Give Feedback

Hi!

 I really want more feedback on my blog and I was hopping if whoever is reading this can help me.

Please review and give suggestion or feedback to my tech blog.

PLEASE! If you like it, feel free to comment on any post and I'll try to get back to you ASAP!

I would like to hear from you.

HTML, CSS: Want to become expert?




I got many of the emails, containing subject as, "I want to become expert in HTML and CSS".
As per my small but enough experience to share with you, you can be expert in anything, just you need to love it.

I can only provide suggestions on how to become a better developer based on the experiences that I've had.

Whatever technology in which you want to become an expert, do all things practically in that technology.

So its the Technology HTML and CSS:

You must be strong at basics of HTML and CSS.

What to do at Basic Level:

Create forms with different designs.

Use combinations of colors and fonts to design.

One HTML element can be designed in different way, so try it.

Look the HTML form or content designed by you, is this really good? if it's good then make it better at all.

Look for the designs on websites on internet, try to design the same.

Code as many websites as you can. It is the best way to learn all the quirks and methods of implementing layouts. Use Google for answers to problems you have, you'll probably find an answer.

Share your design with experts or friends for "Review", take suggestions, make it more good.

When it comes to CSS and markup in general, the best method I have found is to learn by doing.  Start simple and work toward the more complex topics.  Once you learn the basics of semantic markup, selectors and styles/attributes, implementing designs becomes easier.   


Advance Level:

Learn about responsive web design. For responsive learn Bootstrap.

Responsive web design is expected by everyone in market or business.

Responsive means the design should be look and fit propery in every device(MOBILE, DESKTOP,TABLET PC, LAPTOP).

Learning Never Ends.





Last But Not Least:

Try learning forever.
Do practice forever.
Stay hungry forever for new things.

Resume Tips For Freshers




Resume Tips For Freshers :

  1. Don't Use Pictures
  2. Don't include Irrelevant work experiences
  3. Don't Lie
  4. Don't include Current and Expected Salary
  5. Not more than 2 Pages of resume
  6. Don't write Hobbies
  7. No fancy design
  8. No pronouns
  9. Avoid Spelling mistakes.
  10. Avoid Grammatical errors.
  11. Avoid Misuse of apostrophes, plurals, and possessives.
  12. Don't use Color formatting

How to make Radio Button Checked By Default?




This small article will explain you,about, Assign an initial value to radio button as checked.

code:
<input type="radio" name="r1"  value=""  /> male
<input type="radio" name="r1"  value=""  /> female

now with using above code two radio buttons get created.
(By default no one is selected)

Now, we are going to code for By default set as checked.

See Code:

<input type="radio" name="r1"  value="" checked /> male
<input type="radio" name="r1"  value=""  /> female


Now result of this code is: By default "male" radio button is checked.

Thats All.

How to submit form using Javascript?




If HTML form have the attributes method="post" and action="someprocess.php", and in the form if there is button like,
<input type="submit" value="submit"> , then form will get submitted on that button click.

But if we want to submit the form on any link i.e <a>  tag or any event other than submit button, then we have to use javascript.

How ?
 See,
Here is the code to submit a form when a hyperlink is clicked:

<form name="myform" action="process.php">
Text Field: <input type='text' name='text1' />
<a href="javascript: submitform()">Search</a>
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
function submitform()
{
  document.myform.submit();
}
</script>


Javascript submit is same as HTML submit.
You can submit form on events like: onChange, onClick,....etc.

I think its enough to understand the concept.

I would like to hear from you...!!!


Future of Software Developer in India






What is the future of the software Developer in India?

"No one knows what the future will bring."

This Question was asked 10 years ago, this question has been asked several times now and this question will be asked 10 years from now. Want to know the future? Sure. Some people will keep asking these questions and some people will keep creating the future. Some people like me will get tired of answering such questions and focus on creating the future.
 
