Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • GilaMonster - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 3:09 PM

    Jeff Moden - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 2:53 PM

    It turns out that most of the queries that we previously identified as "needs rework for performance" are the ones that took the biggest hits.  Our problem is that there is no time to rework the queries because half of them are for monster imports and the other half are what the bloody ORMs have produced, which we can't even get to to apply the Trace Flag at the query level and certainly don't have the time to do a fix and the related regression testing (the queries have a broad impact throughout the GUI). 

    Use Query Store.

    Drop the compat mode down to SQL 2012's compat mode. Run the query. Use the Query Store plan forcing to force that plan, then turn the compat mode back to 2016. The forced plan will still be forced, and will remain forced unless you do something that makes it invalid (like drop an index)

    Thanks Gail.  Will that work with ORM code that causes a recompile every time that it's used because it can't actually find a match in the cache?  I'm also not so sure that I'd want the proverbial "Sword of Damocles" hanging over my head praying that someone does drop an index or similar.  I believe that we'll continue with the original plan before the upgrade to 2016... fix the resource intensive code. 😀  It does mean that we'll need to keep the Trace Flag active for now and may act as an accelerant for finally fixing the previously identified resource intensive code.  (Always gotta look for that "silver lining" when such a thing happens :w00t:)

    --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 - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 3:33 PM

    Lynn Pettis - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 3:04 PM

    Must have missed that warning about the "illegal" form of UPDATE.

    It's a JOINed update where the target table isn't in the FROM clause and has, instead, had aliases (like you might use in a correlated subquery but not in a subquery) that make the implied "join" work.  It frequently works correctly.  When it doesn't, it will eat your server.  It usually takes the following forms...


     UPDATE dbo.SomeTable st
        SET SomeColA = ot.SomeColA
       FROM db.OtherTable ot
    WHERE st.SomePK  = ot.SomePK
    ;
     UPDATE SomeTable
        SET SomeColA = OtherTable.SomeColA
       FROM OtherTable
    WHERE SomeTable.SomePK  = OtherTable.SomePK
    ;

    You won't find such examples in BOL.

    Heh... how ironic it would be if the new CE in 2016 would allow that junk. :sick:

    Okay, think I ran into that myself years ago but had issues and don't do that anymore.  Didn't realize people still do that.

  • GilaMonster - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 3:09 PM

    Jeff Moden - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 2:53 PM

    It turns out that most of the queries that we previously identified as "needs rework for performance" are the ones that took the biggest hits.  Our problem is that there is no time to rework the queries because half of them are for monster imports and the other half are what the bloody ORMs have produced, which we can't even get to to apply the Trace Flag at the query level and certainly don't have the time to do a fix and the related regression testing (the queries have a broad impact throughout the GUI). 

    Use Query Store.

    Drop the compat mode down to SQL 2012's compat mode. Run the query. Use the Query Store plan forcing to force that plan, then turn the compat mode back to 2016. The forced plan will still be forced, and will remain forced unless you do something that makes it invalid (like drop an index)

    "I know nothing" ~ Jon (Snow)

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  • I just wanted to give everyone, Tom, Jeff, Hugo, Wayne & Steve a huge THANK YOU for providing your input, sharing your experiences and providing links to additional resources... 
    I'm glad to know that my instincts weren't too far off base on the whole ORM thing. 
    This really is a fantastic community. I really appreciate you guys. 🙂

  • Beatrix Kiddo - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 2:45 AM

    oSounds like it's below your skillset, Jason.

    Sorry to ask, but is anybody here able to help me with my Availability Group puzzler here please?

    We do use AO/AG but I my direct involvement with the implementation has been pretty minimal to date, I was brought in after the fact to create a solution to keep CDC up and running in the event of a fail-over from primary to secondary...
    Assuming, tomorrow has a more relaxed pace than today, I'll I'll dig into the backup process and see what we're doing with AG.

