Thankfully the solution is quick and easy (once you’ve found it) so I’m posting it here for clarity.

Close the virtual machine and return to the main VirtualBox screen.

Select the appropriate virtual machine and click the Settings button. Click the System icon on the left and check the box labelled "Enable IO APIC" on the Motherboard tab.

Click the Processor tab and check the box labelled "Enable PAE/NX".

Click OK to save the changes and restart the virtual machine. Your installation of Windows 2008 Server (64 Bit) should now progress. Fix for this dug out of a VirtualBox forum thread.

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Windows Server 2008 64 Bit on VirtualBox installation issue.

The TSQL (SQL Server 2008) below will create a table called BankHolidays and populate the table with public holidays up to the end of 2010. The Bank Holiday dates have been taken from the DirectGov site and are for England & Wales only. Depending on your requirements you may want to consider dates, like Christmas, that fall on a weekend. These technically aren’t Bank Holidays so haven’t been included here, but you may wish to add them if you don’t want to run on these days.

-- Create a table to contain Bank Holidays
CREATE TABLE dbo.BankHolidays
(
	BankHoliday DATE NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED,
	ActiVe BIT NOT NULL DEFAULT 1
);
GO
 
INSERT INTO dbo.BankHolidays
(
	BankHoliday
)
VALUES
(
	'2009-12-25'
),
(
	'2009-12-28'
),
(
	'2010-01-01'
),
(
	'2010-04-02'
),
(
	'2010-04-05'
),
(
	'2010-05-03'
),
(
	'2010-05-31'
),
(
	'2010-08-30'
),
(
	'2010-12-27'
),
(
	'2010-12-28'
);
GO

Note the Active flag in the table. This is just in case we need to deactivate a Bank Holiday for some some reason. Added flexibility is always useful.

Launch BIDS and create a new SSIS project. The first thing we need to do is add a variable called BankHoliday. We will use this in determining whether the day is a Bank Holiday or not. Add an Int32 variable in the SSIS variables window, as illustrated below.

Add an OLE DB connection that points at the database containing the BankHolidays table. Drop an Execute SQL task from the toolbox onto the design canvas. Right click the task and click edit to configure the task properties. Add the OLE DB connection manager to Connection and the below TSQL to SQLStatement.

SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM dbo.BankHolidays
WHERE BankHoliday = CONVERT(DATE, GETDATE())
AND Active = 1;

ResultSet should be changed to “Single row”.

UPDATE: (Thanks to Dr Drew in the comments for pointing this omission out.)

Click on the Result Set tab and map the variable BankHoliday as shown below. This variable mapping will be used to determine if the execution date is a bank holiday.

Now drop two Script Task components onto the design canvas and connect them from the Execute SQL Task. Call one “Display “Not Bank Holiday” message” and the other “Display “It’s a Bank Holiday” message”. This should look something like this.

Next we need to edit the constraints connecting our Script tasks to implement the logic to determine if it is a Bank Holiday or not. Right click the constraint connecting the script task called “Display “Not Bank Holiday” message” and choose Edit. Change “Evaluation Operation” to ‘Expression and Constraint’ and enter the following expression into the appropriate text box; @BankHoliday == 0. Finally click the radio button labelled “Logical OR”. This should look like this…

Click OK to save your changes. Now we need to edit the constraint connected to the Script Task called “Display “It’s a Bank Holiday” message”. The setup here is exactly the same except for the Expression which should be entered as @BankHoliday == 1.

By now your design canvas should look something like below.

Finally we’re just going to add a little code to each script task to display a message box. In the script task called “Display “Not Bank Holiday” message” click edit, go to the script tab, and click the “Design Script button”. Add the below code.

Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Math
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime

Public Class ScriptMain

    Public Sub Main()
        MsgBox("Hi, today is not a Bank Holiday, get back to work!")
        Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success
    End Sub

End Class

In the script task called “Display “It’s a Bank Holiday” message” add the below code.

Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Math
Imports Microsoft.SqlServer.Dts.Runtime
 
Public Class ScriptMain
 
	Public Sub Main()
        MsgBox("Hi, today is a Bank Holiday, put your feet up!")
		Dts.TaskResult = Dts.Results.Success
	End Sub
 
End Class

Now we should be ready to execute the package. Click run and you should see the following message (assuming it’s not a bank holiday!).

Now, either wait until a bank holiday occurs, or change the date on your computer to one contained in the BankHolidays table. I changed mine to 2009-12-28 and here’s what I saw when I executed the package.

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

SSIS: Don’t run the process on a bank Holiday

First create this stored procedure. This will just check to see if it’s Saturday and output "Yes" if it is.

SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author: Rhys Campbell
-- Create date: 2009-11-14
-- Description:	Outputs "Yes" if it is Saturday
-- otherwise "No"
-- =============================================
CREATE PROCEDURE usp_isItSaturday
AS
BEGIN
	SET NOCOUNT ON;
 
	DECLARE @isItSaturday VARCHAR(3);
 
    	SET @isItSaturday = CASE
				WHEN DATEPART(dw, GETDATE()) = 7 THEN 'Yes'
				ELSE
					'No'
			    END;
	SELECT GETDATE(), @isItSaturday;
 
END
GO

The script below will change the date by one day, then execute usp_isItSaturday, in sequence up to the end of 2009. I had to introduce the WAITFOR delay because SQL Server seems to take a few seconds to register the date change. The script will simply loop until the day changes before executing the store procedure.

