Category Archives: Coding

How to format SQL Server datetime as dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss

February 2, 2021Coding, Data, Database Administrator, Development, How To, sql, SQL Server, T-SQLdatetime, dd/mm/yyyy, dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm, dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss, formatting, guide, How To, howto, lesson, SQL Server, tutorialTidbytez

If you are exporting the results of a SQL Server query to excel typically the recipient of the file wants the dates referenced in the format “dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss” or “dd/mm/yyyy” not in the usual database format yyyy-mm-dd.

The below query formats the datetime as desired. Note that the letter m representing month is capitalised. If they are not the engine will interpret the lowercase letter m as minute so you will end up with days, minutes, years.

Also not that the letter h representing the hours is also capitalised. Capitalising the h makes the time output with the 24 hour format. Lowercase h will be 12 hour format. It is highly recommended not to use the lowercase h.

SELECT FORMAT(GETDATE(), 'dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss', 'en-us')

If you only want the date and not time just remove the relevant text, i.e. just date dd/MM/yyyy or datetime without second dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm.

How to set up a free WordPress contact form without plugins

December 2, 2020Coding, JavaScript, Web Development, Wordpresscontact form without plugin, embedded form for free, form without plugin, free website form, guide, How To, howto, lesson, tutorial, wordpress contact form for free, wordpress form for freeTidbytez

Summary

This solution uses Google Forms and a tiny bit of scripting. The end result is a form that will be neatly embedded in your website that will send an email notification, to any email address (or addresses) you desire, when the form has been filled in and submitted. This solution is very versatile and can be applied to numerous use cases, for instance it could be any website not just a WordPress site and it could be any type of form. The JavaScript is very straight forward and can be easily customised to fit different needs.

Prerequisite

You will need a Google (Gmail) Account in order to follow these instructions. This Gmail account will not be visible to the user who submits the form but it is recommended you do not use your personal Gmail account and instead create a new one.

Instructions

Firstly you will need to create a Google Form.

Sign into the Google Account you intend to associate this form to.

Search for Google Forms in your search engine of choice.

Click on the default Contact form and edit as required, i.e. fields, theme etc.

It is recommended for the purposes of these instructions you create a contact form with the fields Name, Email, Website and Comment as these are the fields the script will look for. Once you understand the whole process you can customise the solution to fit your specific needs.

Once done go to the form settings (Gear icon).

The setting “Requires sign in” is set to limit to 1 response by default.

Remove this requirement or a nasty popup will appear on the contact page of your website requiring the sites visitors to log into Google to fill out the contact form.

(Obviously you can leave this restriction in place if that is the behavior you desire.)

At this point you can test the form.

Testing the Form

Go to the Send button and click it and this will bring up the various share options.

In this instance chose the second option, i.e. not the email option but the url (chain icon) option.

Copy the url and paste it into a new browser window, this will show you the form from a users perspective.

Fill in the form with mock data and submit it.

Return to the form editing page and you will see “1 Response” above the form input boxes.

Clicking on this button brings up the responses and response statistics.

At this point your form should be ready to use.

Form Submission Email Notifications

On the form editing page go to the More options (the three vertical dots) and among the options there will be the “Script Editor” option.

Click on it and the Script Editor window will appear.

Go to File > New > Script file and “Enter new file name” as “FormContact”.

Delete all of the text in the text editor window i.e. “function myFunction() {}”

Then copy and paste the text below into the editor window.

function onFormSubmit(e) {
	//If you run this script from the script editor it will throw an error as the code is not being passed values from an active form
	//To test this script you should have a Contact form prepared with the fields Name, Email, Website and Comment
    //You can then submit the Contact form after populating the fields
	//To run logged tests uncomment the code below that starts with "Logger.log", or simply submit forms and review the received emails
	//You can view the log by going to View > Stackdriver Loggins > Apps Script Dashboard	
  
//Email Address that will receive the notification
  var emailTarget = "c.kent@dailyplanet.com"
//To send notifications to multiple email addresses uncomment the line below and delete the line above
//var emailTarget = "c.kent@dailyplanet.com, b.wayne@waynecorp.com" 
  
//Capture the form input values as variables
  var frm = FormApp.getActiveForm().getItems();
  var nameGiven = e.response.getResponseForItem(frm[0]).getResponse();
  var emailAddress = e.response.getResponseForItem(frm[1]).getResponse();
  var websiteUrl = e.response.getResponseForItem(frm[2]).getResponse();
  var commentGiven = e.response.getResponseForItem(frm[3]).getResponse();
  
//Create the variable htmlPage that will store a basic HTML page including the style specifications for a simple HTML table
  var htmlPage = `
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<style> table {
  font-family: arial, sans-serif;
  border: 1px solid black;
  border-collapse: collapse;
  width: 100%;
}
table td {
  border: 1px solid black;
  padding: 10px;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
`

