[semantics] Why I hate ISNUMERIC

So, ISNUMERIC is simple, right? Put in numbers, and it tells you whether it is.
Except it has very specific exceptions you may not know about.

Any of these will come back with ISNUMERIC = 1:

• 0D123
  
• 123D50
  
• 123E50
  
• $,,1,,.1
  

Currency doesn't count (and that's ALL currency symbols), D and E don't count in certain circumstances, commas and periods don't count.


Instead, use something like this:

if (select PATINDEX('%[^0-9.]%','$00.01')) = 0  print 'numeric' 

[Replication] more replication trouble tracking

--get list of the possible databases by querying the publisher

SELECT * FROM distribution.dbo.MSpublisher_databases

--Now figure out what the article number is
--the database name there is the database that the publication is in.
Replication_Master..sp_helparticle @publication = 'User_Profiles'


--Now that you have the publisher database ID (step 1) and the article id (step 2)
--get the list of commands.
EXEC distribution..sp_browsereplcmds @publisher_database_id = 2, @article_id = 369


--And if you're really lucky, in sqlmonitor you'll get the following:
--(Transaction sequence number: 0x00018A0500009072002A00000000, Command ID: 1)
--in which case...

EXEC distribution..sp_browsereplcmds @publisher_database_id = 2, @article_id = 369, 
@xact_seqno_start = '0x00018A0500009072002A00000000', @xact_seqno_end = '0x00018A0500009072002A00000000'
--(set both start and end to the same value, the one in the error message)