-- Enable xp_cmdshell
EXEC master.dbo.sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1;
RECONFIGURE;
 
DECLARE @command VARCHAR(4000),
		@date VARCHAR(10),
		@starting DATETIME,
		@day INTEGER;
 
SET @starting = GETDATE();
 
WHILE (@starting <= '2009-12-31T00:00:00')
BEGIN
 
	SET @date = CAST(DATEPART(d, @starting) AS VARCHAR(2)) + '/' + CAST(DATEPART(m, @starting) AS VARCHAR(2)) + '/' + CAST(DATEPART(YYYY, @starting) AS VARCHAR(4));
	-- Get the day for tracking when the date change has taken effect
	SET @day = DATEPART(d, @starting);
	SET @command = 'date ' + @date;
	EXEC xp_cmdshell @command, no_output;
 
	-- SQL Server takes a while to pickup the date change
	-- Loop around until the day has changed before executing the proc
	WHILE(@day <> DATEPART(d, GETDATE()))
	BEGIN
		WAITFOR DELAY '00:00:01';
	END
 
	-- Call the procedure with the changed date
	EXEC dbo.usp_isItSaturday;  
	-- Increment date by 1 day
	SET @starting = DATEADD(d, 1, @starting);
 
END 
 
-- Disable xp_cmdshell
EXEC master.dbo.sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 0;
RECONFIGURE;

Here’s a sample of the output. You can see it has correctly identified the days that are Saturday.

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Testing datetime dependent Stored Procedures

A computed column is computed from an expression that can use other columns in the same table. The expression can be a noncomputed column name, constant, function, and any combination of these connected by one or more operators. The expression cannot be a subquery.

Essentially there are two types of computed columns; a virtual column where the data is not physically stored in the table, values are calculated each time it is referenced in a query. These cannot be indexed. By making use of the PERSISTED TSQL keyword we can force the database engine to physically store this data in the table. These can be indexed provided the computation definition is deterministic. For example, we wouldn’t be permitted to index columns containing a call to the GETDATE function.

Some people consider virtual computed columns to be a waste of time. Sure, it’s easy enough to build something like monthPay * 12 AS YearlySalary into your queries but in my opinion they offer the following benefits.

• Enforce a particular calculation method in your organisation.
• Should the calculation need to change, modify the computed column definition and not loads of queries, procedures and reports. (Anyone having to cope with the UK’s change in VAT last year will appreciate this).

I’ve put persisted computed columns to good use recently. Some data came in from a client in an unexpected format. The record key value was sometimes contained in a column that was basically a hodge-podge of notes. I created a computed column that extracted this value which then allowed it to be indexed.

Here’s an brief example of what I did to achieve this.

The code here uses SQL Server 2008. Firstly I created a user-defined function that would extract the required key value from a note field.

-- This function will provide the computed column definition
CREATE FUNCTION udf_extractPersonCode
(
	@input VARCHAR(100)
)
RETURNS CHAR(7)
WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS
BEGIN
 
	DECLARE @extractedPersonCode CHAR(7) = NULL;
 
	IF(PATINDEX('%[A-Z][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%', @input) > 0)
	BEGIN
		SET @extractedPersonCode = SUBSTRING(@input, PATINDEX('%[A-Z][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]%', @input), 7);
	END
 
	RETURN @extractedPersonCode;
 
END
GO

The WITH SCHEMABINDING is needed in the function definition or the following error will occur when attempting to create the function.

Msg 4936, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Computed column 'ExtractedPersonCode' in table 'ComputedColTable' cannot be persisted because the column is non-deterministic.

Create this test table in the same database as the function. Note the definition of the computed column ExtractedPersonCode.

CREATE TABLE dbo.ComputedColTable
(
	Id INTEGER IDENTITY(1, 1) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED,
	FirstName VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
	LastName VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL,
	PersonCode CHAR(7) NULL,
	Notes VARCHAR(100) NULL,
	ExtractedPersonCode AS dbo.udf_extractPersonCode(Notes) PERSISTED
);

Now insert some test data.

-- Insert some sample data into our table
INSERT INTO dbo.ComputedColTable
(
	FirstName,
	LastName,
	PersonCode,
	Notes
)
VALUES
(
	'Rhys',
	'Campbell',
	'C123456', -- Correctly entered PersonCode
	NULL
),
(
	'John',
	'Smith',
	NULL, -- No Person Code here
	'Person code = C654321 New Customer' -- PersonCode put in notes
),
(
	'Joe',
	'Bloggs',
	NULL, -- No Person Code here
	'Visited London store C654320 customer code.' -- PersonCode put in notes
);

Now lets view the data.

-- Select data
SELECT *
FROM dbo.ComputedColTable

Now we have cleaner data without any manual intervention needed.

Post from: youdidwhatwithtsql.com

Computed Columns in SQL Server