//Add a HTML Table inside the htmlPage variable that will display the captured form values via email
  htmlPage += '<div><table>' 
  +'<tr><td>Name</td><td>' + nameGiven + '</td></tr>' 
  +'<tr><td>Email</td><td>' + emailAddress + '</td></tr>' 
  +'<tr><td>Website</td><td>' + websiteUrl + '</td></tr>' 
  +'<tr><td>Comment</td><td>' + commentGiven + '</td></tr>' 
  + '</table></div></body></html>'

  //Logger.log("Name: " + nameGiven + "Email Address: " + emailAddress + "Website: " + websiteUrl + "Comment: " + commentGiven);
  
//Send the notification email via the Gmail account to any email address provided as the first option    
   GmailApp.sendEmail(emailTarget, 'New Contact Form Submitted', '', {htmlBody: htmlPage});
}

That is all the JavaScript code needed to capture the form variable values and send them wrapped in a simple html table via email.

By default the code is set to send emails to “c.kent@dailyplanet.com” solely.

You will need to update this email address (keep the quotes!) to the email address you want to receive form emails or else you will really annoy Superman.

Similarly you can change “c.kent@dailyplanet.com, b.wayne@waynecorp.com” if you want multiple email address to receive form emails. Just put a comma between email addresses with either end of the string of email addresses wrapped in quotes.

All of the code is now in place but a trigger needs to be set up to run the JavaScript code.

Go to Edit and click on “Current Project’s triggers”.

Add a new Trigger.

For “Choose which function to run” choose “OnFormSubmit”.

For “Select event source” choose “from Form”.

For “Select event type” choose “On Form Submit”.

For “Failure notification settings” choose whatever frequency suits your use case.

Now when the form is submitted it will call the OnFormSubmit function which will run the JavaScript code you entered.

Now that you know how to set up a contact form and can see how the variable values are captured in the JavaScript code you probably now have a good understanding of how to edit both the form and code to fit your specific needs.

Keep in mind the form variable values are captured in order of appearance in the form.

Adding the Contact Form to the WordPress site

This next part covers specific instructions for adding the form to a WordPress site but if you have any web development experience you will see how easy this process is to incorporate into any website HTML page.

On the Google form editing page click the Send button.

For the send via options choose the third option, embedded HTML, symbolised as angled brackets < >.

Copy the code that appears below the send via options.

(If you just needed the form for a website then take that code and embed it into your website page and you are done. If you need the form for a WordPress site keep reading.)

Log into your WordPress site.

Under My Site go to Pages and then select the page you want to use the form in or create a new page.

In the body section of the page click on the plus (+) block to add a new block.

Search for HTML and choose Custom HTML.

Paste the code from the Google Form into the block.

You are done.

Conclusion

Now when you publish the page you will have a new contact form that will email new form submissions to email addresses of your choosing and it didn’t cost you a dime.

If you liked this post please leave a like and share.

How to create a C# console application that will solve crosswords

June 2, 2020C#, Coding, Data, Development, Visual Studioassign file directory to variable, C Sharp, C#, clean string with C#, clean string with regex in C#, console application, count characters string, create list variable c#, crossword, guide, How To, howto, lesson, order list c#, read csv file into list, remove duplicates from list C#, solver, tutorial, Visual Studio, write list to console, write variable to consoleTidbytez

This tutorial will cover the following tasks in C#:

How to count the characters in a string
How to assign a file’s directory location to a variable
How to create a list variable
How to pull/read a CSV file column into a list variable
How to clean strings using Regex to remove non alpha numeric characters as the strings are being read into a list
How to remove duplicate word entries from a list
How to order a list
How to write variables to the console, including a list’s elements

Assumptions:

You already know how to create projects in Visual Studio.

If you do not how to do this search online using the following term “how to create C# console applications in visual studio”.

Prerequisites:

First you will need to generate a CSV file with random words using this site:

https://onlinerandomtools.com/generate-random-csv

For the option “how many columns to generate” set the value to 1.

For testing purposes create 1000 rows.

Download the csv file generated and save it using the name “words”.

Summary of how the code works:

The code works by reducing the initial list (i.e. the supplied CSV file of random words) down to only words that match the number of characters of the user word, typically referred to as “string length”.

Once that subset of words has been created the code will then compare the user word’s letters against each letter, referencing the relative position, in each word in the subset.

Note: there is still significant room for optimization but the code is functional and works well as an accessible, human readable tutorial.

Use case example:

If the user enters the word “apple” the dictionary subset will be reduced down to 5 letter words only. These five letter words are then compared to the user word, each word and letter at a time. So if the first word in the list was “cabin” the comparison would jump to the next word in the list as the “a” in “apple” does not match the “c” in “cabin”. If the next word in the dictionary was “acorn” the first letters would match but the comparison would jump to the next word when the “c” and “p” did not match.

