Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Thomas Rushton SSC-Insane Points: 22649 More actions · Answer 1

TomThomson (7/24/2016)
Jeff Moden (7/15/2016)
Ray K (7/14/2016)
Brandie Tarvin (7/14/2016)
I'm in the last few days before Go Live on a major infrastructure upgrade. I'm lucky I can spell SEQUAL. @=)
I once had a friend tell me she had some sales guy ask her, "how do you spell SQL?" And the guy was serious!!!
Sounds like the folks I've been interviewing. Hmmmm.... maybe I should start asking them what the number for 911 is. 😛
Surely everyone knows that the number for 911 is 110 or 999 in most civilised places?

I think you'll find it's 0118 999 881 999 119 725 3

Thomas Rushton
blog: https://thelonedba.wordpress.com

Alan Burstein SSC Guru Points: 61141 More actions · Answer 2

Maybe it's Monday a Monday morning thing but even the small things are annoying me today. Just ran accross this:

[Gender] varchar(100) NULL,

"I cant stress enough the importance of switching from a sequential files mindset to set-based thinking. After you make the switch, you can spend your time tuning and optimizing your queries instead of maintaining lengthy, poor-performing code."

-- Itzik Ben-Gan 2001

Luis Cazares SSC Guru Points: 183706 More actions · Answer 3

Alan.B (7/25/2016)
Maybe it's Monday a Monday morning thing but even the small things are annoying me today. Just ran accross this:
[Gender] varchar(100) NULL,

It's obviously meant to include the whole gender identity with possible exceptions.:hehe:

Luis C.
General Disclaimer:
Are you seriously taking the advice and code from someone from the internet without testing it? Do you at least understand it? Or can it easily kill your server?

How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help: Option 1 / Option 2

ChrisM@Work SSC Guru Points: 186127 More actions · Answer 4

Alan.B (7/25/2016)
Maybe it's Monday a Monday morning thing but even the small things are annoying me today. Just ran accross this:
[Gender] varchar(100) NULL,

It's fine! I've seen NVARCHAR for gender today. N'F' and N'M'. Really...

^{“Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail Shaw}

For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden

JustMarie SSCertifiable Points: 7771 More actions · Answer 5

ChrisM@Work (7/25/2016)
Alan.B (7/25/2016)
Maybe it's Monday a Monday morning thing but even the small things are annoying me today. Just ran accross this:
[Gender] varchar(100) NULL,
It's fine! I've seen NVARCHAR for gender today. N'F' and N'M'. Really...

First let me state that I cannot change this. Yet.

But I'm dealing with NVARCHAR(1) fields in a particular data set. Where the data can never be unicode.

SQLRNNR SSC Guru Points: 281334 More actions · Answer 6

JustMarie (7/25/2016)
ChrisM@Work (7/25/2016)
Alan.B (7/25/2016)
Maybe it's Monday a Monday morning thing but even the small things are annoying me today. Just ran accross this:
[Gender] varchar(100) NULL,
It's fine! I've seen NVARCHAR for gender today. N'F' and N'M'. Really...
First let me state that I cannot change this. Yet.
But I'm dealing with NVARCHAR(1) fields in a particular data set. Where the data can never be unicode.

And can never be NULL, right?

I love designs like that.

Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
_______________________________________________
I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
SQL RNNR
Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
Learn Extended Events

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182912 More actions · Answer 7

ChrisM@Work (7/25/2016)
Alan.B (7/25/2016)
Maybe it's Monday a Monday morning thing but even the small things are annoying me today. Just ran accross this:
[Gender] varchar(100) NULL,
It's fine! I've seen NVARCHAR for gender today. N'F' and N'M'. Really...

I've seen large systems (like National Statistics) go bonkers when those values have changed and once had to reject the proposal of "CM", "CF" and "UK", "Changed to Male", "Changed to Female" and "UnKnown" respectfully. Needless to say those were NVARCHAR(50) coming from an old MS-Access application:pinch:

😎

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004356 More actions · Answer 8

Eirikur Eiriksson (7/25/2016)
ChrisM@Work (7/25/2016)
Alan.B (7/25/2016)
Maybe it's Monday a Monday morning thing but even the small things are annoying me today. Just ran accross this:
[Gender] varchar(100) NULL,
It's fine! I've seen NVARCHAR for gender today. N'F' and N'M'. Really...
I've seen large systems (like National Statistics) go bonkers when those values have changed and once had to reject the proposal of "CM", "CF" and "UK", "Changed to Male", "Changed to Female" and "UnKnown" respectfully. Needless to say those were NVARCHAR(50) coming from an old MS-Access application:pinch:
😎

Heh... I can't wait until they declare such a thing to be PII and require it to be encrypted. 😛

--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)

BrainDonor SSCoach Points: 19254 More actions · Answer 9

Somewhere deep within the bowels of Microsoft there's a team of developers who believe that there's nothing at all wrong with the way SSIS ascertains the metadata for the columns within an Excel spreadsheet.

One day I would like to meet these people, but only if I have full immunity from prosecution.

Steve Hall
Linkedin
Blog Site

ChrisM@Work SSC Guru Points: 186127 More actions · Answer 10

BrainDonor (7/26/2016)
Somewhere deep within the bowels of Microsoft there's a team of developers who believe that there's nothing at all wrong with the way SSIS ascertains the metadata for the columns within an Excel spreadsheet.
One day I would like to meet these people, but only if I have full immunity from prosecution.