There are plenty of good jobs for good programmers in good companies, no matter what the economic circumstances. The trick is to be really good. Programming is hard, and being a really good programmer takes a lot of talent and hard work.
First off, you have to love software development. It has to be a fun challenge for you. If it isn't, it can be one of the worst jobs (I think).
Software developers are the creative minds behind computer programs. Some develop the applications that allow people to do specific tasks on a computer or other device. Others develop the underlying systems that run the devices or control networks.
Salary for Software Developer [Fresher]:
There is no fixed salary in the software field it vary from company to company and also on experience, you cannot predict it!
Career in software engineering is highly rewarding considering the present status of Information Technology. In the public sector companies, the starting salaries of software engineers are Rs 8000 to Rs 12000. However, private sector offers higher pay packet. A good software engineer can hope to start with a salary of around Rs 20000 to Rs 25000. Besides salary there are several other perks available to employees.
Payscale dot com Says,
A Software Developer earns an average salary of Rs 343,353 per year. People in this job generally don't have more than 10 years' experience. Skills that are associated with high pay for this job are UNIX, C++, and Java/J2EE. Pay for this job rises steadily for more experienced workers, but goes down significantly for the few employees with more than 20 years' experience.
Here is the list of different companies with their salary:

1.   TCS:  3.16 LPA
2.   CTS: 3.8 LPA.
3.   WIPRO: 2.85 LPA
4.   IBM : 3.8 to 4.5 LPA
5.   INFOSYS: 3.2 LPA

Freelancing instead of regular job: 
You will be getting more money if you are in to freelancing but the real pain is in marketing yourself. If you feel you are enough smart to market yourself then prefer freelancing. The best thing about freelancing is you will be getting an opportunity to meet lot of people.
Advantages of Working Freelance:
Freelancers can determine their own schedule and how much they want to work. As self-employed people, they can focus on a specific type of project or client if they wish. Freelancers get paid more than employees do, since they need to make sure they are generating enough income to pay for taxes, health insurance, and other necessary expenses.
Attention:
Freelance writing is a lonely job. Your only company is you and your computer. If you enjoy being surrounded by people, this is definitely the wrong career for you.
(Article Submitted by Vanesh Mali, Software Engineer @Pune, Maharashtra, India)
***




We would like to hear from you.

What to do after IT Graduation?

Question asked by many of the IT students (BCA/BSC-IT/BSC-comp).

Team at Technology Park doing survey on this. On this way we found that many of the software professional's opinion is : "Go for Job, instead of Masters"
 

Answer given by Vanesh Mali (Software Engineer @Pune,Maharashtra, India) :
My strong suggestion would be to not to go for  MCA at this moment. If you have completed your BCA, start enrolling for internships or Full-Time jobs. The current IT market scenario shows that a MCA after a BCA wont increase much in the salary aspect, considering the fact you will be spending quite some time and money in these three years of MCA. However, if you start working and gain potential work experience and then go for MCA, it might show the right path or another upcoming opportunity. Masters should be done after gaining some experience in the real world projects.





Answers Given by Other Software Professionals,
Answer:
There are wide-ranging options for the graduates who have completed the BCA course. The various fields other than the computer application they can choose for the post graduation includes the management courses. This gives variety of career options especially in the Human Resource field and financial accounting fields. These specializations offer them scope of a bright career afterwards. They can opt for the master degree course in abroad also.
Some of the higher study options after BCA other than MCA are:
-Masters in Computer Management
-Masters Degree in Information Management (MIM)
-Masters in Business Administration (MBA)
-Master of Science in Information Technology (m.sc IT)
-G-CAT Master
-Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Applications
-Post Graduate Program in Corporate Studies (PGPCS)

Answer:
I would have suggested to go for a start-up had you done your BTech/BE . It is not that the knowledge you gain in BE/BTech is more. It is just that most IT companies treat BSc, BCA as second class workers, with lower salaries . They are mostly deployed to maintenance and support project.

So I would suggest you to do MCA. MCA is considered on par with BE/B.Tech.  While doing MCA, take up innovative projects each semester and makes sure atleast 2-3 of them go live(as website or in play/apple store) . If you can handle work and education together, then do MCA while working via correspondence/distance/weekend course. Once you are done with MCA, try to get into a startup.


Answer :
I would say, go for the start up now, and if it doesn't work out at some point, you can always resume the studies. The other way is probably harder. Also look at the financial situation of course. And take into account what you are happy with.

