FIX : A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL

In this article i explained you to Fix SQL error occurred while establishing a connection to remote computer, so we can say we can resolve error "Network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server [2005/2008/2012]"

Background

Couple of years back when i was not much familier with SQL, i try to connect to my SQL Server from my client. I put servername and try to login with SQL Server authentication with user name and password and i got error "A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server...", after spending couple of hours on it i was able to get rid of it, this article is for those who got same error and still they are put their head in SQL to resolve the issue.

Introduction

Many times we are trying to connect to SQL server with SQL management studio either by express version or by enterprise version and we got following error
"A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server) "
Above error is really headache for sql users.
Here is the snap of error

Fix it

To fix the issue we might need to do some configuration changes in SQL management studio (Here i use SQL 2008 for it)

Allow remote connections 
The very first thing you want to check is, your Remote Connections are enabled on your SQL Server database, to check it go through below steps
1. Select SQL server on object explorer -> Right click and click on properties -> select 'connections' -> under Remote server connections sections -> check 'Allow Remote connections to this server'
see below snap

This is the basic and simple check it may resolve your error, if not then continue with this article

Enable TCP/IP protocol
Next step is the enable the TCP/IP, just navigate to 'the SQL Server Configuration Manager' -> in left pane Open 'SQL server network configuration' -> select protocol for SQLEXPRESS in right pane select TCP/IP and make it 'enable'
see below snap

This is one of the helpful step and resolve many users issue, if the problem still continues then continue with this article

Handle Firewall port
Many times your firewall security settings does not allow SQL to pass through, you need to handle that firewall port to work with SQL stuff. To allow in firewall there need to configure couple of settings 
1. set 1433 port in TCP/IP proerpties
2. set Inbound and Outbound rules in windows firewall settings (Applicable for window 7 and above operating system)

set TCP port 1433 in configuration window as below snap shows

Now to set Inbound and Outbound rule we need to navigate to windows firewall, Just Open the Control Panel and navigate to Windows Firewall.
Click on Advanced Settings on the left hand side and you should see the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security. Select the Inboud Rules on the left hand side and click on New Rule… on the right hand side.
go through the following snap sequence it will help you to enable and set the windows firewall settings
Open 'windows firewall with advanced security' screen, select 'Inbound Rule' and click on 'New Rule', see below snap

New Inbound wizard screen' will open, Now in left hand side of the window select 'Rule Types', in right hand side select 'Port' now click 'Next'

In protocol and ports section select 'specific local ports' and give port number as '1433' (default sql port), now click 'Next'

In action section, select 'Allow the connection', and click on Next

In Name section give name and description of the rule, which help us to identify the rule in firewall, now click on Finish

Yes, we are almost done with the settings now close SQL server and restart it again and try to connect, it will resolve your issue.

Summing up

Above error is very basic Many time occur due to different conditions, if you have database installed on SQL 2008 and if you try to connect it with SQL 2005 management console then also same error occurred, when you have install a new instance of SQL server on machine then also this error arise, above are some settings that help you to get rid of the error

Suggestion and Queries most welcome

Thanks

Prasad

New Features of C# 7.0

Introduction

C# 7.0 is planned to release in parts, Microsoft has release Most of its features with Visual Studio “15” Preview 4, it was release in last month (Aug 2016), See Release Post
Code simplification and improve performance are the main key role of this build, Tuples, Pattern matching are some of the really good features introduced. Hope you will enjoy these features and be more productive.
 Let's see new features of C# 7.0


1. Tuples (with types and literals)

Return multiple values from a method is now a common practice, we generally use custom datatype, out parameters, Dynamic return type or a tuple object but here C# 7.0 brings tuple types and tuple literals for you it just return multiple values/ multiple type inform of tuple object. see below snippet

( string, string, string, string) getEmpInfo()
{
    //read EmpInfo from database or any other source and just return them
    string strFirstName = "abc";
    string strAddress = "Address";
    string strCity= "City";
    string strState= "State";
     return (strFirstName, strAddress, strCity, strState); // tuple literal
}

