(OT) Forum or newsgroup (was: Re: newsgroup sqlserver.msde , but no sqlserver.sqlexpress?)

On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:04:46 +0100, Andrea Montanari wrote:

>Microsoft is quiet deprecating NG in favour of it's
>own forum
Hi Andrea,
Do you have any idea why they are doing that?
Until recently, the Microsoft community pages hosted a portal to the
various microsoft newsgroups. When I clicked the link in your message, I
was quite surprised to see a new (?) forum, totally unrelated to the
newsgroups.
For me personally, it would be a shame if the newsgroupw were abandoned
in favor of a web forum. With Agent (the tool of my choice), Outlook, or
may other NNTP enabled software, it's very easy to follow discussions in
usenet groups. I can easily skip threads about subjects that are of no
interest to me, keep messages that require some research or testing on
hold until I have the time to reply to them, re-read older messages, and
type and post answers when I have time. I am convinced that I'd never be
able to post anywhere near the amount of answers I currently do if I
can't use Agent or a similar tool to access the groups.
If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, can you please confirm or deny
what Andrea wrote? And if it's true, can you explain your reasons for
this move?
Inquiring mind wants to know....
Best, Hugo
(Remove _NO_ and _SPAM_ to get my e-mail address)
hi Hugo,
Hugo Kornelis wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Nov 2005 17:04:46 +0100, Andrea Montanari wrote:
>
> Hi Andrea,
> Do you have any idea why they are doing that?
actually not... I think I've heard it at SQL Server MVPs summit in Dallas,
but I was not paying attention a lot due to alcoolic distractions (:D) ...
they told us that they are increasing Forums support and NNTP flavours will
not be dropped in the next future, and lot of MVPs were very glad to hear
about these new forum where only part of them were disappointed about this
NNTP deprecate status (me first of all :D)

> Until recently, the Microsoft community pages hosted a portal to the
> various microsoft newsgroups. When I clicked the link in your
> message, I was quite surprised to see a new (?) forum, totally
> unrelated to the newsgroups.
> For me personally, it would be a shame if the newsgroupw were
> abandoned in favor of a web forum. With Agent (the tool of my
> choice), Outlook, or may other NNTP enabled software, it's very easy
> to follow discussions in usenet groups. I can easily skip threads
> about subjects that are of no interest to me, keep messages that
> require some research or testing on hold until I have the time to
> reply to them, re-read older messages, and type and post answers when
> I have time. I am convinced that I'd never be able to post anywhere
> near the amount of answers I currently do if I can't use Agent or a
> similar tool to access the groups.
> If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, can you please confirm or
> deny what Andrea wrote? And if it's true, can you explain your
> reasons for this move?
hope they will answer "Andrea is totally wrong, we'll never do it and will
increase NNTP flavours.." :D

> Inquiring mind wants to know....
ROTFL
:D
Andrea Montanari (Microsoft MVP - SQL Server)
http://www.asql.biz/DbaMgr.shtmhttp://italy.mvps.org
DbaMgr2k ver 0.15.0 - DbaMgr ver 0.60.0
(my vb6+sql-dmo little try to provide MS MSDE 1.0 and MSDE 2000 a visual
interface)
-- remove DMO to reply
sql

<undefined value>

Greetings,

I asked this question over on the ADO.NET newsgroup and couldn't scrape
up an answer. I realize that it is more of an ADO question than an SQL
Server question, but I'm hoping there might be an ADO programmer here
that can explain this to me.

I'm developing database applications using C# on VS.NET 2003 and SQL
Server Standard edition (SP3a).

I've run into a situation I'm trying to understand, to wit, if I submit
a query using SqlCommand.ExecuteScalar which returns no results, why is
the returned item a System.Object of <undefined value>?

(Actually, I think I know why -- ExecuteScalar returns a null reference
if there are no results.)

How do I do test for that condition?

I guess I can sort of see why they didn't want to throw an exception --
lot's of queries don't return any results, but on the other hand, I
can't figure out how to test for <undefined value>, either.

Any ideas?

-- Rick> How do I do test for that condition?

Object myScalarResult = myCommand.ExecuteScalar();
if ( myScalarResult == null )
{
// no result returned
}

--
Hope this helps.

Dan Guzman
SQL Server MVP

--------
SQL FAQ links (courtesy Neil Pike):

http://www.ntfaq.com/Articles/Index...epartmentID=800
http://www.sqlserverfaq.com
http://www.mssqlserver.com/faq
--------

"Guinness Mann" <GMann@.dublin.com> wrote in message
news:MPG.19edf588afa984d79896f5@.news.newsguy.com.. .
> Greetings,
> I asked this question over on the ADO.NET newsgroup and couldn't
scrape
> up an answer. I realize that it is more of an ADO question than an
SQL
> Server question, but I'm hoping there might be an ADO programmer here
> that can explain this to me.
> I'm developing database applications using C# on VS.NET 2003 and SQL
> Server Standard edition (SP3a).
> I've run into a situation I'm trying to understand, to wit, if I
submit
> a query using SqlCommand.ExecuteScalar which returns no results, why
is
> the returned item a System.Object of <undefined value>?
> (Actually, I think I know why -- ExecuteScalar returns a null
reference
> if there are no results.)
> How do I do test for that condition?
> I guess I can sort of see why they didn't want to throw an
exception --
> lot's of queries don't return any results, but on the other hand, I
> can't figure out how to test for <undefined value>, either.
> Any ideas?
> -- Rick|||In article <pV4hb.9598$mQ2.8310@.newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.n et>,
danguzman@.nospam-earthlink.net says...
> > How do I do test for that condition?
> Object myScalarResult = myCommand.ExecuteScalar();
> if ( myScalarResult == null )
> {
> // no result returned
> }

Sheesh. Simple enough once you know the answer, eh? Thanks!

Here's what I've been doing:

Object myScalarResult = myCommand.ExecuteScalar();
int returnValue = Convert.ToInt32(myScalarResult);

Which returns 0 if null, otherwise the Int32 I'm looking for.
Fortuitously, 0 is not in the possible solution set, so by coincidence,
it works.

Thanks again,

-- Rick