Very well put, Steve.

If you like I'll hold 'em down whilst you perform the surgery.

^{“Write the query the simplest way. If through testing it becomes clear that the performance is inadequate, consider alternative query forms.” - Gail Shaw}

For fast, accurate and documented assistance in answering your questions, please read this article.
Understanding and using APPLY, (I) and (II) Paul White
Hidden RBAR: Triangular Joins / The "Numbers" or "Tally" Table: What it is and how it replaces a loop Jeff Moden

Phil Parkin SSC Guru Points: 246962 More actions · Answer 11

ChrisM@Work (7/26/2016)
BrainDonor (7/26/2016)
Somewhere deep within the bowels of Microsoft there's a team of developers who believe that there's nothing at all wrong with the way SSIS ascertains the metadata for the columns within an Excel spreadsheet.
One day I would like to meet these people, but only if I have full immunity from prosecution.
Very well put, Steve.
If you like I'll hold 'em down whilst you perform the surgery.

This is one team I'd like to be a part of.

If we could also get hold of the related Excel team who believe it's OK to open a text/CSV file and, without warning, alter the data it contains – "because Excel knows best" – I'd pay handsomely.

The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence
- Martin Rees
The absence of consumable DDL, sample data and desired results is, however, evidence of the absence of my response
- Phil Parkin

BrainDonor SSCoach Points: 19254 More actions · Answer 12

Phil Parkin (7/26/2016)
ChrisM@Work (7/26/2016)
BrainDonor (7/26/2016)
Somewhere deep within the bowels of Microsoft there's a team of developers who believe that there's nothing at all wrong with the way SSIS ascertains the metadata for the columns within an Excel spreadsheet.
One day I would like to meet these people, but only if I have full immunity from prosecution.
Very well put, Steve.
If you like I'll hold 'em down whilst you perform the surgery.
This is one team I'd like to be a part of.
If we could also get hold of the related Excel team who believe it's OK to open a text/CSV file and, without warning, alter the data it contains – "because Excel knows best" – I'd pay handsomely.

And would 64-bit drivers be too much to ask?

I don't do a huge amount of SSIS and where I'm working now it's all 2012, whereas in the past there always seemed to be 2005/8 servers running SSIS packages. I've never come across the Integration Services Catalogs before. I quite like it but would some decent documentation have been just that much more extra work?

So that combined with the Excel fun and games is just getting to a bit too much fun.

I need chocolate. Decent chocolate.

Steve Hall
Linkedin
Blog Site

Thomas Rushton SSC-Insane Points: 22649 More actions · Answer 13

BrainDonor (7/26/2016)
I need chocolate. Decent chocolate.

Likewise.

I'm getting a bit spoiled in terms of The Good Stuff at the moment, as the boss of a local chocolate house[/url] used to work here and drops in occasionally...

It's a hard life.

Thomas Rushton
blog: https://thelonedba.wordpress.com

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 14

Phil Parkin (7/26/2016)
ChrisM@Work (7/26/2016)
BrainDonor (7/26/2016)
Somewhere deep within the bowels of Microsoft there's a team of developers who believe that there's nothing at all wrong with the way SSIS ascertains the metadata for the columns within an Excel spreadsheet.
One day I would like to meet these people, but only if I have full immunity from prosecution.
Very well put, Steve.
If you like I'll hold 'em down whilst you perform the surgery.
This is one team I'd like to be a part of.
If we could also get hold of the related Excel team who believe it's OK to open a text/CSV file and, without warning, alter the data it contains – "because Excel knows best" – I'd pay handsomely.

If this ever happens (with full immunity) I'd like to join the team.

Tom

jasona.work SSC Guru Points: 50117 More actions · Answer 15

BrainDonor (7/26/2016)
Phil Parkin (7/26/2016)
ChrisM@Work (7/26/2016)
BrainDonor (7/26/2016)
Somewhere deep within the bowels of Microsoft there's a team of developers who believe that there's nothing at all wrong with the way SSIS ascertains the metadata for the columns within an Excel spreadsheet.
One day I would like to meet these people, but only if I have full immunity from prosecution.
Very well put, Steve.
If you like I'll hold 'em down whilst you perform the surgery.
This is one team I'd like to be a part of.
If we could also get hold of the related Excel team who believe it's OK to open a text/CSV file and, without warning, alter the data it contains – "because Excel knows best" – I'd pay handsomely.
And would 64-bit drivers be too much to ask?
I don't do a huge amount of SSIS and where I'm working now it's all 2012, whereas in the past there always seemed to be 2005/8 servers running SSIS packages. I've never come across the Integration Services Catalogs before. I quite like it but would some decent documentation have been just that much more extra work?
So that combined with the Excel fun and games is just getting to a bit too much fun.
I need chocolate. Decent chocolate.

How about incorporating the bloody drivers so SSIS can handle Excel files (XLSX) without having to jump through the hoops loading the blasted MS Access database Engine on the SSIS server (which in my case is ALSO the SQL Server.)

Is it really too much to ask?

You've got to wonder how many places, to get it to work, have loaded Excel on a server...

I'd expect quite a lot of smaller shops, that or they're running the SSIS packages from some poor schleps workstation...