Toffer's WebLog https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/feed.xml A small place on the web for me to write about the adventures of my self education in coding Tue, 16 Apr 2019 05:32:24 GMT en-US hourly 1 using SpriteFont's in XNA https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/using-spritefonts-in-xna Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:50:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2007/10/24/using-spritefonts-in-xna/ So the quesiton of the day is when creating a SpriteFont to use for displaying text in an XNA app, is there a way to change the size or does a new SpriteFont have to be created for each desired size.

What I'm trying to do is have a single SpriteFont object exposed to all the child windows of a main window manager class, but for some windows I want the text displayed in a smaller size than others.  I suppose what I could do to work around this is to create a generic collection of SpriteFont objects, one for each size that I want available...but I was hoping I didn't have to create multiple objects.

If anyone knows, let me know.  If I figure out a definate answer I'll post an update.  :)

UPDATE:
Well, after I did some asking around...I found that a SpriteFont must be created for each individual size that is disired to be displayed in the game...so I'll have to make the generic collection as I was guessing.  :(  Ah well.  hehehe.

]]> random posting... https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/random-posting Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:31:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2007/10/18/random-posting/ WOW...it's been a while since I've posted.  Luckily I my self eductions of coding hasn't been as slow as my posting on this blog.  heh.

I've been noticing that I get a lot of random comments over time on some of my posts and overall they seem to be helpful...so knowing that I've actually helped someone out there, I think that's inspired me to try post on here a little more often.  Who knows, maybe I can help someone else.  :)

To that end, I've gotten into XNA and game development lately.  Interesting stuff.  :)  So the next time I come across something I can't figure out, I'll make a post.

]]> multi-select drill-through reports... https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/multi-select-drill-through-reports Tue, 28 Mar 2006 17:25:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2006/03/28/multi-select-drill-through-reports/ Today I'm trying to work on improving my Sql 2005 Reporting Services report based on all the feedback I've been getting.

Basically this report currently provides a way to drill-through to get more detailed information, if someone clicks on an ID number for any of the given rows returned from the database.

One of the pieces of feedback was it would be nice to be able to flag all the rows a person wants more details on and to be able to click a button to retrieve those details on all the flagged rows.

So far I haven't had any luck in figuring out a way to do this.  I've been looking all through Books Online and all over the internet, looking for "multi-select drill-through" but so far I haven't come up with anything.

If I figure it out I'll post the answer, but if anyone has any suggestion on how to do something like this (or an example of some sort) please speak up and share the knowledge.  :)

]]> displaying an entire table on one page with SQL RS2005 https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/displaying-an-entire-table-on-one-page-with-sql-rs2005 Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:23:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2006/03/17/displaying-an-entire-table-on-one-page-with-sql-rs2005/ Today I'm trying to figure this one out.  I've got this report I put together for my team that has a table which returns records from a database.  Currently, the report automatically creates a table with multiple pages which stores all the returned rows.  What I'm being asked for is if I can get all the rows to show up on one page.

To my frustration I have not been able to get this to work.  I haven't found a single piece of information on any way to set this.  There's a ton of places to set Page Breaks, but they do not seem to affect how the table displays it's data, no matter what the combination.

Anyway, it's a new day and I'm absolutely sure I'll get different results from a search engine today with the answers I'm seaking...hehehe, wishful thinking.  :)

Seriously though has anyone else ever tried anything like this with any success?

]]> question of the evening... https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/question-of-the-evening Fri, 17 Mar 2006 02:55:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2006/03/17/question-of-the-evening/ I've seen something in a couple of different databases that kind of confuses me.  I've been looking through books on line to see if there's any advantage to it, but haven't been able to find anything...

What I'm seeing is multi primary key's in one table.  I can't really think of what the benefit of this would be...isn't the purpose of a primary key more or less to provide a unique identity for each record?  If that's the case, why would you ever need 2 unique identity's?

Has anyone else seen this done before?

]]> setting up a Sql Stored Procedure to accept an array as a parameter... https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/setting-up-a-sql-stored-procedure-to-accept-an-array-as-a-parameter Wed, 15 Mar 2006 00:27:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2006/03/15/setting-up-a-sql-stored-procedure-to-accept-an-array-as-a-parameter/ Ok, I'm not sure the title is exactly right, so let me explain better what it is I'm trying to do this fine evening.  :)

So I have this Sql Report Services report that takes a input parameter that is currently in a combobox at the top of the report.  It then feeds the value of this drop down list into my stored procedure and produces the data.