Bottom Line:
After IT Graduation go for a Job, gain experience,learn Technology, languages, after that you can do Masters.After all its your choice. Best Luck for your Golden and Bright Future.




team @ Technology Park

How to check whether a company is registered or not?

A company may look genuine, but in reality, it could turn out to be a scam. Luckily, there are a few things that can throw up a red flag, and help prevent you from falling for one.




There are lot of fake companies working in India. Seeing their infrastructure and facilities it is hard to find whether they are genuine or not. Any registered company will have PVT.Ltd or Inc at the end of their name.

All registered companies must be in the list of Govt of India.

You can Check these details in the below link:

http://www.mca.gov.in/DCAPortalWeb/


Step 1:
click on left side menu:
"Check Company or LLP name"

type company name and hit ENTER.


step 2:
you got result if company is registered as:

I think it will help you.



Resume Tips for Freshers









Learn PHP : Hour 2





If you have missed PHP Hour 1 then Click Here Learn PHP : Hour 1

Lets start to learn more about basics of PHP.

Variables in PHP

Variables are used for storing a value, like text strings, numbers or arrays.

When a variable is set it can be used over and over again in your script

All variables in PHP start with a $ sign symbol.

The correct way of setting a variable in PHP:
$var_name = value;

New PHP programmers often forget the $ sign at the beginning of the variable. In that case it will not work.

Let's try creating a variable with a string, and a variable with a number:

<?php

$txt = "Hello World!";

$number = 16;
?>


Strings in PHP

String variables are used for values that contains character strings.

For Example: the PHP script assigns the string "Hello World" to a string variable called $txt:

<?php
$txt="Hello World";
echo $txt;
?>

The output of the code above will be:

Hello World

Using the strlen() function
The strlen() function is used to find the length of a string.
Let's find the length of our string "Hello world!":

<?php
echo strlen("Hello world!");
?>

The output of the code above will be:
12

***END Hour 2***
If you have missed PHP Hour 1 then Click Here Learn PHP : Hour 1




About Accenture





About Accenture (Company profile and reviews)
CEO:   Pierre Nanterme (since 2011), Education: ESSEC

Founded: 1989
Accenture is a multinational management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company.
Accenture helps organizations assess how to maximize their performance and works with them to achieve their vision. We develop and implement technology to improve our clients’ productivity and efficiency – and may run parts of their business. Ultimately, we enable our clients to become high-performance businesses and governments.

Best Comments from Accenture Employees :
-Accenture is the nice place to start your professional career.
-If you would like to travel and do many projects focused around IT consulting, it is a great place to be. They really give their employees one of the best vacation packages in the industry.
-Accenture is great for people who like to work in teams, who thrive on success, and who are interested in a variety of efforts.



How to get a Job

[for freshers]




Qualification:-
When you don’t have any experience to flaunt, the right fundamental qualification can come real handy. To be really relevant for the position you are applying, you can demonstrate the apt graduation qualification. For example, a person with Bachelors in IT engineering, MCA, BCA or Computer Science is more likely to be hired to an IT position as compared to someone from non-tech background like electrical or mechanical or humanities.

Certifications:–
Sometimes, those with degrees and even the right qualification can find it hard to secure a job. This is where certifications come in handy. IT is a vast arena and is divided into many categories. So, you have networking people, web development, designers, system administrators and more.

Build the perfect CV and covering letter:-
"When it comes to your CV and covering letter, using the right kind of language is vital," says John Lees, career coach and author of How To Get A Job You’ll Love and The Interview Expert. "On top of this, don’t over-burden decision makers: your CV should not be longer than three pages, with all the key messages on page one. Think about what conclusion a busy HR manager would draw from the first half page of your CV. Be clear, concise and provide both claims and evidence in your CV and covering letter."
The trick for anyone looking to make the switch between sectors is being able to fulfil the requirements of a person specification. And the emphasis is on having the skills to do the job. One of the main problems is that candidates do not realise that the experience they have gained in the public sector is transferable to the private sector.

