Have you ever scripted a stored procedure? Or dealt with indexed views? Or wondered why Management Studio says you can't index or alter a table column? Then you've been bitten by one or more of the the ANSI_NULLS, ANSI_PADDING, or QUOTED_IDENTIFIER settings! These settings determine how (and sometimes if) SQL Server can process a query, and the wrong settings can cause a terminal error. Wouldn't it be nice to know what your current settings are? With SQL Server 2005, the sys.dm_exec_sessions DMV can provide nearly all of them. Since it's documented in Books Online I'll let the reader practice...