Instructions:

Create a C# console application called CrosswordSolver in Visual Studio.

Move the CSV file called “Words” into the bin directory of the project folder, i.e. CrosswordSolver\CrosswordSolver\bin

Open the project CrosswordSolver and paste the C# code below into the default window replacing the default cs page code.

The hardcoded example of a user word is:

string userWord = “a****”;

The user can use * to represent characters unknown, for example ap*le.

Note: The CSV file you randomly generated may have no examples of 5 letter words begining with the letter “a” so experiment with other characters.

You can test the letter comparison functionality by uncommenting the two sections of code immediately following the comments “Test letter comparison”.

To test your CSV file has been read into memory you can uncomment the section of code immediately following “Test that dictionary has been read into memory”.

The C# code:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace CrosswordSolver
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int c = 0;
            //User input
            //NOTE: Use * to represent characters unknown 
            string userWord = "a****";
            int wordLength = userWord.Length;

            //Assign directory location of the csv file containing the collection of words to a variable
            string projectFolder = Directory.GetParent(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory()).Parent.FullName;
            string file = Path.Combine(projectFolder, "words.csv");

            //Display dictionary location in console
            Console.WriteLine("Dictionary location: " + file);

            var dictionary = new List<string>();
            using (var rd = new StreamReader(file))

            //Pull file column into dictionary list without cleaning
            //{
            //    while (!rd.EndOfStream)
            //    {
            //        var splits = rd.ReadLine().Split(',');
            //        dictionary.Add(splits[0]);
            //    }
            //}

            //Pull file column into dictionary list while cleaning
            {
                while (!rd.EndOfStream)
                {
                    var splits = rd.ReadLine().Split(',');
                    //string clean is done with Regex
                    dictionary.Add(Regex.Replace(splits[0], "[^A-Za-z0-9 ]", ""));
                }
            }

            //Test that dictionary has been read into memory
            //Console.WriteLine("The dictionary contains the following words:");
            //foreach (var element in dictionary)
            //Console.WriteLine(element);

            //Remove duplicate word entries
            //c = dictionary.Count;
            //Console.WriteLine("The dictionary contains " + c + " words");
            dictionary = dictionary.Distinct().ToList();
            //c = dictionary.Count;
            //Console.WriteLine("The dictionary contains " + c + " words");

            // Count the elements in the List and display test parameters
            c = dictionary.Count;
            Console.WriteLine("The dictionary contains " + c + " words");
            Console.WriteLine("User entered the string: " + userWord);
            Console.WriteLine(userWord + " has " + wordLength + " characters");
            userWord = userWord.ToLower();

            //Reduce the dataset size based on number of characters in string
            IEnumerable<string> query =
                dictionary.Where(word => word.Length == wordLength);

            var subSet = new List<string>();
            foreach (var word in query)
                subSet.Add(word);

            //Order List
            subSet = subSet.OrderBy(x => x).ToList();

            c = subSet.Count;
            if (c != 0)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("The dictionary contains " + c + " words that are " + wordLength + " characters in length");

                //Begin character and position match check
                var result = new List<string>();
                foreach (var word in subSet)

                {
                    for (int i = 0; i <= wordLength - 1; i++)
                    {

                        if ((word.ToLower()[i] == userWord[i]) | (userWord[i] == '*'))
                        {

                            //Test letter comparison (Letters match)
                            //Console.WriteLine(
                            //"Letter " + i + ", which is " + "\"" + word[i] + "\"" + ", of the word " + "\"" + word + "\"" +
                            //" matches letter " + i + ", which is " + "\"" + userWord[i] + "\"" + ", of the user input " + "\"" + userWord + "\""
                            //);

                            if (i == wordLength - 1)
                            { result.Add(word); }

                        }
                        else
                        {
                            //Test letter comparison (Letters do not match)
                            //Console.WriteLine(
                            //"Letter " + i + ", which is " + "\"" + word[i] + "\"" + ", of the word " + "\"" + word + "\"" +
                            //" does not match letter " + i + ", which is " + "\"" + userWord[i] + "\"" + ", of the user input " + "\"" + userWord + "\""
                            //);

                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }

                //Test words that do not match
                //foreach (var word in subSetToRemove)
                //Console.WriteLine(word);

                bool isEmpty = !result.Any();
                if (isEmpty)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("No matches found");
                }
                else
                {
                    c = result.Count();
                    Console.WriteLine("Potential matches found: " + c);
                    foreach (var word in result)
                        Console.WriteLine(word);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("No words of " + wordLength + " characters long found");
            }
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

If you found this code useful be sure to like the post and comment. ☮

If you would like to know how to create a csv file with C# see this tutorial link.

If you would like to know how to create a console application in Visual Studio that won’t open a command window when it runs see this tutorial link.

