? This article describes a function that will return random data based on a given value. The function intends to determine the data type and return data that is absolutely irrelevant to the original data but the same length and the same type of...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

Fix Oracle Tnsping 3511 without Windows Registryhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/oracle-pl-sql/fix-oracle-tnsping-3511-without-windows-registry.html

04 March 2013 Applies to: - MS Windows 7 Enterprise What? So I can ping the server the Oracle 11g database sits on. I've installed the Oracle 11g client tools and can connect using sqlplus. But if I tnsping any oracle database, I get something along the lines of:...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: Oracle PL/SQL
• Language: en-GB

Database Error: Unable to connect to the database: Could not connect to MySQLhttps://www.joellipman.com/articles/else/database/mysql/database-error-unable-to-connect-to-the-database-could-not-connect-to-mysql.html

25 September 2009 I've been looking into this for a friend and going through forums to investigate this error. After you've checked your database connection details, I find what FisherC said below is the most probable cause for the error. FisherC says: I have the same...

• Type: Article
• Author: Joel Lipman
• Category: MySQL
• Language: en-GB