FORMAT() function in SQL Server 2012/2014

The FORMAT() function is one to really remember, it saves you a lot of time.
Here are a few examples:


SELECT
FORMAT(12345678,'n') AS n
,FORMAT(12345678,'n0') AS n0
,FORMAT(12345678,'n0','nl-NL') AS n0NL
,FORMAT(0.8856,'p') AS p
,FORMAT(0.8856,'p1') AS p1
,FORMAT(12345678,'c') AS c
,FORMAT(12345678,'c1') AS c1
,FORMAT(12345678,'c1','nl-NL') AS c1NL

DECLARE @d DATETIME = '10/01/2011'

SELECT FORMAT ( @d, 'D', 'en-US' ) AS 'US English Result'
,FORMAT ( @d, 'D', 'en-gb' ) AS 'Great Britain English Result'
,FORMAT ( @d, 'D', 'de-de' ) AS 'German Result'
,FORMAT ( @d, 'D', 'zh-cn' ) AS 'Chinese (Simplified PRC) Result';


For more examples, please visit:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/610089/SQL-Servers-FORMAT-function

Product Guide for SQL Server ‘Denali’ was released today!

The Product Guide package includes:

– 14 Product Datasheets
– 8 PowerPoint Presentations
– 5 Technical White Papers
– 13 Hands-On Lab Preview Documents
– 6 Click-Through Demonstrations
– 13 Self-Running Demonstrations
– 26 Links to On-Line References
– 44 Links to On-Line Videos including 26 Presentations from North America TechEd 2011

Download it here.

SQL Server “Denali” (2011) CTP3 is available for download!

CTP3 of SQL Server Code Name “Denali” was made available for download this morning. You can download the 32-bit and 64-bit versions here. Official announcement from the SQL Server team blog and the announcement from the Analysis Services and PowerPivot Team Blog.

The Feature Pack for CTP3 can be download here.

See CTP3 Books Online and Project Crescent (also included in CTP3).

Thanks to James Serra for the fast info!
More posts soon!

Columnstore Indexes for SQL Server 11.0 release (code named “Denali”)

Microsoft released a new whitepaper on Columnstore Indexes:

Summary: The SQL Server 11.0 release (code named “Denali”) introduces a new data warehouse query acceleration feature based on a new type of index called the columnstore. This new index, combined with enhanced query processing features, improves data warehouse query performance by hundreds to thousands of times in some cases, and can routinely give a tenfold speedup for a broad range of decision support queries. This can allow end users to get more business value from their data through fast, interactive exploration. IT workers can reduce development costs and ETL times since columnstore indexes limit or eliminate the need to rely on pre-built aggregates, including user-defined summary tables, and indexed (materialized) views. Furthermore, columnstore indexes can greatly improve ROLAP performance, making ROLAP more attractive.

SQL Server Denali columnstore indexes are “pure” column stores, not a hybrid, because they store all data for separate columns on separate pages. This improves I/O scan performance and buffer hit rates. SQL Server is the first major database product to support a pure columnstore index.

Download the whitepaper here.

AdventureWorks for SQL Server Denali CTP1

Microsoft released the new AdventureWorks for SQL Server Denali (CTP1, aka SQL Server 2011) yesterday!


The release notes:

This release is dedicated to the Adventureworks sample databases that ship for Microsoft SQL Server code-named “Denali”, Community Technical Preview 1 (CTP1). This release uses the AdventureWorks2008R2 and AdventureWorksDW2008R2 sample databases. They have been upgraded to the “Denali” CTP1 version and the FILESTREAM properties have been removed from the Production.Document table. No additional schema or data changes have been made.

Note: These databases cannot be installed on any version of SQL Server other than SQL Server code-named “Denali” CTP1.

Get it here.

SQLPASS Summit Keynote summary

Google told me, here’s a great SQLPASS Summit Keynote summary by Brent Ozar:

#SQLPASS Summit Keynote

9:37 – The changes in SQL Server Integration Services will be huge, he says – big improvements in management and servers. R2 was a big release for reporting & analytics, plus Office 2010 focused on managed self-service analytics. Excel users were empowered to build BI applications, and PowerPivot was embedded into SharePoint.

9:39 – Project Crescent is a new web-based reporting system letting end users tell their own stories about the data. Amir Netz is demoing PowerPivot, then saying that’s good, but we need something bigger for enterprise datastores. The new BI Development Studio, running on top of Visual Studio 2010 Premium, hooks into the same column-oriented storage engine that PowerPivot used, but now you can use it on a server so you get centralized security and bigger horsepower.

9:49 – SQL Server Denali will have columnar indexes built into the database engine. Columnar indexes are what makes PowerPivot so insanely fast. More on this later.

Thanks Brent!

Microsoft SQL Server code-named ‘Denali’ – Community Technology Preview 1 (CTP1)

Microsoft released the CTP1 for SQL Server code-named ‘Denali‘ (aka SQL Server 2011?) yesterday.

Get it here.

This next version of SQL Server is expected to be ready for launch at the beginning of third quarter in 2011. One thing is certain, BIDS will receive a GUI-update that will look the same as Visual Studio 2010 🙂