So yesterday I blogged on how to create a T-SQL custom scalar function in SQL Server to clean up a DATETIME and output it like this... 05/11/2010 11:37 AM. So for anyone who is primarily using MySQL (most of our clients use SQL Server but we also take care of some MySQL driven CF apps too) here is the same code for creating and calling your very own inline function on the MySQL platform.
As we all know, ColdFusion has a stellar line up of date and time formatting functions. But what happens when you need to do this at the database query level in a CFC or a Stored Procedure? Plus a FREE Scalar function!
Have you ever wanted to quickly migrate selected table data back and fourth from your dev database to your live database? If the answer is yes then this one's for you.
Many web apps that are used for CRUD activities (INSERT, UPDATE and DELETE statements) employ tables that simply have what is often referred to as a manufactured key. Most people more commonly know this as an auto-increment or auto-numbered identity style of primary key and it is typically stored as a data type that's an integer of some sort. This is great until you're working on something a bit bigger, say a business app, and you want the key to a subsidiary table to hold meaning to the end user throughout the app. Perhaps you're setting up location codes or category codes for instance, the value 5 will probably not mean a lot to an end user when filtering inventory reports by location code and it unfortunately forces the user to perform mental lookups to remember that 5 truly means a location of 'Chicago'.
So let's say that you make the decision to structure lookup tables using user defined key values - would you know how to use CF to help maintain referential integrity in your database while not endlessly frustrating your end users?