//Just call above method and it will return multiple values 
 var empInfo= getEmpInfo();
WriteLine("Emp info as  {empInfo .Item1} {empInfo .Item2} {empInfo .Item3} {empInfo .Item4}.");

In above sample we can easily retrieve multiple values from tuples, but Item1, Item2 name are bit ir-relevant so let's assign some meaningful names before return, see below sample

(string strFName, string strAdd, string strC, string strSt) getEmpInfo()
{
    //code goes here
}

//Now when you call method get values with specific name as below 
var empInfo= getEmpInfo();
WriteLine("Emp info as {empInfo.strFName} {empInfo.strAdd} {empInfo.strC} {empInfo.strSt}.");

Additionally you can return their name directly in tuple literal as below

return (strFName: strFirstName, strAdd: strAddress, strCity: strC, strState: strSt);

Tuples are very useful thing where you can replace hash table or dictionary easily, even you can return multiple values for a single key, Additionally you can use it instead of List where you store multiple values at single position.
.NET also has a Tuple type (See here) but it is a reference type and that leads to performance issue, but C# 7.0 bring a Tuple with value type which is faster in performance and a mutable type.

Deconstruction

Most of the time we don't want to access whole tuple bundle or we just need internal values then we can use Deconstruction features of C# 7.0, we can easily de-construct a tuple and fetch values that we need, following snippet will clear your doubt

( string strFName,  string strAdd,  string strC, string strSt) = getEmpInfo(); 
Console.WriteLine($"Address: { strAdd }, Country: { strC }");

2. Record Type

C# support record type, which is nothing but a container of a properties and variables, most of the time classes are full with properties and variables, we need lot of code to just declare them but with the help of Record Type you can reduce your effort, see below snippet

class studentInfo
{
    string _strFName;
    string _strMName;
    string _strLName;
    studentInfo(string strFN, string strMN, string strLN){
        this._strFName = strFN;
        this._strMName = strMN;
        this._strLName = strLN;
    }
    public string StudentFName {get{ return this._strFName;}}
    public string StudentMName {get{ return this._strMName;}}
    public string StudentLName {get{ return this._strLName;}}
}

In above code we have a class with property, constructor and variable, so access and declare variable i need to write more code.
To avoid it i can use  Record Type in C#, see below snippet

class studentInfo(string StudentFName, string StudentMName, string StudentLName);

That's it and we have Done !
above snippet produce same output as earlier snippet.

3. Minimizing OUT

Out parameter is very popular when we want to return multiple values from method, By nature out parameters are ref type and works as an argument, we can use it easily but the only condition is out variable should be initialized before it passed. see below snippet

class SetOut
{
    void AssignVal(out string strName)
    {
        strName = "I am from OUT";
    }
    static void Main()
    {
        string strArgu;
        AssignVal(out strArgu);
        // here contents of strArgu is "I am from OUT"
    }
}

C# 7.0 reduce your pain of writing extra code and you can just pass argument without initialize them, see below snippet

 static void Main()
    {
        AssignVal(out string szArgu);
        // here contents of szArgu is "I am from OUT"
    }

You can either use var as argument type instead to declare them.
Note that variable are used here, are in limited scope only, thus we can not use them outside method

Since we can define variable as argument directly, C# 7.0 gives us freedom to declare them as var also. so you don't need to worry about datatype, see below snippet

static void Main()
    {
        AssignVal(out var szArgu);
        // here contents of szArgu is "I am from OUT"
    }

4. Non-'NULL' able reference type

Null reference is really a headache for all programmers, it is a million dollar exception. If you don't check them you got runtime exception or if you check them for each object then your code goes long and long, To deal with this problem C# 7.0 come with non-nullable reference types
**I think syntax for it yet not fixed still they have release following syntax
'?' is for nullable value-type and '!' is for non-nullable reference type

int objNullVal;     //non-nullable value type
int? objNotNullVal;    //nullable value type
string! objNotNullRef; //non-nullable reference type
string objNullRef;  //nullable reference type

