In this example i am going to describe how to combine multiple columns and records in one column in MS SQL.

Here is the scenario

I have a table having Employees names and their respective Department names,
now i want to show Employees names separated by comma into one column and respective Department name in another column.

My table schema is shown in the image below

And this is Data into table

I want output in following format

                                  Department                               FirstName
                                   IT                                             amiT,Emp1,Emp5
                                  Admin                                       Shobhit, Emp3,Emp7

and so on

To get this desired result we need to write below mentioned query

1SELECT DISTINCT
2Department,
3EmpNames = substring( ( SELECT ', ' + FirstName
4FROM Employees e2
5WHERE e2.Department = e1.Department FOR XML path(''), elements
6),2,500)
7FROM Employees e1

And the output of this SQL Query would be

In this article, we will see how to do Database Backup Compression in SQL Server 2012. To do that you can use SQL Server Management Studio and also you can use a Transact-SQL statement. So let's have a look at a practical example of how to do database backup with compression. The example is developed in SQL Server 2012 using the SQL Server Management Studio.

To visually create a Database Backup

Now Press F8 to open the Object Browser in SQL Server Management Studio and expend it.

Select database then right-click on the selected database then click on "Task" then click on "Back Up".

This will open the following window:

To specify the destination of the database, select the destination then click on the Add Button. We then see a new dialog box, click on the browse button to choose the location

Now next click on "Options" and the following screen appears:

Now select Compress Backup.

The above image contains three options to select:

1. The first option, "Use the default server settings" tells the backup to use the server's default backup compression setting. By default, it is set to have backup compression off.
2. The Second option "Compress Backup" turns backup compression on.
3. The "Do not compress backup" option turns it off.

Now click again on the "General" option.

Now you will see that the database backup has completed successfully.

In this article I describe the LightSwitch development environment in Visual Studio 2012. We can easily create a LightSwitch application using Visual Studio LightSwitch 2012.

LightSwitch Development in Visual Studio 2012

Visual Studio LightSwitch automatically creates the User Interface for a DataSource without manually writing any code.

In order to begin our work with LightSwitch 2012 we will perform the following steps:

Step 1

1. Open the Visual Studio 2012.
2. Go to "File" => "New" => "Project..."
3. In "New Project" => "Installed" => "Template"
4. In "Template" => "LightSwitch"
5. Select "LightSwitch Application (Visual C#)".
6. Enter the Name and choose the location.
7. Click "OK".

Step 2

After creating the project a LightSwitch Designer will appear on the screen.

LightSwitch Designer consists of the following two options:

- we can create a new table for our application.
- we can also attach an external database. 

Step 3

Now we will see that Solution Explorer consists of a list of the following items along with two folders:

- Data Sources
- Screens

Here the "Data Sources" folder is used to store user data i.e. "Database Tables" and the "Screens" folder is used where we can create the user interface for our application.

Step 4

When we click on "Create new table" we will get the following image:

Each table consists of an "Id" that is automatically assigned and is also a "Primary Key" of the table.

Step 5

First we will rename the title of the table from "Table" to "ContactTable". Now we will add four additional columns called "Name", "Email", "Age" and "Address" to our table.

Step 6

In order to insert the record we need to create a User Interface screen. When we right-click on the "Screens" Folder we will click on "Add New." It will open the "Add New Screen" dialog window. As the window opens we will select "New Data Screen" from the Screen Template, we will also provide a Screen Name to our screen and choose the database table.

In order to continue we will Click on the "Ok" button. This will create a new UI screen for inserting a new data record by a user.

"Properties" are those where you set properties for various items.

Step 7

When we run the UI screen we get the following.

Step 8

Now we are able to insert a new record without writing any code. We don't need to create anything since Visual Studio LightSwitch automatically creates the screen for us with "Save" and "Refresh" buttons.

Step 9

In the following step we insert a record of another user; for that we create a new contact table.

Step 10

In Light Switch validations are automatically applied to the table. We do not need to apply any kind of validation on their own.

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Here are some important points to consider while restoring a database backup. Let us first create a sample database named test using the following code.

A new database named test will be created in your server and data and log files are created in the d: drive.

Let us assume that you regularly take backup of this database using the below code:

backup database test to disk='d:\test.bak'

Now if you want to create another database or restore this test database to a new database named testing, you can use the following code

restore database testing from disk='d:\test.bak'

However executing the code above will give you the following error

Msg 1834, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
The file 'h:\test_dat.mdf' cannot be overwritten.  It is being used by database 'test'.
Msg 3156, Level 16, State 4, Line 2
File 'test_dat' cannot be restored to 'h:\test_dat.mdf'. Use WITH MOVE to identify a valid location for the file.
Msg 1834, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
The file 'h:\test_log.ldf' cannot be overwritten.  It is being used by database 'test'.
Msg 3156, Level 16, State 4, Line 2
File 'test_log' cannot be restored to 'h:\test_log.ldf'. Use WITH MOVE to identify a valid location for the file.
Msg 3119, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
Problems were identified while planning for the RESTORE statement. Previous messages provide details.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

This error occurs because the data and log files are currently being used by the database test. So you need to give different names for those files while restoring, as shown below

restore database testing from disk='d:\test.bak'
with
move 'test_dat' to 'd:\testing.mdf',
move 'test_log' to 'd:\testing.ldf'

The above code will work fine and new database will be created with the name testing.

Just be aware of this point while restoring a backup of existing database!