How to create a job that will test whether SQL Server database mail is working

November 2, 2019Coding, Database Administrator, dba, Development, IT, SQL Server, System, T-SQL, tsqldatabase mail, guide, How To, howto, Job, lesson, sql agent, SQL Server, SQL Server test email, SQL Server test email is working, SQL Server test mail, sql sever agent, test, tutorial, workingTidbytez

The following script will create a job that will run every minute to test if database mail can be sent from a job scheduled to run by the Sql Server Agent.

Simply find and replace the email address below with the email address you want to target:

testoperator@mail.com

Then run the script.

The operator ‘Test Operator’ and job ‘MailTest’ will be created.

The job is disabled by default, enable it to begin testing.

When you are finished run the commented out section at the bottom of the script to remove the test operator and job.

If you have just setup database mail for the first time the SQL Server Agent will need to be restarted.

/*
FIND AND REPLACE

testoperator@mail.com

*/
USE msdb;
GO

EXEC dbo.sp_add_operator @name = N'Test Operator'
	,@enabled = 1
	,@email_address = N'testoperator@mail.com'
GO

USE [msdb]
GO

BEGIN TRANSACTION

DECLARE @ReturnCode INT

SELECT @ReturnCode = 0

/****** Object:  JobCategory [[Uncategorized (Local)]]    Script Date: 31/07/2019 11:35:43 ******/
IF NOT EXISTS (
		SELECT NAME
		FROM msdb.dbo.syscategories
		WHERE NAME = N'[Uncategorized (Local)]'
			AND category_class = 1
		)
BEGIN
	EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_category @class = N'JOB'
		,@type = N'LOCAL'
		,@name = N'[Uncategorized (Local)]'

	IF (
			@@ERROR <> 0
			OR @ReturnCode <> 0
			)
		GOTO QuitWithRollback
END

DECLARE @jobId BINARY (16)

EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_job @job_name = N'MailTest'
	,@enabled = 0
	,@notify_level_eventlog = 0
	,@notify_level_email = 3
	,@notify_level_netsend = 0
	,@notify_level_page = 0
	,@delete_level = 0
	,@description = N'No description available.'
	,@category_name = N'[Uncategorized (Local)]'
	,@owner_login_name = N'sa'
	,@notify_email_operator_name = N'Test Operator'
	,@job_id = @jobId OUTPUT

IF (
		@@ERROR <> 0
		OR @ReturnCode <> 0
		)
	GOTO QuitWithRollback

/****** Object:  Step [Step 1]    Script Date: 31/07/2019 11:35:44 ******/
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep @job_id = @jobId
	,@step_name = N'Step 1'
	,@step_id = 1
	,@cmdexec_success_code = 0
	,@on_success_action = 1
	,@on_success_step_id = 0
	,@on_fail_action = 2
	,@on_fail_step_id = 0
	,@retry_attempts = 0
	,@retry_interval = 0
	,@os_run_priority = 0
	,@subsystem = N'TSQL'
	,@command = N'SELECT 1'
	,@database_name = N'master'
	,@flags = 0

IF (
		@@ERROR <> 0
		OR @ReturnCode <> 0
		)
	GOTO QuitWithRollback

EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_id = @jobId
	,@start_step_id = 1

IF (
		@@ERROR <> 0
		OR @ReturnCode <> 0
		)
	GOTO QuitWithRollback

EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobschedule @job_id = @jobId
	,@name = N'Job Schedule'
	,@enabled = 1
	,@freq_type = 4
	,@freq_interval = 1
	,@freq_subday_type = 4
	,@freq_subday_interval = 1
	,@freq_relative_interval = 0
	,@freq_recurrence_factor = 0
	,@active_start_date = 20190731
	,@active_end_date = 99991231
	,@active_start_time = 0
	,@active_end_time = 235959
	,@schedule_uid = N'f0741db6-488e-44da-8f5e-a3f0ed13835e'

IF (
		@@ERROR <> 0
		OR @ReturnCode <> 0
		)
	GOTO QuitWithRollback

EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver @job_id = @jobId
	,@server_name = N'(local)'

IF (
		@@ERROR <> 0
		OR @ReturnCode <> 0
		)
	GOTO QuitWithRollback

COMMIT TRANSACTION

GOTO EndSave

QuitWithRollback:

IF (@@TRANCOUNT > 0)
	ROLLBACK TRANSACTION

EndSave:
GO

/*
REMOVE OPERATOR AND JOB
*/
/*
USE msdb;
GO

EXEC sp_delete_operator @name = 'Test Operator';

EXEC sp_delete_job @job_name = N'MailTest';

GO
*/

How to create a datetime stamp within a batch script in the format YYYY-MM-DD

October 4, 2016Batch Script, CodingBatch, batch scripting datetime, batch scripting yyyymmdd, cmd, command, Create datetime stamp with batch in the format YYYY-MM-DD, datetime, file, stamp, YYYYMMDDTidbytez 1

Below is a batch script that populates the variable Timestamp with a datetime value in the format YYYY-MM-DD_HH:MM:SS.