Now look at the following complier effect after we run this snippet

MyClass objNullRef;  // Nullable reference type
MyClass! objNotNullRef; // Non-nullable reference type
 
objNullRef = null;   // this is nullable, so no problem in assigning
objNotNullRef = null;   // Error, as objNotNullRef is non-nullable
objNotNullRef = objNullRef;      // Error, as nullable object can not be refered
 
WriteLine(objNotNullRef.ToString()); // Not null so can convert to tostring
WriteLine(objNullRef.ToString()); // could be null
 
if (objNullRef != null) { WriteLine(objNullRef.ToString); } // No error as we have already checked it
WriteLine(objNullRef!.Length); // No error

5. Local Methods/Functions

Local methods and functions is already there in current version of C# (Yes, we can achieve them using Func and Action types, see here Func  and Action), but still there are some limitations to local method, we can not have following features in it

• Generic
• out parameters
• Ref
• params

Now with C# 7.0 we can overcome this problems, see below snippet

private static void Main(string[] args)
{
    int local_var = 100;
    int LocalFunction(int arg1)
    {
        return local_var * arg1;
    }
 
    Console.WriteLine(LocalFunction(100));
}

in above snippet we have define 'LocalFunction' as local function which is inside Main Function 'Main', here we can use out or ref in it.

6. Readability Improvement with Literals

Many times we use literals in code, if they are too long then we might loose Readability,   to sort out such issues C# 7.0 comes with some improvement in Literals. Now C# allows '_' (underscore) in Literals for betterment of understand, it does not effect on its value. see below snippet

private static void Main(string[] args)
{
    int local_var = 100;
    int LocalFunction(int arg1)
    {
        return local_var * arg1;
    }
 
    Console.WriteLine(LocalFunction(100));
}

**Literals are nothing but a constant value (hard-coded value) which may be with predefined meaning. (Litearls in C#)

7. Pattern matching

C# 7.0 allows user to use pattern in IS statement and with SWITCH statement, so we can match pattern with any datatype, patterns can be constant patterns, Type patterns, Var patterns. following sample snippet will clear your concepts, let's start with IS pattern

 public  void Method1( object obj)
{
    //following null is constant pattern
     if (obj  is null)  return;
    //datatype pattern, string is datatype that we check directly     
     if (obj  is  string st)
    { //code goes here }
    else
    return; 
}

Switch pattern helps a lot as it uses any datatype for matching additionally 'case' clauses also can have its pattern so it bit flexible implementation
see below snippet

class Calculate();
class Add(int a, int b, int c) : Calculate;
class Substract(int a, int b) : Calculate;
class Multiply(int a, int b, int c) : Calculate;
 
Calculate objCal = new Multiply(2, 3, 4);
switch (objCal)
{
    case Add(int a, int b, int c):
        //code goes here
        break;
    case Substract(int a, int b):
        //code goes here
        break;
    case Multiply(int a, int b, int c):
        //code goes here
        break;
    default:
        //default case
        break;
}

in above sample switch case checks pattern and call 'Multiply' method

8. 'return' by Ref

Have you tried to return your variable from method/function as Ref ? Yes, C# 7.0 allows you to do that. Infect you can pass a variable with Ref return them as Ref  and also store them as Ref, isn't it amazing.
see below snippet

ref string getFromList(string strVal, string[] Values)
{
 foreach (string val1 in Values)
 {
     if (strVal == val1)
        return ref val1; //return location as ref not actual value
 }
}

string[] values = { "a", "b", "c", "d" };
ref string strSubstitute = ref getFromList("b", values);
strSubstitute = "K"; // replaces 7 with 9 in the array
System.Write(values[1]); // it prints "K"

In above sample we have find and replace a string, by return a Ref from method.

