All day long questions come into the forums from people trying to learn SQL Server and all the various related technologies. Let’s face, there’s a lot to learn. Using a great resource such as SQL Server Central forums, or #sqlhelp, to ask questions is often a fast way to find solutions to the problems you face, and give you a leg up on your learning. After all, a lot of the people who haunt those locations know what they’re talking about and will provide you with the information you need. But…you have to be prepared to try to help yourself first.

Often, I see questions coming in where it probably took the person longer to type in the question than it would have done to type the T-SQL code that would have answered it. Want to know if you can add a key column to the INCLUDE list of an index? Try it. Want to know which is faster in the SELECT list of a query, COALESCE or ISNULL? Try it. Want to know what will happen if you try to drop a table with a foreign key constraint? Try it. OK, well, not on your production servers. But on a development server, try it.

Really. Try it. Did the experts we rely on to answer all our questions spring whole from some sub-basement on the Redmond campus with infinite SQL Server knowledge? Absolutely not. Like everyone else, they learn by trying things. Experimentation. Let’s see what happens when I do this. They broke stuff. Sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident. They’ve developed knowledge through the process of experimenting and trying things out.

Granted, this solution can’t work for all questions. Suggesting you “try it” is a complete waste of time if you’re unsure even where to start. Or, if you’ve tried it, but you don’t understand the results. There really are a lot of reasons and situations to ask questions, and I actively encourage you to do so, but if you already understand the parameters of your problem and you just want to clarify a point, try it. You’re going to learn more and learn faster by getting your hands directly on the code and structures of your databases. Then, the next time you see a question scroll by on #sqlhelp, you might be the one answering it.

Try it… just…not on production. Seriously.