Resume Tips:-
Choose the Right Resume Format
Prioritize Your Resume Content
Write an Effective Resume Title
Add a Project List
Add Summary of Qualifications
Add Achievement Statements
Be Honest





There’s more IT jobs than mere salaries. Candidates must remember that IT requires a thorough technical knowledge. In order to advance to higher positions, regular refreshing of your certifications and knowledge is paramount.

JavaScript can change HTML content





What Can JavaScript Do?


Answer: JavaScript can change HTML content.

Explaination:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<body>

<h1>What Can JavaScript Do?</h1>

<p id="demo">JavaScript can change HTML content.</p>

<button type="button"
onclick="document.getElementById('demo').innerHTML = 'Hello JavaScript!'">
Click Me!</button>

</body>
</html>


Output:
What Can JavaScript Do?

JavaScript can change HTML content. //paragraph content before click

Click Me!   //this is button


What Can JavaScript Do?

Hello JavaScript!  //paragraph content changed

Click Me! //this is button



Multi-line alert in Javascript

How do you put in a new line into a JavaScript alert box?

Answer:

alert("Hello again! This is how we" +"\\n" +"add line breaks to an alert box!");



SQL Server interview questions





SQL Server interview questions
What is normalization? Explain different levels of normalization?
Check out the article Q100139 from Microsoft knowledge base and of course, there's much more information available in the net. It'll be a good idea to get a hold of any RDBMS fundamentals text book, especially the one by C. J. Date. Most of the times, it will be okay if you can explain till third normal form.

What is denormalization and when would you go for it?
As the name indicates, denormalization is the reverse process of normalization. It's the controlled introduction of redundancy in to the database design. It helps improve the query performance as the number of joins could be reduced.

How do you implement one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships while designing tables?
One-to-One relationship can be implemented as a single table and rarely as two tables with primary and foreign key relationships. One-to-Many relationships are implemented by splitting the data into two tables with primary key and foreign key relationships. Many-to-Many relationships are implemented using a junction table with the keys from both the tables forming the composite primary key of the junction table. It will be a good idea to read up a database designing fundamentals text book.

What's the difference between a primary key and a unique key?
Both primary key and unique enforce uniqueness of the column on which they are defined. But by default primary key creates a clustered index on the column, where are unique creates a nonclustered index by default. Another major difference is that, primary key doesn't allow NULLs, but unique key allows one NULL only.

What are user defined datatypes and when you should go for them?
User defined datatypes let you extend the base SQL Server datatypes by providing a descriptive name, and format to the database. Take for example, in your database, there is a column called Flight_Num which appears in many tables. In all these tables it should be varchar(8). In this case you could create a user defined datatype called Flight_num_type of varchar(8) and use it across all your tables. See sp_addtype, sp_droptype in books online.

What is bit datatype and what's the information that can be stored inside a bit column?
Bit datatype is used to store boolean information like 1 or 0 (true or false). Untill SQL Server 6.5 bit datatype could hold either a 1 or 0 and there was no support for NULL. But from SQL Server 7.0 onwards, bit datatype can represent a third state, which is NULL.

Define candidate key, alternate key, composite key.
A candidate key is one that can identify each row of a table uniquely. Generally a candidate key becomes the primary key of the table. If the table has more than one candidate key, one of them will become the primary key, and the rest are called alternate keys. A key formed by combining at least two or more columns is called composite key.

What are defaults? Is there a column to which a default can't be bound?
A default is a value that will be used by a column, if no value is supplied to that column while inserting data. IDENTITY columns and timestamp columns can't have defaults bound to them. See CREATE DEFAULT in books online.