  • jonathan.crawford - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 6:10 PM

    "I know nothing" ~ Jon (Snow)

    "I know nothing" - Manuel, Fawlty Towers

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

  • ThomasRushton - Wednesday, September 27, 2017 2:08 AM

    jonathan.crawford - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 6:10 PM

    "I know nothing" ~ Jon (Snow)

    "I know nothing" - Manuel, Fawlty Towers

    "I know notink!" - Sergeant Schultz, Hogan's Heroes

  • ThomasRushton - Wednesday, September 27, 2017 2:08 AM

    jonathan.crawford - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 6:10 PM

    "I know nothing" ~ Jon (Snow)

    "I know nothing" - Manuel, Fawlty Towers

    Or me, after being asked anything about SQL replication. Or SharePoint.

    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

  • Jason A. Long - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 8:59 PM

    Beatrix Kiddo - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 2:45 AM

    oSounds like it's below your skillset, Jason.

    Sorry to ask, but is anybody here able to help me with my Availability Group puzzler here please?

    We do use AO/AG but I my direct involvement with the implementation has been pretty minimal to date, I was brought in after the fact to create a solution to keep CDC up and running in the event of a fail-over from primary to secondary...
    Assuming, tomorrow has a more relaxed pace than today, I'll I'll dig into the backup process and see what we're doing with AG.

    We had a guy in here a few years ago who wrote a new system using Entity Framework. He had heard that I was pretty good with sql and optimizing queries so he asked me if I could help him with a query that was running through EF. I of course told him I would happy to help. He then delivered a query that was somewhere around 1,000 lines and had no less than around 70-80 subqueries. He was kind of frustrated that I couldn't make his query faster. I told him I could but it would require starting from scratch and an explanation of what the query was attempting to do because the abomination that EF generated was never going to work. I doubt any automated code generating tool will ever be as good as human. The whole thing about coding is that is almost as much art as it is science. You can write code to handle the science part but that art part requires a human brain to process.

    _______________________________________________________________

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  • Sean Lange - Wednesday, September 27, 2017 7:18 AM

    We had a guy in here a few years ago who wrote a new system using Entity Framework. He had heard that I was pretty good with sql and optimizing queries so he asked me if I could help him with a query that was running through EF. I of course told him I would happy to help. He then delivered a query that was somewhere around 1,000 lines and had no less than around 70-80 subqueries. He was kind of frustrated that I couldn't make his query faster. I told him I could but it would require starting from scratch and an explanation of what the query was attempting to do because the abomination that EF generated was never going to work. I doubt any automated code generating tool will ever be as good as human. The whole thing about coding is that is almost as much art as it is science. You can write code to handle the science part but that art part requires a human brain to process.

    It's just like the chess simulators. They can choose the best move based on all the possibilities for the next N moves (I'm not sure how many). Good chess players won't care about all the possibilities, they'll just check the best options and try to predict some moves based on their opponent.

    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 - Wednesday, September 27, 2017 8:16 AM

    Sean Lange - Wednesday, September 27, 2017 7:18 AM

    We had a guy in here a few years ago who wrote a new system using Entity Framework. He had heard that I was pretty good with sql and optimizing queries so he asked me if I could help him with a query that was running through EF. I of course told him I would happy to help. He then delivered a query that was somewhere around 1,000 lines and had no less than around 70-80 subqueries. He was kind of frustrated that I couldn't make his query faster. I told him I could but it would require starting from scratch and an explanation of what the query was attempting to do because the abomination that EF generated was never going to work. I doubt any automated code generating tool will ever be as good as human. The whole thing about coding is that is almost as much art as it is science. You can write code to handle the science part but that art part requires a human brain to process.

    It's just like the chess simulators. They can choose the best move based on all the possibilities for the next N moves (I'm not sure how many). Good chess players won't care about all the possibilities, they'll just check the best options and try to predict some moves based on their opponent.

    I am so bad at chess that back in high school I was playing against a chess program then and it predicted all my moves 100% of the time.  Still like the game just don't play very often.

