Digesting Sql Server View Definitions

I needed to parse a view definition and figure out the field mappings and underlying tables.  Just some tricks along the way.  I was using Sql Server 2008.

This will give you the entire view definition divided out into rows.  Each row constitutes 255 chars

  EXEC sp_helptext 'myViewName'
or
EXEC sp_help 'myViewName'

This gives you the entire view definition

select definition, *
from sys.objects     o
join sys.sql_modules m on m.object_id = o.object_id
where o.object_id = object_id( 'myViewName')
  and o.type      = 'V'

Getting all the tables and fields that a view is dependant upon

sp_depends @objname = N'dbo.myViewName'


Getting the columns in the view in an easier consumable format

SELECT
*
FROM  
  INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE  
  TABLE_NAME like ('%myViewName%')
ORDER BY
  ORDINAL_POSITION ASC;

Server 2012 Log Off

Tip of the Day-- go to the Start "screen", click on your user account picture/name in the upper-right hand corner of the screen, and select "Sign out".  Or you can ‬select "Switch User" from here.

To get to the "Start" menu hover the bottom right hand edge of the task bar and the "charms" should pop up--Start, Settings, etc... 

This might be the first in a series of "How do I do what I use to do"

Directory compares without installing a nifty little app

Here's the right way to do it, without the external downloads.  It looks like a lot at first, but once you've done it, it's very easy.  It works in all Windows versions from 7 back to 95.  For our example assume that you're comparing two directories named 'A' and 'B'.
1. run cmd.exe to get a command prompt.  (In Windows 7, the powershell won't work for this, FYI.)  Then do it again, so that you have two of them open next to each other.
2. in each window go to the directories that you want to compare.  (Using 'cd' commands.  If you're not comfortable with this, then you should probably go with the external utilities, unless you want to learn command prompt stuff.)
3. type 'dir /b > A.txt' into one window and 'dir /b > B.txt' into the other.  You'll now have two text files that list the contents of each directory.  The /b flag means bare, which strips the directory listing down to file names only.
4. move B.txt into the same folder as A.txt.
5. type 'fc A.txt B.txt'.  The command 'fc' means file compare.  This will spit out a list of the differences between the two files, with an extra line of text above and below each difference, so you know where they are.  For more options on how the output is formatted, type 'fc /?' at the prompt.  You can also pipe the differences into another file by using something like 'fc A.txt B.txt > differences.txt'.

use dir /s/b to include the subdirectories

Useless or fun and useful? Make windows minimize

Win7

Another *neat* little trick is if you want to ONLY show one window on your screen and minimize everything else, just grab the title bar with your mouse and SHAKE THE WINDOW REALLY HARD.  Everything but the window you're holding on to will minimize.  To bring everything back up, just shake your single Explorer window again and it all restores.