What is a transaction and what are ACID properties?
A transaction is a logical unit of work in which, all the steps must be performed or none. ACID stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability. These are the properties of a transaction. For more information and explanation of these properties, see SQL Server books online or any RDBMS fundamentals text book. Explain different isolation levels An isolation level determines the degree of isolation of data between concurrent transactions. The default SQL Server isolation level is Read Committed. Here are the other isolation levels (in the ascending order of isolation): Read Uncommitted, Read Committed, Repeatable Read, Serializable. See SQL Server books online for an explanation of the isolation levels. Be sure to read about SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL, which lets you customize the isolation level at the connection level. Read Committed - A transaction operating at the Read Committed level cannot see changes made by other transactions until those transactions are committed. At this level of isolation, dirty reads are not possible but nonrepeatable reads and phantoms are possible. Read Uncommitted - A transaction operating at the Read Uncommitted level can see uncommitted changes made by other transactions. At this level of isolation, dirty reads, nonrepeatable reads, and phantoms are all possible. Repeatable Read - A transaction operating at the Repeatable Read level is guaranteed not to see any changes made by other transactions in values it has already read. At this level of isolation, dirty reads and nonrepeatable reads are not possible but phantoms are possible. Serializable - A transaction operating at the Serializable level guarantees that all concurrent transactions interact only in ways that produce the same effect as if each transaction were entirely executed one after the other. At this isolation level, dirty reads, nonrepeatable reads, and phantoms are not possible.

CREATE INDEX myIndex ON myTable(myColumn)What type of Index will get created after executing the above statement?
Non-clustered index. Important thing to note: By default a clustered index gets created on the primary key, unless specified otherwise.

What's the maximum size of a row?
8060 bytes. Don't be surprised with questions like 'what is the maximum number of columns per table'. 1024 columns per table. Check out SQL Server books online for the page titled: "Maximum Capacity Specifications". Explain Active/Active and Active/Passive cluster configurations Hopefully you have experience setting up cluster servers. But if you don't, at least be familiar with the way clustering works and the two clusterning configurations Active/Active and Active/Passive. SQL Server books online has enough information on this topic and there is a good white paper available on Microsoft site. Explain the architecture of SQL Server This is a very important question and you better be able to answer it if consider yourself a DBA. SQL Server books online is the best place to read about SQL Server architecture. Read up the chapter dedicated to SQL Server Architecture.

What is lock escalation?
Lock escalation is the process of converting a lot of low level locks (like row locks, page locks) into higher level locks (like table locks). Every lock is a memory structure too many locks would mean, more memory being occupied by locks. To prevent this from happening, SQL Server escalates the many fine-grain locks to fewer coarse-grain locks. Lock escalation threshold was definable in SQL Server 6.5, but from SQL Server 7.0 onwards it's dynamically managed by SQL Server.

What's the difference between DELETE TABLE and TRUNCATE TABLE commands?
DELETE TABLE is a logged operation, so the deletion of each row gets logged in the transaction log, which makes it slow. TRUNCATE TABLE also deletes all the rows in a table, but it won't log the deletion of each row, instead it logs the deallocation of the data pages of the table, which makes it faster. Of course, TRUNCATE TABLE can be rolled back. TRUNCATE TABLE is functionally identical to DELETE statement with no WHERE clause: both remove all rows in the table. But TRUNCATE TABLE is faster and uses fewer system and transaction log resources than DELETE. The DELETE statement removes rows one at a time and records an entry in the transaction log for each deleted row. TRUNCATE TABLE removes the data by deallocating the data pages used to store the table's data, and only the page deallocations are recorded in the transaction log. TRUNCATE TABLE removes all rows from a table, but the table structure and its columns, constraints, indexes and so on remain. The counter used by an identity for new rows is reset to the seed for the column. If you want to retain the identity counter, use DELETE instead. If you want to remove table definition and its data, use the DROP TABLE statement. You cannot use TRUNCATE TABLE on a table referenced by a FOREIGN KEY constraint; instead, use DELETE statement without a WHERE clause. Because TRUNCATE TABLE is not logged, it cannot activate a trigger. TRUNCATE TABLE may not be used on tables participating in an indexed view

Explain the storage models of OLAP
Check out MOLAP, ROLAP and HOLAP in SQL Server books online for more infomation.

What are the new features introduced in SQL Server 2000 (or the latest release of SQL Server at the time of your interview)? What changed between the previous version of SQL Server and the current version?
This question is generally asked to see how current is your knowledge. Generally there is a section in the beginning of the books online titled "What's New", which has all such information. Of course, reading just that is not enough, you should have tried those things to better answer the questions. Also check out the section titled "Backward Compatibility" in books online which talks about the changes that have taken place in the new version.

