Question

I want to know status of every database across a SQL Server farm. I was using:

select name,
       case status 
         when 32 then 'loading'
         when 128 then 'recovering'
         when 512 then 'offline'
         when 4096 then 'single user'
         when 64 then 'pre recovery'
         when 256 then 'not recovered'
         else 'Normal'
       end  
 from sysdatabases
where name not in('master','msdb','model','tempdb','reportserver','reportservertempdb','pubs','distribution','northwind')

But a friend told me that Status could be combination of 2 e.g. 32+128 = 32128.
How can I find database status using this figure?

Answer 1

All of the status numbers are shown in base 10 (decimal, our usual numbering system).
However, you will note that all of the numbers are a multiple of 2 because
they represent a bit position (base 2, 0 or 1).

512 decimal = 200 hex = 0010 0000 0000 binary

1024 decimal = 400 hex = 0100 0000 0000 binary

The & is the bitwise AND operator. The logic table is:

A   B    A AND B
0   0       0
1   0       0
0   1       0
1   1       1

As you can see, if you AND two bits together, both bits must be 1 for the
result to be 1. The AND ( & ) operator is used to mask all of the other bits to
determine whether or not a particular bit is set.

So, if you AND the status value with 512, then result will be 512 if the bit is
set. Otherwise, it will be zero.

Since 512 is the 10th bit (counting right to left), status & 512 will AND all of
the bits in the status value with 0100 0000 0000. If the 10th bit is a 1 in the
status value, the result will be 1, indicating that the OFFLINE option is turned
on (set).

To use the status columns effectively, you need at a least a rudimentary
knowledge of binary and hexidecimal number systems. Actually, the same
principles apply of any base (you just a way to represent each digit for large
bases).

Manjot
This will get you started:

1. You need to create a sproc that will convert varbinary into a hexstring – see Microsoft’s INFO: Converting Binary Data into Hexadecimal String

2. The following sql:

   SELECT sus.status,
          sus.stat,
          CASE WHEN PATINDEX('%8', sus.stat) > 0 THEN 1 ELSE NULL END 'trunc. log on chkpt; set with sp_dboption.',
          CASE WHEN PATINDEX('%1%', sus.stat) = 9 THEN 1 ELSE NULL END 'torn page detection, set with sp_dboption.',
          CASE WHEN PATINDEX('%1%', sus.stat) = 8 THEN 1 ELSE NULL END 'loading.',
          CASE WHEN PATINDEX('%1%', sus.stat) = 7 THEN 1 ELSE NULL END 'pre recovery.'
     FROM (SELECT t.status,
                  sp_hexadecimal(CONVERT(varbinary(8), t.status)) 'stat'
             FROM SYSDATABASES t) sus