9. Throw Exception from Expression

You read it right, in C# 7.0 Now you can throw exception from your expression directly. see below snippet

public string getEmpInfo( string EmpName)
    {
        string[] empArr = EmpName.Split(",");
        return (empArr.Length > 0) ? empArr[0] : throw new Exception("Emp Info Not exist");
    }

In above snippet we can directly throw exception from return statement, isn't it really good !

Point to be Notice

All above features are expected to be a part of C# 7.0, yet Microsoft has release some of it with Visual studio 2015 Release 4.
Hope you enjoy these new features of C# 7.0

- Happy Coding

New features of SQL 2016

 

Introduction

SQL Server 2016 was (finally) released on June 1^st, 2016 with an initial build number of 13.0.1601.5. Microsoft build SQL 2016 keeps a lot of things in mind like Cloud first, Security enhancement, JSON support, Temporal database support, Row level security, Windows server 2016 connectivity, Non-relational database connectivity (e.g. Hadoop), rich visual effects, etc.
In this article, we will take a walk-through all fresh SQL 2016 features and cover them one by one.

Always Encrypted

 

 As the word suggests, 'Always Encrypted' feature of SQL 2016 'Always' keeps your sensitive data 'Encrypted' either at rest (local environment) or at remote (Cloud/Azure). It will help to protect data from people who may play around it like DBAs, Cloud operators, high-privileged but unauthorized users.

 

How It Works

You can set Always Encrypted to individual column (where your sensitive data resides). While configuring columns, you need to specify encryption algorithm and cryptographic keys for data protection. There are basically two keys you need to define:

1. Encryption Key for column data encryption (It will be used to encrypt data for specific column)
2. Master Key: for Encryption of column encryption keys

So basically, it's a double encryption protection, only program can access it, client application will automatically encrypt and decrypt data before fetching data from database

JSON Support

 

 

SQL 2016 gives direct support to JSON (Java Script Object Notation), SQL has the facility to read JSON format data, load them in table, support index properties in JSON columns.
JSON data will be stored in NVARCHAR type. Due to NVARCHAR type, an application has the following benefits:

• Already stored JSON data (as text) can be easily migrated on new feature.
• As NVARCHAR is supported by all SQL components so is the JSON too.

You can easily fetch data FOR JSON from SQL with the below syntax:

SELECT column, expression, column as alias
FROM table1, table2, table3
FOR JSON [AUTO | PATH]

It is a SELECT command so when we fire the above query, SQL will format each row/cell value and return as JSON object.
SQL has also provided in-built functions for JSON.

Dynamic Data Masking

 

 

This is again one of the security features of SQL 2016. As the name suggests, it just wraps MASK on your data, in short, it hides your confidential data that you don't want to display. It just avoids disclosure of your sensitive data.
After masking, SQL User with limited rights will not view original text, he can view only Masked Text, SQL has pre-defined masking functions you just need to apply it on different columns, see below:

Sr No	Functions	Applied on	Plain text (Input)	Masking text(output)
1	Default	String, Number	ABCD	xxxx
2	Email	Email text	test@test.com	txxx@xxxx.com
3	Random	Numbers	1234	684
4	Custom String	Text	RABBIT	RXXXX

To apply this on specific columns, you just need to ALTER column with 'MASKED WITH' function name, see below syntax:

//here I used function as Default(), you can change it to any of the above types
ALTER TABLE tablename ALTER COLUMN columnname MASKED WITH (FUNCTION=‚default()‘)

Row Level Security  

This is again one of the security features of SQL 2016. It allows you to secure your data row wise, in short you can define a row, that will be viewed by a particular SQL user only. So depending upon the SQL user access permission, we can restrict row level data, e.g., we can ensure if employees can view only their department data though department table is the same.
To implement Row level security, you need to define Security policy with a predicate and function.
Security policy:
We need to create a policy for security, here is simple syntax:

CREATE SECURITY POLICY fn_security ADD [FILTER | BLOCK] PREDICATE FunctionName ON TableName

In the above syntax, FILTER and BLOCK are the predicates that will either FILTER rows and display only those that are available for read or BLOCK rows for write operation.