What are constraints? Explain different types of constraints.
Constraints enable the RDBMS enforce the integrity of the database automatically, without needing you to create triggers, rule or defaults. Types of constraints: NOT NULL, CHECK, UNIQUE, PRIMARY KEY, FOREIGN KEY. For an explanation of these constraints see books online for the pages titled: "Constraints" and "CREATE TABLE", "ALTER TABLE"

What is an index? What are the types of indexes? How many clustered indexes can be created on a table? I create a separate index on each column of a table. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach?
Indexes in SQL Server are similar to the indexes in books. They help SQL Server retrieve the data quicker. Indexes are of two types. Clustered indexes and non-clustered indexes. When you create a clustered index on a table, all the rows in the table are stored in the order of the clustered index key. So, there can be only one clustered index per table. Non-clustered indexes have their own storage separate from the table data storage. Non-clustered indexes are stored as B-tree structures (so do clustered indexes), with the leaf level nodes having the index key and it's row locater. The row located could be the RID or the Clustered index key, depending up on the absence or presence of clustered index on the table. If you create an index on each column of a table, it improves the query performance, as the query optimizer can choose from all the existing indexes to come up with an efficient execution plan. At the same t ime, data modification operations (such as INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) will become slow, as every time data changes in the table, all the indexes need to be updated. Another disadvantage is that, indexes need disk space, the more indexes you have, more disk space is used.

What is RAID and what are different types of RAID configurations?
RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, used to provide fault tolerance to database servers. There are six RAID levels 0 through 5 offering different levels of performance, fault tolerance. MSDN has some information about RAID levels and for detailed information, check out the RAID advisory board's homepage

What are the steps you will take to improve performance of a poor performing query?
This is a very open ended question and there could be a lot of reasons behind the poor performance of a query. But some general issues that you could talk about would be: No indexes, table scans, missing or out of date statistics, blocking, excess recompilations of stored procedures, procedures and triggers without SET NOCOUNT ON, poorly written query with unnecessarily complicated joins, too much normalization, excess usage of cursors and temporary tables. Some of the tools/ways that help you troubleshooting performance problems are: SET SHOWPLAN_ALL ON, SET SHOWPLAN_TEXT ON, SET STATISTICS IO ON, SQL Server Profiler, Windows NT /2000 Performance monitor, Graphical execution plan in Query Analyzer. Download the white paper on performance tuning SQL Server from Microsoft web site. Don't forget to check out sql-server-performance.com

What are the steps you will take, if you are tasked with securing an SQL Server?
Again this is another open ended question. Here are some things you could talk about: Preferring NT authentication, using server, databse and application roles to control access to the data, securing the physical database files using NTFS permissions, using an unguessable SA password, restricting physical access to the SQL Server, renaming the Administrator account on the SQL Server computer, disabling the Guest account, enabling auditing, using multiprotocol encryption, setting up SSL, setting up firewalls, isolating SQL Server from the web server etc. Read the white paper on SQL Server security from Microsoft website. Also check out My SQL Server security best practices




What is a deadlock and what is a live lock? How will you go about resolving deadlocks?
Deadlock is a situation when two processes, each having a lock on one piece of data, attempt to acquire a lock on the other's piece. Each process would wait indefinitely for the other to release the lock, unless one of the user processes is terminated. SQL Server detects deadlocks and terminates one user's process. A livelock is one, where a request for an exclusive lock is repeatedly denied because a series of overlapping shared locks keeps interfering. SQL Server detects the situation after four denials and refuses further shared locks. A livelock also occurs when read transactions monopolize a table or page, forcing a write transaction to wait indefinitely. Check out SET DEADLOCK_PRIORITY and "Minimizing Deadlocks" in SQL Server books online. Also check out the article Q169960 from Microsoft knowledge base.

What is blocking and how would you troubleshoot it?
Blocking happens when one connection from an application holds a lock and a second connection requires a conflicting lock type. This forces the second connection to wait, blocked on the first. Read up the following topics in SQL Server books online: Understanding and avoiding blocking, Coding efficient transactions. Explain CREATE DATABASE syntax Many of us are used to creating databases from the Enterprise Manager or by just issuing the command: CREATE DATABAE MyDB.
But what if you have to create a database with two filegroups, one on drive C and the other on drive D with log on drive E with an initial size of 600 MB and with a growth factor of 15%?
That's why being a DBA you should be familiar with the CREATE DATABASE syntax. Check out SQL Server books online for more information.

