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DBFile Object

This feature will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature.

The DBFile object represents the properties of an operating system file used by Microsoft SQL Server for table and index data storage.

SQL-DMO object model that shows the current object

Remarks

SQL Server can direct data storage for tables and indexes to specific operating system files. A single operating system file can contain data from only a single database. Within SQL Server, database data files are categorized by filegroup. A SQL Server database contains one or more filegroups containing one or more data files. This organization is reflected in the FileGroup and DBFile objects and collections.

All SQL Server databases contain a filegroup named PRIMARY. This filegroup contains the database primary data file. When using SQL Distributed Management Objects (SQL-DMO) to create a new SQL Server database, add a DBFile object to the FileGroup object named PRIMARY. After database creation, additional data files can be created and added to either the PRIMARY filegroup or to filegroups added to the database.

With the DBFile object, you can:

  • Create new operating system files for SQL Server database storage.

  • Manage the properties of SQL Server database growth.

  • Shrink the operating system files used by a database to reflect actual space used.

The Name property of a DBFile object uses the SQL Server data type sysname. The Name property value is used for the logical_file_name parameter in the CREATE DATABASE and ALTER DATABASE statements when files are added. The restrictions imposed on the logical_file_name parameter apply to the Name property of theDBFileobject.

To create a data file for SQL Server database storage

  1. Create a DBFile object.

  2. Set the Name property.

  3. Set the PhysicalName property to the path and file name of the appropriate data file.

  4. Set the Size property. The Size property determines the size of the created data file and is specified in megabytes.

  5. Set optional properties, such as the Maximum (size) property.

  6. Get a FileGroup object from the FileGroups collection of a connected Databaseobject.

  7. Add the DBFile object to the DBFiles collection of the selected FileGroupobject.