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SUSER_SNAME vs. CURRENT_USER

Author

Topic

cshah1
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

347 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-13 : 15:04:25

which one should I use to record update made by users
suser_sname() or Current_User?

Current_User
System_User
User_Name
Suser_Sname()

peterlemonjello
Yak Posting Veteran

53 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-13 : 16:24:32

suser_sname() probably.

AjarnMark
SQL Slashing Gunting Master

3246 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-13 : 17:03:49

Agreed. On boxes where I am a sysadmin, CURRENT_USER returns "dbo", but SUSER_SNAME() returns my actual NT Login. SYSTEM_USER also returns the correct NT Login value.

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EmeraldCityDomains.com

cshah1
Constraint Violating Yak Guru

347 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-13 : 17:38:17

That's right Current_User or User_Name returns dbo while
system_user or suser_sname() returns their NT login huh weird..?

robvolk
Most Valuable Yak

15732 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-13 : 19:56:49

It's not weird really: a user is a database object, a login is a server object. For the purposes you're describing I'd say you'd want SYSTEM_USER.

Kristen
Test

22859 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-14 : 07:41:39

Why are there so many of these things? I couldn't tell you what the subtle differences are ...

SESSION_USER ??

SUSER_NAME - dangerously like suser_Sname, yet deprecated and returns NULL

Some have brackets so they look like functions SUSER_SNAME(), some don't SYSTEM_USER. For all I can remember there are probably some @@FOO_BAR ones too ...

Any advance on:

SESSION_USER - current session's username

SYSTEM_USER - DOMAIN\user_login_name if using Windows Authentication, otherwise SQL Server login identification name

USER_NAME() - database username - a.k.a USER and CURRENT_USER

SUSER_SNAME() - login identification name - supersedes SUSER_NAME()

Kristen

robvolk
Most Valuable Yak

15732 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-14 : 07:56:54

The ones without parentheses are the ANSI SQL function names, they should work across multiple database platforms. SUSER_NAME() was quietly superseded by SUSER_SNAME() in SQL 7.0.

All of these are documented in Books Online, and 60 seconds of playing with them in QA will show you which ones do what.

Kristen
Test

22859 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-14 : 08:34:26

"and 60 seconds of playing with them in QA will show you which ones do what"

... provided you remember to log in to QA using either SQL Login or Windows Authentication as appropriate for the test you want to make!

Kristen

rockmoose
SQL Natt Alfen

3279 Posts

Posted - 2005-10-14 : 15:14:45

quote:
Originally posted by Kristen

"and 60 seconds of playing with them in QA will show you which ones do what"

... provided you remember to log in to QA using either SQL Login or Windows Authentication as appropriate for the test you want to make!

Kristen

Play with the SETUSER command as well.
don't forget USER and CURRENT_USER

There is quite a few.
I commonly use SUSER_SNAME()

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