One of the abilities of this combo box is to be a multi-select type.  I want to setup my stored procedure to be able to take the mutli-select input...but I'm not sure how to go about doing it.

For example, if the multi-select Combobox has the values 1 through 3...if all of them selected, the string value of that Combobox would be "1, 2, 3" which is currently getting passed into my stored procedure, which blows up because it doesn't understand what to do with the comma's.

I want to make my stored procedure more intelligent and be able to handle a comma delimited array of values.  The problem is I'm not sure what this type of thing is called so I don't what I'm looking for, hehehe...  It's always comes down to just knowing where to look for info doesn't it...hehehe.

Well, as always if anyone has any suggestions for me, I'm all eyes.  :)  Until then I'll keep digging.

]]> using the T-SQL OPENXML command https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/using-the-t-sql-openxml-command Wed, 08 Mar 2006 15:17:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2006/03/08/using-the-t-sql-openxml-command/ Hello once again.  :)  I've been getting great feedback from everyone that stumbles across my blog entries so I figured I'd post yet another of my great mysteries of coding...

Today I'm trying to use OPENXML to shread an Xml document for the data I need.  For illustation purposes, here's an example of what I'm trying to do...

 

DECLARE @docHandle int
EXEC sp_xml_preparedocument @docHandle OUTPUT,
'<Root>
   <Property>
      <ID>182467</ID>
      <ID>189037</ID>
      <ID>192100</ID>
      <ID>192957</ID>
      <ID>194785</ID>
   </Property>
</Root>'
SELECT *
FROM OPENXML(@docHandle, 'Root/Property/ID', 3) WITH (ID int)

The return is...

        ID
----------------------
1      NULL
2      NULL
3      NULL
4      NULL
5      NULL

The correct number of rows, but not the correct data in the inner text of the element.  This is the first time I've used OPENXML and everything "looks" correct, but if anyone has a suggestion, as always I'm all eyes.  :)

]]> calling SqlConnection.Close() from class destructor causes exception https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/calling-sqlconnection-close-from-class-destructor-causes-exception Tue, 07 Mar 2006 14:41:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2006/03/07/calling-sqlconnection-close-from-class-destructor-causes-exception/ Well, today I'm designing a class that's basically function is to talk to a database.  I'm having a SqlConnection member to share between all the methods and thought it would be a good idea to put a call to .Close in the class destructor.

This is causing an InvalidOperationException...I'm a little confused by that...isn't the destructor for code to be run when the object is being garbage collected?  Wouldn't that be the right time to make sure a connection to a database is closed?  If anyone has any input on the subject I'm all ears (well eyes, but you get the idea).

]]> Sql 2005 and managed code... https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/sql-2005-and-managed-code Thu, 02 Mar 2006 01:42:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2006/03/02/sql-2005-and-managed-code/ Today  I proposed an idea to my boss which included using Sql 2005 in a manor that I "think" is possible.

What I mean by that is I know Sql 2005 can store managed code as stored procedures...and I know to do that you compile the stored procedure, put it someplace that the database can find, and then make t-sql like statements to reference the .dll's static methods.

On a very high level, my idea involves an automation execution engine.  Test case information is feed to this engine as C# compiled .dll's.  What I would like is for these .dll's to be stored in a test case table in a database, and to be able to feed these to the engine from the database.

I'm going to begin research on the posibility of this tomorrow, but I thought I'd make a post on it and see if anyone had a suggestion on where to start investigating (or tell me it's flat out not possible).

Anyway, love to hear anyone's thoughts.  :)

]]> Using a ProgressBar control https://docs.microsoft.com/archive/blogs/toffer/using-a-progressbar-control Sat, 28 Jan 2006 19:05:00 GMT https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/toffer/2006/01/28/using-a-progressbar-control/  Hiya all.

I recenlty made a cheezy test program to just roll dice.  I put a ProgressBar control to show give the end user an idea of how many rolls are left.

Well, I noticed that when I tried to do 10000 consecutive rolls, the program slows waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down.  When I had this all setup as a console app, it screamed no matter how many times I tried to roll the die.  I'm guessing this perf hit is because of the UI in general, but is there anything I can do to speed this up?  Is this something that someone would use threading on to improve perf?

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers.  :)

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