This technique can then be used when creating files etc.

To try out the example below copy the text and paste it into a text editor like notepad. Save the file as timestamp with the extension .bat and then double click on the filestamp.bat file.

This code example will display the current datetime in windows command shell. It will also create a blank file called Test along with the current datetime in the format yyyymmddhhmmss in the same directory the batch script is run from.

@ECHO off
CLS
ECHO Date format = %date%

REM Breaking down the format 
FOR /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%G in ('wmic os get localdatetime /value') do set datetime=%%G
ECHO dd = %datetime:~6,2%
ECHO mth = %datetime:~4,2% 
ECHO yyyy = %datetime:~0,4%
ECHO/
ECHO Time format = %time%
ECHO hh = %time:~0,2%
ECHO mm = %time:~3,2%
ECHO ss = %time:~6,2%
ECHO/

REM Variable format 1
SET Timestamp=%date:~6,8%-%date:~3,2%-%date:~0,2%_%time:~0,2%:%time:~3,2%:%time:~6,2%
ECHO New Format 1: %Timestamp%
ECHO/
REM Variable Format 2
SET Timestamp=%date:~6,8%%date:~3,2%%date:~0,2%%time:~0,2%%time:~3,2%%time:~6,2%
ECHO New Format 2: %Timestamp%
ECHO/
REM Building a timestamp from variables
SET "dd=%datetime:~6,2%"
SET "mth=%datetime:~4,2%"
SET "yyyy=%datetime:~0,4%"
SET "Date=%yyyy%%mth%%dd%"
ECHO Built Date from variables: %Date%
ECHO/

REM Write Timestamp into file name
REM BREAK>Test%Timestamp%.txt 
PAUSE

How to use SQL to remove non-numeric characters from a field

June 18, 2016Coding, sql, SQL Server, T-SQLcharacters, cleaning with sql, function to remove letters, non-numeric, only numbers, remove, sql non-numeric characters, sql remove characters, stored procedure, stored procedure to remove letters, uncategorised, Using SQL to remove non-numeric characters from a fieldTidbytez 1

So I was working with phone numbers recently and the field was filthy. I mean there was absolutely no data entry validation whatsoever. Everything has been entered into this field from email addresses entered accidentally to phone numbers with little notes like (This is Steve’s number) to just random characters. There are millions of legitimate numbers in this field so in order to make the field workable the junk has to be taken out first.

A colleague of mine was kind enough to share this script with me for replacing characters. I’ve found it to be very beneficial as it is much more efficient than the solution I had been using of replacing all junk characters in a column row by row. This approach is set based replacing a single unwanted character from an entire column at a time.

CREATE TABLE #temp ([FreeText] VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL)

INSERT #temp
VALUES ('Hi There!!! 222  10 - 3476')

INSERT #temp
VALUES ('p@yahoo.com $%*


amp; 1234567 $%^&^')
DECLARE @DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMin TINYINT

,@DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMax TINYINT

,@ASCIICode TINYINT

,@Char CHAR(1)

,@ReplaceChar CHAR(1)

DECLARE @DisallowedChars TABLE (

[ASCIICode] TINYINT NOT NULL

,[Char] CHAR(1) NOT NULL

,[ReplaceChar] CHAR(1) NULL

,[Replaced] BIT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0

,PRIMARY KEY ([ASCIICode])

)
SELECT @DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMin = 32

,@DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMax = 126
SET @ASCIICode = @DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMin
WHILE @ASCIICode <= @DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMax

BEGIN

INSERT @DisallowedChars (

[ASCIICode]

,[Char]

)

VALUES (

@ASCIICode

,CHAR(@ASCIICode)

)
SET @ASCIICode = @ASCIICode + 1

END
DELETE @DisallowedChars

WHERE [Char] IN (

'0'

,'1'

,'2'

,'3'

,'4'

,'5'

,'6'

,'7'

,'8'

,'9'

)
WHILE EXISTS (

SELECT 1

FROM @DisallowedChars

WHERE [Replaced] = 0

)

BEGIN

SELECT TOP 1 @ASCIICode = [ASCIICode]

,@Char = [Char]

FROM @DisallowedChars

WHERE [Replaced] = 0
UPDATE #temp

SET [FreeText] = CASE

WHEN @ReplaceChar IS NULL

THEN REPLACE([FreeText], @Char, '')

ELSE REPLACE([FreeText], @Char, @ReplaceChar)

END

WHERE [FreeText] LIKE '%' + @Char + '%'
UPDATE @DisallowedChars

SET [Replaced] = 1

WHERE [ASCIICode] = @ASCIICode

END
SELECT *

FROM #temp
DROP TABLE #temp

GO

For my needs I’ve turned this logic into a stored procedure. I’ve also made a few changes. Firstly I’ve expanded the range of charters to exclude from unprintable characters to additional Unicode characters. I’ve also removed the option to add in a replace character as I only want non-numeric characters to be removed from the field. This allows me to also remove the case statement.

