Comparing “Create Table” between Oracle and Microsoft SQLServer

For this blog, I create an employee table using the Oracle’s GUI tool called “SQL Developer”.  I then exported that syntax to a file.With a few changes I added to Microsoft SQL Server (after adding the schema first), and modified it to include a primary key. My only reason to port this over was to […]

Best Examples of Join-Path in PowerShell

Below I have put together some of my favorite examples of how to use Join-Path. One of the primary features it to be able to combine a folder and a filename, without caring if the folder ends with a trailing slash or not. That is the first thing illustrated below (Path1/Path2). Path3 shows how to […]

Estimated Completion Time and Progress Bar in Powershell

<h1>Estimated Completion Time in PowerShell</h1> Progress Bars are all about giving the user feedback as to what the program is doing, and Powershell implements it with the Write-Progress cmdlet. It is also possible to predict the completion time by using a little math. Possible uses for the progress bar include: Showing status of reading a […]

How to Catch SQL Stored Proc Errors in PowerShell

In a prior blog, I demonstrated how to call a SQL Stored Proc from Powershell.  But that article did not discuss error handling. In the stored proc, it stored two tables in a parent/child relationship.  If the parent “key” was not found, then the child row cannot be stored. The parent is the based on […]

How to get a single return value from an ExecuteNonQuery SQL stored procedure in Powershell

Sometimes you call SQL just to store data, but even then, sometimes you need the key of the row just stored. This code will show you how to get back that single return value when calling a stored proc, even when it is an “ExecuteNonQuery” stored proc, that returns no row sets. It is typical […]

Cannot Connect to Amazon RDS with SSMS

Cannot connect to Amazon RDS with SSMS Amazon allows you to run an Relational Database Server (RDS) that runs several of the common editions of Microsoft SQLServer. After setting up your RDS server/instance and launching it, you may have issues connecting to it. Cannot connect to SQLServer – Error Message Microsoft SQLServer has a very […]

How to Call Functions in Powershell – The Right Way

How to Call Functions in Powershell – The Right Way This applies when your function is in a different file than the program you are running. How do you proplery “include” functions in other files and directories? My secret is to use the $PSScriptRoot built-in variable.  If you don’t fully qualify the path, then I’ve […]

How Call a SQL Stored Procedure from Powershell

How Call a SQL Stored Procedure from Powershell This blog discusses how to call a stored procedure that takes several input parms, but doesn’t return any data. For instance, you are calling a stored proc to insert data into one or more database tables. When you are not expecting data back, you don’t need the […]

How to Validate User Data Values in an XML Config File with Powershell

Validate User Data Values in an XML Config File with Powershell This blog discusses how I decided to validate user data in an XML Config file. I’ve been creating a rather involved Powershell program that automates the creation of videos and posting them to our team’s video site, in order to create points that could […]

Oracle 11g XE Web Interface

Intro to Oracle for SQLServer Developers and DBAs – Part 3 After finally getting the GUI “SQL Developer” tool installed, see earlier blog Intro to Oracle SQL for SQL Server Developers and DBAs, I one day noticed an Oracle Icon on my desktop, clicked it, and found the web interface for managing Oracle. I’ve seen […]