Function: Function is a simple user defined function, but here are some restrictions for user defined function that are used in Row Level Security syntax:

• Database modification operations are not allowed
• OUTPUT INTO clause is not allowed in function
• Multiple result set should not be returned from function 

Stretch Database

As the name suggests, it gives flexibility to the user. In short, we can store portion of database to remote (Here, we can say cloud/Azure). The portion of data can be called as COLD DATA. (It is useful for those where transactional data needs to be keep for long time as industry requirement.) So we can say it's a cost-effective solution for COLD data storage, your data is available anytime for query and manage. You can access your data without changing queries either it is present on local or at stretch database.
To configure it, you need an Azure account and database instance that you need to stretch. The following snap will clear your idea.

 

Multiple TempDB

It is always a good practice to have a Multiple Temp data files, if you are working on a big crucial data, up till now (SQL 2014), you need to manually add temp db files to your database but SQL 2016 provides you temp DB configuration settings, in which you can configure Number of TempDB files at the time of SQL installation. Default number of files are 8 with default size of 64 MB will be given.
So you no longer need to configure/create it manually.

Query Store

 

 

Up till now, to check Query plan and execution statistics, we need dynamic management views in SQL but neither will it give you Query plan that executed by past/old queries nor will it store them anywhere so that you can review, but SQL 2016 provides you 'Query Store' that takes you through query plan, statistics and Query execution for current and past queries.
To enable it, just right click on database (obviously, you need SQL 2016 SSMS), go to properties. You will see 'Query store' at the left corner, select it and click on Enable 'true' or you can do it using Query as follows:

ALTER DATABASE [Database1] SET QUERY_STORE = ON

Temporal Table

Do you want to store history of your SQL table? So you want to review your old records after table updation? Then you can go with this features. SQL 2016 provides record version facility in which it keeps a history of changed record and maintains it for timely analysis. This feature can be useful for Audit, checking data trend, accidental update/delete data and many more.

How It Works

Basically, the system keeps pair of a table for history and adds two additional columns in it named 'SysStartTime' and 'SysEndTime' for start time and end time for row respectively. Live table contains current record of row, whereas history table contains previous record of row. We can fetch data from History table, with the following query:

SELECT * FROM table1 FOR SYSTEM_TIME   
BETWEEN date1 AND date2
WHERE condition; 

R Introduction

Have you stored statistical data in SQL? Want to use R to analyze it? You export data each time from SQL to R? Then your headache will now be covered in SQL 2016, because it is now with R. You can run R script on SQL. You need to install this feature at the time of SQL setup.

 

Reference

https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/server-cloud/products/sql-server/

We cannot cover all features in details, maybe I will be planning soon to cover them one by one.
Till then, you can enjoy this article.
Suggestion and queries are always welcome.

Happy querying!

**This article is already published at CodeProject

Difference between Build, Rebuild and Clean

This article gives you explanation about Difference between Build, Rebuild and Clean

If you are using Visual studio you might have question that what is difference between Build, Rebuild and Clean ? here we are going to understand the diversity between them.

Build :
 When we build any solution then Visual studio will build/compile all assemblies (Dlls and EXE's) that are changed, it is basically incremental or partial process in which only CHANGED assemblies are compiled if there is no changed assemblies it won't get build

Rebuild :
It is full compiled case, in which all assemblies (either changed or not) are deleted and recompiled again, irrespective of changed or not

Clean :
It is not compile case, it just delete all assemblies (Dlls and EXE's) from folder but not compiled them again, it remove all compiled files from previous build

Hope you understand this simple article

Thanks and Happy building
-Prasad