Not Useless Features

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Not Useless Features

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

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November 30, 2017 at 9:16 pm

#333877

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Not Useless Features

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Victor Kirkpatrick Hall of Fame Points: 3672 More actions · Answer 1

I think this is totally normal in software development. You put out features that Product / BA thinks users will like or have requested, only to find out that scant few users actually care about it. Heck, if you've been in software development for any length of time, you know that maybe more than half of your projects never even made it to Production, much less make it and be heavily used. As for actual SQL Server features that I think are under-developed, I just think the overall inability for SQL Server (the non-Azure instances) to truly scale or shard is a large liability compared to "new" or "hot" products such as Apache Spark. Moving to being able to run on Linux is a critical move for SQL Server, or it may have just died out in the mid-term. Also replication, as you say Steve, needs more stability and work / options. It fails on a relatively consistent basis, even in Production, but especially in Dev / QA without constant admin/oversight.

MattF SSCrazy Points: 2285 More actions · Answer 2

We use MDW extensively for monitoring our customer's databases - it saves them a lot in licensing third-party monitoring software. We had some concerns when there were some omissions with its SQL 2016 release, (a few performance counters were not populating) but thankfully these were addressed by a Connect post.

Some software companies use a formal communication channel for receiving requests for enhancement or new features from their customers - I'm not aware of such a channel for SQL Server.

MattF

Eric M Russell SSC Guru Points: 125561 More actions · Answer 3

MDS (Master Data Services) is one feature I wish Microsoft would deprecate. From a database engineering, management, and performance perspective; it simply sucks.

I'd like to see some effort put into the Database Diagramming feature of SSMS. This thing hasn't changed a bit in 20 years. For example, the GUI could be more robust; providing better support for reverse engineering, cross database relationships, and also logical modeling in addition to just physical design.

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

RonKyle SSC-Dedicated Points: 31556 More actions · Answer 4

I would like to be able to create a folder structure in the stored procedures folder to help with organization. I used to use the semi-colon numbering system, but that has now been deprecated.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004340 More actions · Answer 5

The one feature I'd like to see get improved is the thought process (perhaps, a lack of thought) that MS uses behind the identification and development of new features and fixing existing ones.

For example, a delimited string splitter has been on the wish list of a lot of people for decades. Apparently MS was unaware of that and it may be because they don't actually have anyone in marketing cruising the forums and they don't listen to the MVPs telling them things.

Finally they come out with a delimited string splitter and it's horrible. Although it's likely that the sort order of the returned elements will consistently be left to right, there is no written guarantee anywhere. There's also no element identification in the form of a positional element number. AND, they missed a great shot by not making it so that it can handle true CSV strings with string qualifiers and embedded delimiters. It's nice that it's fast (unlike that miserable FORMAT function they put no thought into which became an instant useless feature for me) but it was very fast in becoming something useless for me.

The PIVOT operator is another. It's slow and compared to the PIVOT operator in MS ACCESS, it's extremely difficult to use and extremely limited in what it can do. It also breaks if you try to do 2 pivots from the same source ( https://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost1910516.aspx ). Why didn't they put enough thought into it to provide some real utility?

Then there's good ol' dynamic SQL. A huge part of why it's even necessary is because T-SQL won't allow you to define objects (column names, tables names, etc) as variables even in a simple SELECT.

In the past, I've provided lists of useless features because of the way they weren't designed to work as well as wish lists to make the useful and new ones that would be incredible useful (Bulk Export, anyone? Bulk Insert with text qualifiers to handle true CSV? Tally Table generator function? Etc, etc) and I've personally given up doing so because MS appears to be missing some critical thinking. If you don't think so, visit the MS CONNECT website for SQL Server. Yep... there's a lot of silly recommendations and claims there but there are also some really good ones with silly replies from MS as to why they either won't fix something or won't consider something as a feature desired by the rest of the world.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

chrisn-585491 SSCoach Points: 16006 More actions · Answer 6

Of all the semi-useful/useless Microsoft software I've encountered I don't know if the GUI/user experience in SSIS or Visio is worse...

Eric M Russell SSC Guru Points: 125561 More actions · Answer 7

RonKyle - Friday, December 1, 2017 8:18 AM
I would like to be able to create a folder structure in the stored procedures folder to help with organization. I used to use the semi-colon numbering system, but that has now been deprecated.

There is no concept of "folders" in SQL Server, but there are schemas. If it's just an issue of visual organization within SSMS, then there is an AddOn for that.
http://www.ssmsboost.com/VersionCompare

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho

Ken SSCoach Points: 17191 More actions · Answer 8

Analysis Services gets very little love. I would love to see some tools built into Visual Studio to assist with cube development and troubleshooting especially around MDX calculations.

RonKyle SSC-Dedicated Points: 31556 More actions · Answer 9

quote]

RonKyle - Friday, December 1, 2017 8:18 AM
I would like to be able to create a folder structure in the stored procedures folder to help with organization. I used to use the semi-colon numbering system, but that has now been deprecated.

There is no concept of "folders" in SQL Server, but there are schemas. If it's just an issue of visual organization within SSMS, then there is an AddOn for that.
http://www.ssmsboost.com/VersionCompare%5B/quote%5D

I use schemas extensively to divide out different functionality. but I'll check out your add on recommendation and let you know if that works. Thanks!

RonKyle SSC-Dedicated Points: 31556 More actions · Answer 10

Analysis Services gets very little love. I would love to see some tools built into Visual Studio to assist with cube development and troubleshooting especially around MDX calculations.

Agreed. With SQL 2017, it's not even the default installation. I feel like MS is trying to push people off it.

gcosler Newbie Points: 7 More actions · Answer 11

I would like to see the Import task accept current Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx) rather than having to convert my current spreadsheets to pre-2007 format (.xls)! They're both Microsoft products. Come on Bill!

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736212 More actions · Answer 12

MattF - Friday, December 1, 2017 7:21 AM
We use MDW extensively for monitoring our customer's databases - it saves them a lot in licensing third-party monitoring software. We had some concerns when there were some omissions with its SQL 2016 release, (a few performance counters were not populating) but thankfully these were addressed by a Connect post.
Some software companies use a formal communication channel for receiving requests for enhancement or new features from their customers - I'm not aware of such a channel for SQL Server.

Connect.microsoft.com

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736212 More actions · Answer 13

Eric M Russell - Friday, December 1, 2017 7:53 AM
MDS (Master Data Services) is one feature I wish Microsoft would deprecate. From a database engineering, management, and performance perspective; it simply sucks.
I'd like to see some effort put into the Database Diagramming feature of SSMS. This thing hasn't changed a bit in 20 years. For example, the GUI could be more robust; providing better support for reverse engineering, cross database relationships, and also logical modeling in addition to just physical design.

I think many people wish MDS would receive improvements.

As for diagramming, I agree. I used to wish more third parties would do something here, but it's a hard problem with little commercial viability as a product.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736212 More actions · Answer 14

RonKyle - Friday, December 1, 2017 8:18 AM
I would like to be able to create a folder structure in the stored procedures folder to help with organization. I used to use the semi-colon numbering system, but that has now been deprecated.

That would be interesting. Not sure how much of a DMV/metadata change this is. Maybe they could use extended properties and then alter SSMS to display differently?