SQL Server 2008 R2 Developers Training Kit is available now for the download. You can download it from the  below MSDN link.

 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=fffaad6a-0153-4d41-b289-a3ed1d637c0d

The training kit is brought to you by Microsoft Developer and Platform Evangelism.

Following are the contents of the Developer Training Kit. For more details please visit the link mentioned above.

Contents
The training kit includes the following content:

• Videos (8)
  • SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Overview Part I – SQL Server 2008 Review
  • SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Overview Part II – Introducing SQL Server 2008 R2
  • Introducing SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight
  • Demo: Real Time Analytics with SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight
  • Introducing SQL Server 2008 R2 Application and Multi-Server Management
  • Introducing SQL Server 2008 R2 Reporting Services
  • Introduction To SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight and Complex Event Processing
  • Introducing PowerPivot for Excel 2010 and SharePoint 2010
• Presentations (8)
  • SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Overview Part I – SQL Server 2008 Review
  • SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Overview Part II – Introducing SQL Server 2008 R2
  • SQL Server 2008 Filestream
  • SQL Server 2008 Spatial
  • SQL Server 2008 T-SQL
  • SQL Server 2008 Date and Time Types
  • SQL SErver 2008 SQLCLR
  • SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
• Demos (13)
  • AdventureWorks Racing All-Up SQL Server 2008 Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 All-Up Spatial Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 Spatial Types Demo
  • Intro to SQL Server 2008 Filestream Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 SQL CLR Nullable Types Demo
  • Programming with SQL Server 2008 Filestream Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services Web Application Integration Demo
  • Date and Time Support in SQL Server 2008 Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Table-Valued Parameters Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Row Constructors Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Grouping Sets Demo
  • SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Merge Demo
• Hands-on Labs (8)
  • How to build your first Web Application with SQL Server and ASP.NET
  • Using SQL Server 2008 Spatial Data in TSQL
  • Using SQL Server 2008 Spatial Data in Managed Code
  • Using SQL CLR in SQL Server 2008
  • PowerPivot in SQL Server 2008 R2
  • Using the New Features of Reporting Services 2008 R2
  • Introduction To SQL Server 2008 R2 StreamInsight and Complex Event Processing
  • Data-tier Applications in SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010

• Viruses
• Spyware
• Malicious Software’s

Following are its key features

1. Completely Free
2. Automatic Updates
3. Easy to use – Very nice & simple interface.
4. Auto update available
5. Comprehensive Malware Protection
6. Very less memory foot print and hence doesn’t takes much of your system resources.
7. Runs quietly and efficiently in the background

I found MSE a good Free Antivirus Software for home use.  

You can download Microsoft Security Essentials from the below link

 http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

These are my personal views only please feel free to select any antivirus which suits your needs.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/compare/default.aspx

I personally feel that Windows 7 rocks !!!

Download : Oracle SQL Developer Release 1.5.4 http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/sql/index.html

Release Notes:

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/sql_developer/files/relnotes_v154.html

Bugs Fixed: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/sql_developer/files/BugsFixed_v154.html

To know more about Oracle SQL Developer, follow the below link.

http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/sql_developer/index.html

Happy Learning !!!

1. Allows you to pad set of characters on the right side of a column.
2. The character set can be spaces, periods, commas, numbers,caret signs, exclamation signs or any other valid characters.

   Syntax

   RPAD(string, length,[,’set’])

   Where 

   String is : any char or varchar2 column from a database or literal string.
   Length: Total No of characters required to do the padding

   Set: 
   It is optional part, here you can specify which character you want to pad  with. For example you might want to pad * or say $ or dot (.) on the right side of the string.

        If you omit the set parameter then the RPAD function will pad the     
       string with empty spaces.
 

          Let’s look at simple example

–creating a test table

CREATE TABLE testbook ( bookname varchar(10), totalpages number(10));

–inserting test data into the table

INSERT INTO testbook VALUES (‘Book 1’,15);

INSERT INTO testbook VALUES (‘Book 2’,1089);

INSERT INTO testbook VALUES (‘MAGIC BOOK’,565);

–using the RPAD Function

SELECT RPAD(bookname,45,‘.’), totalpages from testbook;

LPAD: It is the opposite of RPAD.

Execute the below statement

SELECT LPAD(bookname,45,‘.’), totalpages from testbook;

Result

Happy Learning..!!!

Thanks to the CodePlex team, Patterns and Practices Team ,Industry Experts and all the professionals who contributed to the App Arch Guide.  

Download App Arch Guide: http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide/

Happy Learning….!!!
By Harsh Shah

• What is struct?
• When to use Struct?
• Struct Examples

1. Struct is a value type.
2. It is used to encapsulate small related group of variables.
3. It can also contain the following
   • Constructor
   • Fields
   • Constants
   • Methods
   • Properties
   • Indexers
   • Operators
   • Events
   • Nested types

Note: If you are planning to use all the above listed members then it is better to use a class. The reason is struct are mainly used for light weight objects.

4. Struct can implement interface but cannot inherit from another struct. Thus struct members cannot be declared as protected.

5. Except constants and static fields, we cannot initialize fields within the struct declaration.

6. We can declare constructors with parameters for structs.

7. All structs are inherited from System.ValueType (which inherits from System.Object).

8. Struct can be used as nullable type and can also be assigned a null value.

9. If you want to initialize the struct members then the only way is to declare a parameterized constructor and in that constructor initialize the struc members (Refer to the example 2 in this article)

How Structs are defined?

The Structs are defined by using struct keyword.

Example

Public struct  TableDimension

{

            //Declare Fields, constants,properties, methods ….here

}

Example 1: Creating a Struct

        struct TableDimensions

        { 
            public int tableHeight;

            public int tableLength;

        }

Using struct:

private void btnStruct1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

          //Declare and Initialize the struct objects                                    
          TableDimensions tbDim; 

            tbDim.tableHeight = 10;

            tbDim.tableLength = 20;
       

        //Displaying value from the struct objects

         MessageBox.Show("Table Length " + tbDim.tableLength.ToString()); 
 } 

Note:

1. In the above example1 we can see that the struct object is created without using the new operator.

2. This means that there will be no constructor call for struct if we create an object without using the new operator.

3. In this case the struct fields will remain unassigned and cannot be used until they are assigned values. If you comment the fields assignment in the above example and try to compile the code then it will result in error.

Example 2: Creating a Parameterized constructor for struct and initialized the struct members 
 

//Declaring a struct

struct TableDimensions

        { 
            public int tableHeight; 
            public int tableLength; 

            public TableDimensions(int height1,int length1)

            {
                tableHeight = height1;

                tableLength = length1;

            } 

        } 

private void btnStruct1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

  TableDimensions tbDim1 = new TableDimensions(30, 60);

MessageBox.Show("Table Length " + tbDim1.tableLength.ToString()

);

}

Notes:

1. In the above example we have created a struct with the parameterized constructor to initialize the structure fields

2. When we create an object of a struct using new operator, the new operator doesn’t acts like a class but it simply calls the declared constructor and initialize all the fields.

3. Parameterized constructors are the only way in structs to initialize the struct members.

       Hope you liked the introduction to struct in C#…..please feel free to drop an email to me in case of any suggestions/questions techwritings@live.in

Happy Learning…by Harsh Shah

Note: Before installing please go through the installation requirement.

Happy Learning….!!!

DataGridView1.DataSource=null;
DataGridView1.DataBind();

Visual Studio 2008 Product Comparison
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/cc149003.aspx

Happy Learning…!
Harsh Shah