-- Drop stored procedure if it already exists
IF EXISTS (
		SELECT *
		FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.ROUTINES
		WHERE SPECIFIC_SCHEMA = N'dbo'
			AND SPECIFIC_NAME = N'GetNumeric'
		)
	DROP PROCEDURE dbo.GetNumeric
GO
-- Create Procedure
CREATE PROCEDURE dbo.GetNumeric @TableName VARCHAR(255)
	,@ColumnName VARCHAR(255)
AS
SET NOCOUNT ON

DECLARE @sql AS VARCHAR(500)

CREATE TABLE #temp (
	DirtyColumn VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
	,CleanColumn VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL
	)

--SELECT @TableName
SET @sql = 'SELECT ' + @ColumnName + ' AS DirtyColumn
,' + @ColumnName + ' AS CleanColumn FROM ' + @TableName

INSERT INTO #temp (
	DirtyColumn
	,CleanColumn
	)
EXEC (@sql)

DECLARE @DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMin TINYINT
	,@DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMax TINYINT
	,@ASCIICode TINYINT
	,@Char CHAR(1)
	,@ReplaceChar CHAR(1)
DECLARE @DisallowedChars TABLE (
	[ASCIICode] TINYINT NOT NULL
	,[Char] CHAR(1) NOT NULL
	,[ReplaceChar] CHAR(1) NULL
	,[Replaced] BIT NOT NULL DEFAULT 0
	,PRIMARY KEY ([ASCIICode])
	)

SELECT @DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMin = 1
	,@DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMax = 254

SET @ASCIICode = @DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMin

WHILE @ASCIICode <= @DisallowedCharsASCIICodeMax
BEGIN
	INSERT @DisallowedChars (
		[ASCIICode]
		,[Char]
		)
	VALUES (
		@ASCIICode
		,CHAR(@ASCIICode)
		)

	SET @ASCIICode = @ASCIICode + 1
END

DELETE @DisallowedChars
WHERE [Char] IN (
		'0'
		,'1'
		,'2'
		,'3'
		,'4'
		,'5'
		,'6'
		,'7'
		,'8'
		,'9'
		)

WHILE EXISTS (
		SELECT 1
		FROM @DisallowedChars
		WHERE [Replaced] = 0
		)
BEGIN
	SELECT TOP 1 @ASCIICode = [ASCIICode]
		,@Char = [Char]
	FROM @DisallowedChars
	WHERE [Replaced] = 0

	UPDATE #temp
	SET [CleanColumn] = REPLACE([CleanColumn], @Char, '')
	WHERE [CleanColumn] LIKE '%' + @Char + '%'

	UPDATE @DisallowedChars
	SET [Replaced] = 1
	WHERE [ASCIICode] = @ASCIICode
END

SET @sql = 'UPDATE T1
SET T1.' + @ColumnName + ' = T2.CleanColumn
FROM ' + @TableName + ' AS T1
INNER JOIN #temp AS T2
ON T1.' + @ColumnName + ' = T2.DirtyColumn
WHERE T1.' + @ColumnName + '= T2.DirtyColumn;'

EXEC (@sql)

DROP TABLE #temp
GO


GO

After deploying the SP above to your test environment you can test it with the following script.

IF OBJECT_ID('dbo.DirtyPhoneNumbers', 'U') IS NOT NULL
	DROP TABLE dbo.DirtyPhoneNumbers;

CREATE TABLE DirtyPhoneNumbers (PhoneNumbers VARCHAR(255));
GO

INSERT INTO DirtyPhoneNumbers (PhoneNumbers)
VALUES ('afef2313newfnaksdfn')
	,('afef2313n!!!!!!!!!!&dfn')
	,('afef====+++22221sdfn')
	,('afef!"£$%^&&7575757sdfn')

SELECT *
FROM DirtyPhoneNumbers

EXEC dbo.GetNumeric 'DirtyPhoneNumbers'
	,'PhoneNumbers'

SELECT *
FROM DirtyPhoneNumbers

SQL table of common file types and extensions used in business

January 12, 2016Coding, Data, sql, T-SQLbusiness, Common, extensions, file extensions, File types, filetype, list of extensions, list of file types, SQL table of common file types and extensions used in business, Table, uncategorisedTidbytez 1

Below is a list of the file types and their respective extensions commonly used in business. You can use the SQL script on this page to create a table for use in queries and stored procedures.