  • Jason A. Long - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 8:47 PM

    I just wanted to give everyone, Tom, Jeff, Hugo, Wayne & Steve a huge THANK YOU for providing your input, sharing your experiences and providing links to additional resources... 
    I'm glad to know that my instincts weren't too far off base on the whole ORM thing. 
    This really is a fantastic community. I really appreciate you guys. 🙂

    Cheers

  • Sean Lange - Wednesday, September 27, 2017 7:18 AM

    Jason A. Long - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 8:59 PM

    Beatrix Kiddo - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 2:45 AM

    oSounds like it's below your skillset, Jason.

    Sorry to ask, but is anybody here able to help me with my Availability Group puzzler here please?

    We do use AO/AG but I my direct involvement with the implementation has been pretty minimal to date, I was brought in after the fact to create a solution to keep CDC up and running in the event of a fail-over from primary to secondary...
    Assuming, tomorrow has a more relaxed pace than today, I'll I'll dig into the backup process and see what we're doing with AG.

    We had a guy in here a few years ago who wrote a new system using Entity Framework. He had heard that I was pretty good with sql and optimizing queries so he asked me if I could help him with a query that was running through EF. I of course told him I would happy to help. He then delivered a query that was somewhere around 1,000 lines and had no less than around 70-80 subqueries. He was kind of frustrated that I couldn't make his query faster. I told him I could but it would require starting from scratch and an explanation of what the query was attempting to do because the abomination that EF generated was never going to work. I doubt any automated code generating tool will ever be as good as human. The whole thing about coding is that is almost as much art as it is science. You can write code to handle the science part but that art part requires a human brain to process.

    I couldn't agree more, Sean.  Going back to the VB5 days and continuing through the View Designer :sick: in SSMS, I've never seen a code generator or wizard generate good code that I'd consider using in production.  That's not to say that one doesn't exist or couldn't be written; just that I've never seen one.

  • Jeff Moden - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 3:33 PM

    Lynn Pettis - Tuesday, September 26, 2017 3:04 PM

    Must have missed that warning about the "illegal" form of UPDATE.

    It's a JOINed update where the target table isn't in the FROM clause and has, instead, had aliases (like you might use in a correlated subquery but not in a subquery) that make the implied "join" work.  It frequently works correctly.  When it doesn't, it will eat your server.  It usually takes the following forms...


     UPDATE dbo.SomeTable st
        SET SomeColA = ot.SomeColA
       FROM db.OtherTable ot
    WHERE st.SomePK  = ot.SomePK
    ;
     UPDATE SomeTable
        SET SomeColA = OtherTable.SomeColA
       FROM OtherTable
    WHERE SomeTable.SomePK  = OtherTable.SomePK
    ;

    You won't find such examples in BOL.

    Heh... how ironic it would be if the new CE in 2016 would allow that junk. :sick:

    The first form won't even parse (in 2014).  Aliases can only be defined in the FROM clause, not the UPDATE clause.  Perhaps you are confusing it with this form:
    UPDATE dbo.SomeTable
    SET SomeColA = ot.SomeColA
    FROM dbo.SomeTable st
    INNER JOIN OtherTable ot
        ON st.SomePK = ot.SomePK

    In this form, they are referencing SomeTable twice: once unaliased in the UPDATE clause and once aliased in the FROM clause.

    Drew

    J. Drew Allen
    Business Intelligence Analyst
    Philadelphia, PA

  • drew.allen - Wednesday, September 27, 2017 9:50 AM

    The first form won't even parse (in 2014).  Aliases can only be defined in the FROM clause, not the UPDATE clause.  Perhaps you are confusing it with this form:
    UPDATE dbo.SomeTable
    SET SomeColA = ot.SomeColA
    FROM dbo.SomeTable st
    INNER JOIN OtherTable ot
        ON st.SomePK = ot.SomePK

    In this form, they are referencing SomeTable twice: once unaliased in the UPDATE clause and once aliased in the FROM clause.

    Drew

    I have had issues at times with this form, had to replace the unaliased table name after the UPDATE statement with the alias from the table in the FROM clause.

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