Alright … this is kinda cool. We’re all familiar with Airports putting wireless 802.11 networks up so that those waiting for flights can access the internet. We’ve heard of Internet Cafés which do the same thing. But did you know that there is now a growing network to provide hot spots to truck stops around the U.S.? We’ll, I’m blogging from one. TruckStop.Net provides high speed internet access from many different chains of truck stops around the United States. I’m currently traveling to Denver for an interview on Monday and am driving across Oklahoma. I decided, on a whim, to try the service and have been very pleased. For the meager cost of 5.95 for 1 day’s access (29.95 per month) I have been able to enjoy my email when I stop for breaks from driving, and even blog! Can’t beat that.
This function was originally found at the following address:http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnsqlmag01/html/treatyourselfListing_01.txtBut strikes me as so utterly useful that I'm archiving here as an article just so that I have a copy when next I find myself in a situation where I need it.CREATE FUNCTION fn_Split(@sText varchar(8000), @sDelim varchar(20) = ' ')RETURNS @retArray TABLE (idx smallint Primary Key, value varchar(8000))ASBEGINDECLARE @idx smallint,@value varchar(8000),@bcontinue bit,@iStrike smallint,@iDelimlength tinyintIF @sDelim = 'Space'BEGINSET @sDelim = ' 'ENDSET @idx = 0SET @sText = LTrim(RTrim(@sText))SET @iDelimlength = DATALENGTH(@sDelim)SET @bcontinue = 1IF NOT ((@iDelimlength = 0) or (@sDelim = 'Empty'))BEGINWHILE @bcontinue = 1BEGIN--If you can find the delimiter in the text, retrieve the first element and--insert it with its index into the return table.IF CHARINDEX(@sDelim, @sText)>0BEGINSET @value = SUBSTRING(@sText,1, CHARINDEX(@sDelim,@sText)-1)BEGININSERT @retArray (idx, value)VALUES (@idx, @value)END--Trim the element and its delimiter from the front of the string.--Increment the index and loop.SET @iStrike = DATALENGTH(@value) + @iDelimlengthSET @idx = @idx + 1SET @sText = LTrim(Right(@sText,DATALENGTH(@sText) - @iStrike))ENDELSEBEGIN--If you can’t find the delimiter in the text, @sText is the last value in--@retArray.SET @value = @sTextBEGININSERT @retArray (idx, value)VALUES (@idx, @value)END--Exit the WHILE loop.SET @bcontinue = 0ENDENDENDELSEBEGINWHILE @bcontinue=1BEGIN--If the delimiter is an empty string, check for remaining text--instead of a delimiter. Insert the first character into the--retArray table. Trim the character from the front of the string.--Increment the index and loop.IF DATALENGTH(@sText)>1BEGINSET @value = SUBSTRING(@sText,1,1)BEGININSERT @retArray (idx, value)VALUES (@idx, @value)ENDSET @idx = @idx+1SET @sText = SUBSTRING(@sText,2,DATALENGTH(@sText)-1)ENDELSEBEGIN--One character remains.--Insert the character, and exit the WHILE loop.INSERT @retArray (idx, value)VALUES (@idx, @sText)SET @bcontinue = 0 ENDENDENDRETURNEND
I've just had something of a weird coincidence of a week. Try to follow along :On a regular basis I read Scott Hanselman's blog, and recently in one of his posts he talked about XBoxFriends.XBoxFriends is a cut little program which scrapes a webpage to present you a well-formated list of your XBox Live friends list in an MSN Messenger type program. Scott listed the new website www.xboxfriends.com in his blog, so I went to check it out.I decided to download the program and install it (XCopy Install!) and that website directed my to a post of the author's blog where he had posted the download. Cory Smith, the author, had on the site of his blog, a link to the Fort Worth Dot Net Users Group. It seems he is one of the officers, and they had a meeting this last Tuesday which I decided to attend.The talk was given by Jason Bock and was on the subject of attributes in .NET. It was well presented, and I learned a great deal about metadata in .NET (not to mention about Jason, and his blog).So, three blogs, one website, and a meeting later. BTW .. XBoxFriends rocks, and my Gamertag is Gisben.