How to restart SQL Server in single user mode? How to start SQL Server in minimal configuration mode?
SQL Server can be started from command line, using the SQLSERVR.EXE. This EXE has some very important parameters with which a DBA should be familiar with. -m is used for starting SQL Server in single user mode and -f is used to start the SQL Server in minimal configuration mode. Check out SQL Server books online for more parameters and their explanations.

As a part of your job, what are the DBCC commands that you commonly use for database maintenance?
DBCC CHECKDB, DBCC CHECKTABLE, DBCC CHECKCATALOG, DBCC CHECKALLOC, DBCC SHOWCONTIG, DBCC SHRINKDATABASE, DBCC SHRINKFILE etc. But there are a whole load of DBCC commands which are very useful for DBAs. Check out SQL Server books online for more information.

What are statistics, under what circumstances they go out of date, how do you update them?
Statistics determine the selectivity of the indexes. If an indexed column has unique values then the selectivity of that index is more, as opposed to an index with non-unique values. Query optimizer uses these indexes in determining whether to choose an index or not while executing a query. Some situations under which you should update statistics: 1) If there is significant change in the key values in the index 2) If a large amount of data in an indexed column has been added, changed, or removed (that is, if the distribution of key values has changed), or the table has been truncated using the TRUNCATE TABLE statement and then repopulated 3) Database is upgraded from a previous version. Look up SQL Server books online for the following commands: UPDATE STATISTICS, STATS_DATE, DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS, CREATE STATISTICS, DROP STATISTICS, sp_autostats, sp_createstats, sp_updatestats

What are the different ways of moving data/databases between servers and databases in SQL Server?
There are lots of options available, you have to choose your option depending upon your requirements. Some of the options you have are: BACKUP/RESTORE, dettaching and attaching databases, replication, DTS, BCP, logshipping, INSERT...SELECT, SELECT...INTO, creating INSERT scripts to generate data.

Explain different types of BACKUPs avaialabe in SQL Server? Given a particular scenario, how would you go about choosing a backup plan?
Types of backups you can create in SQL Sever 7.0+ are Full database backup, differential database backup, transaction log backup, filegroup backup. Check out the BACKUP and RESTORE commands in SQL Server books online. Be prepared to write the commands in your interview. Books online also has information on detailed backup/restore architecture and when one should go for a particular kind of backup.

What is database replication? What are the different types of replication you can set up in SQL Server?
Replication is the process of copying/moving data between databases on the same or different servers. SQL Server supports the following types of replication scenarios: · Snapshot replication · Transactional replication (with immediate updating subscribers, with queued updating subscribers) · Merge replication See SQL Server books online for indepth coverage on replication. Be prepared to explain how different replication agents function, what are the main system tables used in replication etc.

How to determine the service pack currently installed on SQL Server?
The global variable @@Version stores the build number of the sqlservr.exe, which is used to determine the service pack installed. To know more about this process visit SQL Server service packs and versions.

What are cursors? Explain different types of cursors. What are the disadvantages of cursors? How can you avoid cursors?
Cursors allow row-by-row processing of the resultsets. Types of cursors: Static, Dynamic, Forward-only, Keyset-driven. See books online for more information. Disadvantages of cursors: Each time you fetch a row from the cursor, it results in a network roundtrip, where as a normal SELECT query makes only one roundtrip, however large the resultset is. Cursors are also costly because they require more resources and temporary storage (results in more IO operations). Further, there are restrictions on the SELECT statements that can be used with some types of cursors. Most of the times, set based operations can be used instead of cursors. Here is an example: If you have to give a flat hike to your employees using the following criteria: Salary between 30000 and 40000 -- 5000 hike Salary between 40000 and 55000 -- 7000 hike Salary between 55000 and 65000 -- 9000 hike. In this situation many developers tend to use a cursor, determine each employee's salary and update his salary according to the above formula. But the same can be achieved by multiple update statements or can be combined in a single UPDATE statement as shown below:

