December 20, 1999

ADO vs. ODBC

Question: Which implementation works faster, ADO or ODBC? Is there any relevant information (or benchmarks) comparing the difference between linking directly to the ODBC or accessing databases through the ADO components? Answer: I haven’t timed them so I can’t say. There’s also another variable that could weigh in your choice.

IN SQL Statement

Question: I have department codes like this: T, B, P, O, Q, etc. How can I find T only, B only, or others only (excluding T and B)? Answer: You can achieve this by using the IN statement. You could say: WHERE Department NOT IN ( ‘T’, ‘B’ )

Cleaning Up Old Dumps

Question: How do you clean up old database and transaction log dumps without removing the backup device? I cannot find a way to delete a single instance of either. Answer: Instead of deleting them, try the approach of overwriting the device by doing a new backup on the device using

Losing Timer Events

Question: When I start a timer on a window with an interval of one second, I expect to get a timer event on the window every second. I have noticed that if you have a command button on the window that opens another sheet, certain timer events are lost forever.

Recovering Data from an Old .OST File

Question: Recently, we had a server die on us with bad backups. We have installed a new server and have reestablished all the mailboxes. I have one mailbox that is accessed exclusively remotely using Outlook 2000. The mailbox was used for synchronization of the server and files stored on the

Converting GETDATE to 24-Hour Format

Question: Using GETDATE returns the time portion of the date in the 12-hour clock form (“08:30pm”). I need the time portion to be in 24-hour clock form (“20:30”). I can’t figure out how to convert to a 24-hour clock format. Any suggestions? Answer: Sure, try this: select convert(character(14),getdate(),114)

None Specified Datawindow Retrieval Arguments

Question: I have a datawindow that will be called by two functions. The first function only uses the first retrieval argument; the second function uses all three arguments. In the first function I’d like to call the retrieve with a “*” value in the second two arguments because those arguments

Finding Column and/or Row Height

Question: I have a column that is set to Autosize Height. I would like to find the column height for this column on each row after the data has been placed in it and it has been autosized. Answer: You can use the RowHeight() function inside the datawindow painter to

Is Exchange the Answer?

Question: I am setting up a new post office SYS. We have five sites over the United Kingdom. Is Exchange the right product to use? We would require replication of all addresses on each site. Each site would have to administer its own address, although it should be possible to