Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • I hope that's generated. If someone did a cut/paste to assemble that code, they'll have to fix it on their own.

  • I've stocked up on suits of armor.

    I'm installing 2016 on the new dev box, and as part of it, removed the functionality that takes the last full production backup of a given database, and COPIES IT TO DEV SO THE DEVELOPERS CAN RESTORE IT ON THEIR LAPTOPS.

    This was put in place by my predecessors. We then trust them to run the data scrub.

    Michael L John
    If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
    To properly post on a forum:
    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/

  • Oh well, I've being going around in circles with a XML query problem for a couple of days.

    XML not even next to the ball park of stuff I am comfortable with!

    So I have hopefully constructed a question of the required format and posted to the XML forum... I got close with my attempts but they want a certain number of rows returned and with a particular ranking - pesky users!

    In other news got a ticket for The Who performing Tommy acoustic as part of the Teenage cancer trust week of gigs next year 🙂

    And in other other news, I've been helping the devops team with setting up maintenance and monitoring here at my current gig. They hadn't realised things were so bad. They have relied on external cloud supplier thinking they take care of all that sort of thing.

    Cheers,

    Rodders...

  • Steve Jones - SSC Editor (9/22/2016)


    I hope that's generated. If someone did a cut/paste to assemble that code, they'll have to fix it on their own.

    I only saw it from Phil's link and I think my eyes started to bleed. I don't know how anyone could work with it.

  • Michael L John (9/22/2016)


    I've stocked up on suits of armor.

    I'm installing 2016 on the new dev box, and as part of it, removed the functionality that takes the last full production backup of a given database, and COPIES IT TO DEV SO THE DEVELOPERS CAN RESTORE IT ON THEIR LAPTOPS.

    This was put in place by my predecessors. We then trust them to run the data scrub.

    Do the developers already have SQL 2016 on their workstations?

    Also, you're trusting THEM to anonymize the data on their local instance that you can't verify? :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:

  • COPIES IT TO DEV SO THE DEVELOPERS CAN RESTORE IT ON THEIR LAPTOPS.

    Oh, wow :-D.

  • YIKES! Not only is Microsoft changing the patching for Win 7 & 8.1, but hackers have gotten to the White House.

    And we're having mini-meltdowns at work where everyone is freaking out about sudden slowness and timeouts. The first being attributed to McAfee freaking out and piling up scans in a queue so (if I understand correctly) it was constantly scanning some shared storage attached to our Citrix servers. The second being ... what I'm researching now.

    EDIT: Gotta love user reports of "We're getting errors" with exactly that much detail in them. Fortunately, these errors are getting logged so we can check them later.

    Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.

  • Ed Wagner (9/23/2016)


    Michael L John (9/22/2016)


    I've stocked up on suits of armor.

    I'm installing 2016 on the new dev box, and as part of it, removed the functionality that takes the last full production backup of a given database, and COPIES IT TO DEV SO THE DEVELOPERS CAN RESTORE IT ON THEIR LAPTOPS.

    This was put in place by my predecessors. We then trust them to run the data scrub.

    Do the developers already have SQL 2016 on their workstations?

    Also, you're trusting THEM to anonymize the data on their local instance that you can't verify? :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:

    Not any more!

    The entire process has been removed. If they need production data to work with, a sandbox server that will be refreshed with scrubbed prod data will be available as needed. October 4th. Drop dead date.

    Michael L John
    If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
    To properly post on a forum:
    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/

  • Michael L John (9/23/2016)


    Ed Wagner (9/23/2016)


    Michael L John (9/22/2016)


    I've stocked up on suits of armor.

    I'm installing 2016 on the new dev box, and as part of it, removed the functionality that takes the last full production backup of a given database, and COPIES IT TO DEV SO THE DEVELOPERS CAN RESTORE IT ON THEIR LAPTOPS.

    This was put in place by my predecessors. We then trust them to run the data scrub.

    Do the developers already have SQL 2016 on their workstations?

    Also, you're trusting THEM to anonymize the data on their local instance that you can't verify? :w00t: :w00t: :w00t:

    Not any more!