UPDATE tbl_emp SET salary = CASE WHEN salary BETWEEN 30000 AND 40000 THEN salary + 5000 WHEN salary BETWEEN 40000 AND 55000 THEN salary + 7000 WHEN salary BETWEEN 55000 AND 65000 THEN salary + 10000 END

Another situation in which developers tend to use cursors: You need to call a stored procedure when a column in a particular row meets certain condition. You don't have to use cursors for this. This can be achieved using WHILE loop, as long as there is a unique key to identify each row. For examples of using WHILE loop for row by row processing, check out the 'My code library' section of my site or search for WHILE. Write down the general syntax for a SELECT statements covering all the options. Here's the basic syntax: (Also checkout SELECT in books online for advanced syntax).

SELECT select_list [INTO new_table_] FROM table_source [WHERE search_condition] [GROUP BY group_by_expression] [HAVING search_condition] [ORDER BY order_expression [ASC | DESC] ]

What is a join and explain different types of joins.
Joins are used in queries to explain how different tables are related. Joins also let you select data from a table depending upon data from another table. Types of joins: INNER JOINs, OUTER JOINs, CROSS JOINs. OUTER JOINs are further classified as LEFT OUTER JOINS, RIGHT OUTER JOINS and FULL OUTER JOINS. For more information see pages from books online titled: "Join Fundamentals" and "Using Joins".

Can you have a nested transaction?
Yes, very much. Check out BEGIN TRAN, COMMIT, ROLLBACK, SAVE TRAN and @@TRANCOUNT

What is an extended stored procedure? Can you instantiate a COM object by using T-SQL?
An extended stored procedure is a function within a DLL (written in a programming language like C, C++ using Open Data Services (ODS) API) that can be called from T-SQL, just the way we call normal stored procedures using the EXEC statement. See books online to learn how to create extended stored procedures and how to add them to SQL Server. Yes, you can instantiate a COM (written in languages like VB, VC++) object from T-SQL by using sp_OACreate stored procedure. Also see books online for sp_OAMethod, sp_OAGetProperty, sp_OASetProperty, sp_OADestroy. For an example of creating a COM object in VB and calling it from T-SQL, see 'My code library' section of this site.

What is the system function to get the current user's user id?
USER_ID(). Also check out other system functions like USER_NAME(), SYSTEM_USER, SESSION_USER, CURRENT_USER, USER, SUSER_SID(), HOST_NAME().

What are triggers? How many triggers you can have on a table? How to invoke a trigger on demand?
Triggers are special kind of stored procedures that get executed automatically when an INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE operation takes place on a table. In SQL Server 6.5 you could define only 3 triggers per table, one for INSERT, one for UPDATE and one for DELETE. From SQL Server 7.0 onwards, this restriction is gone, and you could create multiple triggers per each action. But in 7.0 there's no way to control the order in which the triggers fire. In SQL Server 2000 you could specify which trigger fires first or fires last using sp_settriggerorder. Triggers can't be invoked on demand. They get triggered only when an associated action (INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE) happens on the table on which they are defined. Triggers are generally used to implement business rules, auditing. Triggers can also be used to extend the referential integrity checks, but wherever possible, use constraints for this purpose, instead of triggers, as constraints are much faster. Till SQL Server 7.0, triggers fire only after the data modification operation happens. So in a way, they are called post triggers. But in SQL Server 2000 you could create pre triggers also. Search SQL Server 2000 books online for INSTEAD OF triggers. Also check out books online for 'inserted table', 'deleted table' and COLUMNS_UPDATED()
There is a trigger defined for INSERT operations on a table, in an OLTP system. The trigger is written to instantiate a COM object and pass the newly insterted rows to it for some custom processing. What do you think of this implementation? Can this be implemented better?
Instantiating COM objects is a time consuming process and since you are doing it from within a trigger, it slows down the data insertion process. Same is the case with sending emails from triggers. This scenario can be better implemented by logging all the necessary data into a separate table, and have a job which periodically checks this table and does the needful.

Related Posts:

50 Important C Language Interview Questions with Answers
Guidance for IT Students