Enigma

Extended Object Properties

SQL Server - Extended Object Properties

Maintaining Extended Properties on objects in SQL Server 2000 is a great way to store information about database objects like Tables, Indexes and even columns for documenting them.  The exetended properties can be defined on any one of these objects

Level 0	Level 1	Level 2
User	Table	Column, index, constraint, trigger
	View	Column, INSTEAD OF trigger
	Schema-bound view	Column, index, INSTEAD OF trigger
	Stored procedure	Parameter
	Rule	<None>
	Default	<None>
	Function	Column, parameter, constraint,
	Schema-bound function	Column, parameter, constraint
User-defined data type	<None>	<None>

The properties can be used for various purposes like

• Documentation
• Applications can use these properties for various purposes like input masks, captions etc.

Extended properties are managed using three system stored procedures:

• sp_addextendedproperty

  Adds a new extended property to a database object.

• sp_updateextendedproperty

  Updates the value of an existing extended property.

• sp_dropextendedproperty

  Drops an existing extended property.

You can retrieve the value of an existing extended property using the system function FN_LISTEXTENDEDPROPERTY.

MIKE GUNDERLOY has a nice article on the same here.

Personal Thoughts - Some nice Jokes someone mailed to me

Q. How can you drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
 A. Concrete floors are very hard to crack!
  
 Q. If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
 A. No time at all coz it is already built.
  
 Q. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
 A. It is not a problem, since you will never find an elephant with one hand.
  
 Q. How can a man go eight days without sleep?
 A. He sleeps at night.
  
 Q. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become ?
 A: It becomes wet. 
  
 Q. What can you never eat for breakfast ?
 A : Dinner.
  
 Q. What gets wet with drying ?
 A : A towel.
  
 Q. What happened when wheel was invented ?
 A : It caused a revolution.
  
 Q. Why is it easy to weigh a fish ?
 A : Because it has its own scales.
  
 Q. Why does a bike rest on its leg ?
 A : Because it is too tyred.
  
 Q. The Bay of Bengal is in which state?
 A : Liquid