What is the best method to check whether...

Using CROSS APPLY in SQL Server 2005

My interest in writing this article was started by an MSDN article titled SQL Server 2005: The CLR Enters the Relational Stage. The article shows how to write a function that returns the top three countries per category. That's always been something that was difficult to do in SQL so I was curious about the approach. The article started out well but I was very unhappy by the end. It's just soooo much easier to do this in SQL Server 2005 using the new CROSS APPLY clause in Transact-SQL. So I'm going to write a query to return the top 3 orders for each customer and I'm going to do it in about 10 lines of SQL. (UPDATE: An alert reader found an even better approach!)

Usage Scenarios for SQL Server 2005 Native Web Services

Get a detailed look at how to set up SQL Server 2005 for Web service access in a heterogeneous environment, and learn more about key scenarios for Web services in SQL Server 2005.

Processing XML Showplans Using SQLCLR in SQL Server 2005

Build an application to extract a query's estimated execution cost from its XML showplan. Users can submit only those queries costing less than a predetermined threshold to a server running SQL Server 2005, thereby ensuring it is not overloaded with costly, long-running queries.

What is the fifth rule of database normalization?

Using Ranking and Windowing Functions in SQL Server 2005

SQL Server 2005 is chock full of new features. You may have heard that you can write stored procedures in a CLR language like C# or VB .NET, but TSQL is here to stay. One new great feature adds the functionality of a Ranking expression that can be added to your result set that is based on a ranking algorithm being applied to a column that you specify. This will come in handy in .NET applications for paging and sorting in a grid as well as many other scenarios. We are going to take a look at the Ranking functions new to SQL Server 2005 using the new AdventureWorks database on the February 2005 Community Tech Preview.

Extending Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services with Custom Cod

This article presents an excerpt from the book, Microsoft Reporting Services in Action, by Teodor Lachev. Learn how to implement advanced report functionality using custom code.

Deliver User-Friendly Reports from Your Application with SQL Server Re

Flexible reporting capabilities are a requirement for most business applications and their integration into Web apps makes them more versatile than ever. With the recent release of SQL Server™ 2000 Reporting Services, you can easily add reporting from diverse data sources. In this article I will introduce report authoring using Visual Studio® and Reporting Services and demonstrate how to integrate reports into your Web applications.

Reporting Services is a server-based reporting platform that is built on the .NET Framework and integrated with SQL Server 2000, so you can integrate rich reporting features into your apps using an extensive Web services-based API. Although the report server uses SQL Server as the repository for reports, any data source with an OLE DB, ODBC, or ADO.NET provider can be used to supply data to the reports, making Reporting Services a great choice for reporting in diverse enterprise environments.

What is the fourth rule of data normalization?

Customizing SQL Server Reporting Services with .NET Code

With the release of Reporting Services, Microsoft has provided a truly enterprise-level reporting solution. Reporting Services provides support for the entire reporting life cycle including report authoring, report management, and report delivery