    The entire process has been removed. If they need production data to work with, a sandbox server that will be refreshed with scrubbed prod data will be available as needed. October 4th. Drop dead date.

    Good - That's a disaster waiting to happen. It may have been implemented by someone else, but you know who would get blamed for it if a laptop would be stolen.

  • Someone needs a course on how to write basic DML. Or maybe I'm just grumpy this week.

    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
  • Luis Cazares (9/23/2016)


    Someone needs a course on how to write basic DML. Or maybe I'm just grumpy this week.

    You might be grumpy but good grief. That code was horrible.

    _______________________________________________________________

    Need help? Help us help you.

    Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

    Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

  • Luis Cazares (9/23/2016)


    Someone needs a course on how to write basic DML. Or maybe I'm just grumpy this week.

    No... you're not grumpy. As a matter of fact, ever since MS made it so that BOL is no longer on the installation disks, the questions have been getting worse every month that passes, as has the code. I think we hit the bottom of the barrel today with that one post that asked how to initialize a variable in T-SQL. Yeah... lot's of semantics possible (as witnessed in the discussion that ensued) but, during an interview on T-SQL, one should be able to spout off the obvious answers (and there is more than 1 answer).

    --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)

  • Jeff Moden (9/23/2016)


    Luis Cazares (9/23/2016)


    Someone needs a course on how to write basic DML. Or maybe I'm just grumpy this week.

    No... you're not grumpy. As a matter of fact, ever since MS made it so that BOL is no longer on the installation disks, the questions have been getting worse every month that passes, as has the code. I think we hit the bottom of the barrel today with that one post that asked how to initialize a variable in T-SQL. Yeah... lot's of semantics possible (as witnessed in the discussion that ensued) but, during an interview on T-SQL, one should be able to spout off the obvious answers (and there is more than 1 answer).

    I don't think MS's stupid change made a lot of difference (but it certainly made some); there have always been people who couldn't be bothered to read BOL even when it was on their workstation, and some who deleted it from their workstations (or told the installer not to install it) to gain disc space for their porn collections.

    But that code really is surpassingly horrible - I've rarely seen anything quite that bad.

    Tom

  • TomThomson (9/24/2016)


    Jeff Moden (9/23/2016)


    Luis Cazares (9/23/2016)


    Someone needs a course on how to write basic DML. Or maybe I'm just grumpy this week.

    No... you're not grumpy. As a matter of fact, ever since MS made it so that BOL is no longer on the installation disks, the questions have been getting worse every month that passes, as has the code. I think we hit the bottom of the barrel today with that one post that asked how to initialize a variable in T-SQL. Yeah... lot's of semantics possible (as witnessed in the discussion that ensued) but, during an interview on T-SQL, one should be able to spout off the obvious answers (and there is more than 1 answer).

    I don't think MS's stupid change made a lot of difference (but it certainly made some); there have always been people who couldn't be bothered to read BOL even when it was on their workstation, and some who deleted it from their workstations (or told the installer not to install it) to gain disc space for their porn collections.

    But that code really is surpassingly horrible - I've rarely seen anything quite that bad.

    It was way beyond horrible. The part that puzzles me somewhat is that they didn't even try. If SQL tells you what the problem is and where to start looking, how does that translate into posting code on a help forum before you even try? SQL doesn't always nail the exact problem and location, but it usually gets you in the general vicinity.

    The lack of specific errors and people like Luis and Phil showing great patience in trying to pull out what's wrong illustrate more of a "slot machine" mentality. Insert question...get answer. Post "doesn't work"...get answer. Then again, maybe I'm being grumpy as well.

  • Are any Threadizens going to SQL Saturday Pittsburgh next Saturday, 10/1/2016?

    The session are published at http://www.sqlsaturday.com/545/EventHome.aspx.

    If anyone's interested, Jeff and I are doing a pre-con the day before.

    This chapter puts on a really nice event all the way around. It's at the Pittsburgh Technical Institute, which is a great facility. The "Wanna Be A DBA" track is back again this year and has been quite popular with Accidental DBAs and students. There are six other tracks, so there's plenty of variety.

    More than a couple Threadizens are giving presentations. Personally, I'm hoping to meet some people from SSC I haven't met before.

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