Handy zip code table

Thank goodness for the US Census!  The 1999 Census contained public domain info on zip codes (info the businesses usually pay a pretty penny for for the postal service).

I was able to use this data to create a SQL table with some useful zip code info in it like:
City
State
ZipCode class (tells you if it is a unique zip code or po box only)
Lat/Lon (for mapping applications)

I used SQL 2008's great Generate Scripts Wizard to export the table structure, index definitions, and all the data to a single script file.  You can find the zip file here (I just know there is a pun in there somewhere).

I will keep an eye out for a newer census report, but zip codes don;t change all that often, so this list should be pretty accurate.


Did this help you?  If so, please leave a comment!

SRS default parameters

I ran into an issue today where I had a report parameter default that I couldn't seem to get rid of.

In BIDS, I deleted the defaults for all parameters, then deployed the report, choosing the overwrite option.

In BIDS, the defaults were gone when I ran the report.  However, when opening from the SRS report viewer window, one of the parameters was still there.

After a bit of troubleshooting and digging around, I found out that the properties that are set up through the SRS report manager in the browser are not always reset when a report is re-deployed.  That is what was happening here.  Even though all the other changes and even the clearing of the defaults on the other parameters was flowing down when I deployed the report, this one parameter default was remaining in the SRS SQL table somehow.

So I used the report manager to delete this parameter's default too, and we are in business.

I still do not know what caused the issue, so I am adding a step to my personal best-practice for SRS report deployment - open the report manager and review the properties.

Happy Coding!



Did this help you?  If so, please leave a comment!