(The table below was created used No-Cruft Excel to HTML Table Converter)

FileType	Extension
Microsoft Word 97 – 2003 Document	doc
Microsoft Word 97 – 2003 Template	dot
Word document	docx
Word macro-enabled document	docm
Word template	dotx
Word macro-enabled template	dotm
Word binary document introduced in Microsoft Office 2007	docb
Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Worksheet	xls
Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Template	xlt
Excel macro	xlm
Excel workbook	xlsx
Excel macro-enabled workbook	xlsm
Excel template	xltx
Excel macro-enabled template	xltm
Excel binary worksheet	xlsb
Excel add-in or macro	xla
Excel add-in	xlam
Excel XLL add-in	xll
Excel workspace	xlw
Legacy PowerPoint presentation	ppt
Legacy PowerPoint template	pot
Legacy PowerPoint slideshow	pps
PowerPoint presentation	pptx
PowerPoint macro-enabled presentation	pptm
PowerPoint template	potx
PowerPoint macro-enabled template	potm
PowerPoint add-in	ppam
PowerPoint slideshow	ppsx
PowerPoint macro-enabled slideshow	ppsm
PowerPoint slide	sldx
PowerPoint macro-enabled slide	sldm
The file extension for the Office Access 2007 file format	ACCDB
The file extension for Office Access 2007 files that are in “execute only” mode	ACCDE
The file extension for Access Database Templates.	ACCDT
The file extension for the Office Access 2007 file format that enables you to open a database in runtime mode	ACCDR
Microsoft Publisher file extension	pub
Windows BitMap	BMP
Data Interchange format	DIF
Graphics Interchange Format	GIF
Web page source text	HTML
JPEG graphic	JPG
JPEG graphic	JPEG
Web page imagemap	MAP
Acrobat -Portable document format	PDF
Public Network graphic	PNG
Adobe PhotoShop	PSD
PaintShop Pro	PSP
Rich Text Format	RTF
Stuffit Compressed Archive	SIT
UNIX TAR Compressed Archive	TAR
TIFF graphic	TIF
ASCII text (Mac text does not contain line feeds–use DOS Washer Utility to fix)	TXT
Windows sound	WAV
MS Works	WKS
PC Zip Compressed Archive	ZIP

USE [YourDatabase]
GO


SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[IH_FileType](
	[IH_FileType_ID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
	[FileType] [varchar](250) NULL,
	[Extension] [varchar](5) NULL,
	[OfficeFileType] [bit] NULL,
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
	[IH_FileType_ID] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO
SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ON
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (1, N'Microsoft Word 97 - 2003 Document', N'doc', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (2, N'Microsoft Word 97 - 2003 Template', N'dot', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (3, N'Word document', N'docx', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (4, N'Word macro-enabled document', N'docm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (5, N'Word template', N'dotx', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (6, N'Word macro-enabled template', N'dotm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (7, N'Word binary document introduced in Microsoft Office 2007', N'docb', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (8, N'Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Worksheet', N'xls', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (9, N'Microsoft Excel 97-2003 Template', N'xlt', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (10, N'Excel macro', N'xlm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (11, N'Excel workbook', N'xlsx', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (12, N'Excel macro-enabled workbook', N'xlsm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (13, N'Excel template', N'xltx', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (14, N'Excel macro-enabled template', N'xltm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (15, N'Excel binary worksheet', N'xlsb', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (16, N'Excel add-in or macro', N'xla', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (17, N'Excel add-in', N'xlam', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (18, N'Excel XLL add-in', N'xll', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (19, N'Excel workspace', N'xlw', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (20, N'Legacy PowerPoint presentation', N'ppt', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (21, N'Legacy PowerPoint template', N'pot', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (22, N'Legacy PowerPoint slideshow', N'pps', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (23, N'PowerPoint presentation', N'pptx', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (24, N'PowerPoint macro-enabled presentation', N'pptm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (25, N'PowerPoint template', N'potx', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (26, N'PowerPoint macro-enabled template', N'potm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (27, N'PowerPoint add-in', N'ppam', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (28, N'PowerPoint slideshow', N'ppsx', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (29, N'PowerPoint macro-enabled slideshow', N'ppsm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (30, N'PowerPoint slide', N'sldx', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (31, N'PowerPoint macro-enabled slide', N'sldm', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (32, N'The file extension for the Office Access 2007 file format', N'accdb', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (33, N'The file extension for Office Access 2007 files that are in "execute only" mode', N'accde', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (34, N'The file extension for Access Database Templates.', N'accdt', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (35, N'The file extension for the Office Access 2007 file format that enables you to open a database in runtime mode', N'accdr', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (36, N'Microsoft Publisher file extension', N'pub', 1)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (37, N'Windows BitMap', N'bmp', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (38, N'Data Interchange format', N'dif', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (39, N'Graphics Interchange Format', N'gif', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (40, N'Web page source text', N'html', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (41, N'JPEG graphic', N'jpg', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (42, N'JPEG graphic', N'jpeg', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (43, N'Web page imagemap', N'map', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (44, N'Acrobat -Portable document format', N'pdf', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (45, N'Public Network graphic', N'png', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (46, N'Adobe PhotoShop', N'psd', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (47, N'PaintShop Pro', N'psp', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (48, N'Rich Text Format', N'rtf', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (49, N'Stuffit Compressed Archive', N'sit', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (50, N'UNIX TAR Compressed Archive', N'tar', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (51, N'TIFF graphic', N'tif', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (52, N'ASCII text (Mac text does not contain line feeds--use DOS Washer Utility to fix)', N'txt', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (53, N'Windows sound', N'wav', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (54, N'MS Works', N'wks', 0)
INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] ([IH_FileType_ID], [FileType], [Extension], [OfficeFileType]) VALUES (55, N'PC Zip Compressed Archive', N'zip', 0)
SET IDENTITY_INSERT [dbo].[IH_FileType] OFF


SELECT *
FROM IH_FileType

How to use Temp tables in an SSIS package

December 29, 2015Coding, Data, Development, sql, SQL Server, SSIS, T-SQL, tsql#temp, Create, database, How to use Temp tables in SSIS, how use ssis and temp tables, OLE, Package, source, SSIS, ssis temp tables, task, tutorialTidbytez 1

If you have been using a query which utilizes temp tables but now you want that query to run as an SSIS package it’s going to need a bit of reworking.

Just adding the query as an Execute SQL Task in Visual Studio won’t work unfortunately if you are using, for example, SELECT * INTO to create the temp tables.

The First step to reworking the query will be to dedicate an Execute SQL Task to creating the temp tables your query uses, defining columns and data types etc. and then populating those tables with INSERT INTO rather than SELECT INTO.

For the following we will assume only one output temp table is required for the process which will be as follows:

A temp table to store data will be created.
A query will be used to populate this table.
This populated temp table will then become the source from which data will be pulled.

STEP 1.

In SSMS connect to what will be the source server and enter the statement to create the required temp table as a global temp table i.e. prefixing the table name with ##. Creating the table as a global temp table at this stage avoids errors when configuring the OLE DB Source in Visual Studio as it allows the table to be visible to the SSIS package.

STEP 2.

In Visual Studios drag a new Execute SQL Task into the control flow and name it, Create Temp Table.

Double click on the task to bring up the Execute SQL Task Editor window.

Step through the process for creating a connection in the connection option and enter the following for the SQL statement option replacing yourTempTable with the name of your temp table.

IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..##yourTempTable') IS NOT NULL
   DROP TABLE ##yourTempTable

Below this statement enter the same statement to create the global temp table as you used in SSMS.

STEP 3.

Next in the Create Temp Tables Properties, the window to the bottom right, for the section Execution under the option DelayValidation set the value to True. In STEP 1 the temp table is created and visible to Visual Studio, but when the SSIS package is run in the future the table won’t be there to be validated prior to the package running. Without setting this property to true the package would seek to confirm the existence of the temp table and would error when it determined the temp table does not exist stopping the package from running.

STEP 4.

Next at the bottom of the design view window in Visual Studio the current source connection should be displayed. Left click on the source connection and the properties window should change focus to connection properties. Set the RetainSameConnection option to True, this allows the global temp table to remain visible to SSIS package during the package’s execution by maintaining the session.

STEP 5.

Drag a Data Flow Task onto the Control Flow workspace and rename it Query and drag the precedence constraint between the Create Temp Table and Query.

Double left click on the Query Task.

From Other Sources drag an OLE DB Source into the Data Flow workspace.

Double left click on the OLE DB Source and set the OLE DB Connection Manager to your source server and Data Access Mode to SQL Command.

Enter your SQL Command in the box provided e.g.

SELECT * FROM ##yourTempTable

Hit OK on the OLE DB Source.

STEP 6.

Set up the destination as you would with any other typical SSIS package.

From Other Destinations drag an OLE DB Destination into the Data Flow workspace.

Then drag the precedence constraint between OLE DB Source to the OLE DB Destination.

Double left click on the OLE DB Destination and choose your destination and set “Table or View – fast load” from the data access mode dropdown. For the “Name of table or view option” enter your intended destination.

Hit OK on the OLE DB Destination.

Finally I would suggest adding another task that will drop the temp tables at the end of the package. For example, DROP TABLE ##yourTempTable.

Conclusion.

At this point you should now be able to run the package successfully and make your own adaptions to this process to fit your future needs.

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Summary

Prerequisite

Instructions

Testing the Form

Form Submission Email Notifications

Adding the Contact Form to the WordPress site

Conclusion

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