Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 1

Thom A - Thursday, September 20, 2018 10:06 AM
Lynn Pettis - Thursday, September 20, 2018 9:56 AM
Okay, not really sure where to post this so I think the water cooler is as good a place as any. My daughter needs ideas for a Big Data Project this semester and I am at a loss. Any ideas are welcome and apparently there is no other information regarding requirements at this time, so high level ideas with perhaps some links to potential data, i don't know (that's why i am asking for help).
I dare to ask it, but have you considered the Stack Overflow database? That's pretty "big": https://www.brentozar.com/archive/2015/10/how-to-download-the-stack-overflow-database-via-bittorrent/
The number of objects in there is pretty low, if I recall correctly, but (as you can guess), there's a huge amount of data in there.

She just asked me a very relevant question, what would be her focus regarding the data in the database? I haven't even looked at so I have no idea.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004363 More actions · Answer 2

Lynn Pettis - Thursday, September 20, 2018 11:02 AM
She just asked me a very relevant question, what would be her focus regarding the data in the database? I haven't even looked at so I have no idea.

Heh.... have her do the one thing that no one else assigned the same project will even think of doing... Have her design, codify, and demonstrate how to GENERATE some "big" data according to a smattering of requirements for test purposes.

--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)

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

Eirikur Eiriksson - Wednesday, September 19, 2018 11:26 AM
Me trying to explain Cartesian produce to my young daughter (failed of course)
😎
How can I translate this to a 9YSpeak?

Have you tried using Lego pieces?

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

Thom A SSC Guru Points: 99130 More actions · Answer 4

Lynn Pettis - Thursday, September 20, 2018 11:02 AM
She just asked me a very relevant question, what would be her focus regarding the data in the database? I haven't even looked at so I have no idea.

Been awhile since I looked at the SO database, in all honesty (and would take me ages to download it again at home with my really fast 5Mbps internet ðŸ˜“). Does she have any ideas on what type of focus she wants to do, or is that requirement as vague as the other? 🙂 Maybe knowing what she wants to focus on will help us think of some big data she could make use of.

Thom~

Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 5

Thom A - Friday, September 21, 2018 2:09 AM
Been awhile since I looked at the SO database, in all honesty (and would take me ages to download it again at home with my really fast 5Mbps internet ðŸ˜“). Does she have any ideas on what type of focus she wants to do, or is that requirement as vague as the other? 🙂 Maybe knowing what she wants to focus on will help us think of some big data she could make use of.

Just as vague a requirement. I was talking with her last night and the assignment is really open ended with little guidance. She has a few a ideas is and is bouncing things of a few people. It is hard when I find myself at a loss trying to help (not do it for her, just help with ideas and some guidance, I know she has to do the work).

Eirikur Eiriksson SSC Guru Points: 182912 More actions · Answer 6

Luis Cazares - Thursday, September 20, 2018 12:14 PM
Eirikur Eiriksson - Wednesday, September 19, 2018 11:26 AM
Me trying to explain Cartesian produce to my young daughter (failed of course)
😎
How can I translate this to a 9YSpeak?
Have you tried using Lego pieces?

Worked like a charm, person 1,2,3,4 all have equal bags of Lego, all of them drop the content on the floor and my daughter has to pick them up, understood before we reached person 2 😀
😎

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

Lynn Pettis - Friday, September 21, 2018 8:10 AM
Just as vague a requirement. I was talking with her last night and the assignment is really open ended with little guidance. She has a few a ideas is and is bouncing things of a few people. It is hard when I find myself at a loss trying to help (not do it for her, just help with ideas and some guidance, I know she has to do the work).

My suggestion is to look into the large free data sets, which have not been ERDed or structured, correlation and analysis of those is more relevant to BigDs and IoTs than the SO data set.
😎

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736270 More actions · Answer 8

Sean Lange - Tuesday, September 18, 2018 9:45 AM
I might "borrow" this project as we put flags out on the grave stones every Memorial Day. We never really know if we get flags on all the graves or not. Our local cemetery is pretty small because it is a small town and many gravestones have not been maintained in decades. That is another project in itself that I have suggested to one of our boys looking for an Eagle project. I suggested that he research how to properly restore headstones. Then do everything he can to contact the family members if any exist and get permission from the cemetery for the remainder. We have quite a few headstones that are nearly lost because they are small and not kept up. Thanks for the idea!!

We had a kid do something similar. He built a database and map, but also had a steel box constructed and mounted at the cemetery. A book was in there with a map and cross referenced sites by name, service branch, and year.

jonathan.crawford SSCertifiable Points: 6612 More actions · Answer 9

Eirikur Eiriksson - Friday, September 21, 2018 8:26 AM
Worked like a charm, person 1,2,3,4 all have equal bags of Lego, all of them drop the content on the floor and my daughter has to pick them up, understood before we reached person 2 😀
😎

I have to say, that's hilarious! I would have been building them, so much more instructive your way....

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jonathan.crawford SSCertifiable Points: 6612 More actions · Answer 10

Steve Jones - SSC Editor - Friday, September 21, 2018 9:39 AM
Sean Lange - Tuesday, September 18, 2018 9:45 AM
I might "borrow" this project as we put flags out on the grave stones every Memorial Day. We never really know if we get flags on all the graves or not. Our local cemetery is pretty small because it is a small town and many gravestones have not been maintained in decades. That is another project in itself that I have suggested to one of our boys looking for an Eagle project. I suggested that he research how to properly restore headstones. Then do everything he can to contact the family members if any exist and get permission from the cemetery for the remainder. We have quite a few headstones that are nearly lost because they are small and not kept up. Thanks for the idea!!
We had a kid do something similar. He built a database and map, but also had a steel box constructed and mounted at the cemetery. A book was in there with a map and cross referenced sites by name, service branch, and year.

These are all awesome. I just sent a suggestion for findagrave.com to add searchable parameters for veteran and branch of service too.

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jonathan.crawford SSCertifiable Points: 6612 More actions · Answer 11

"I sometimes think I could do truly amazing stuff if I tried to do less stuff." ~ Grant Fritchey

New favorite quote. For Hugo/Grant, thank you for the 3rd edition, you're giving me learning material for years to come as we move out of 2014 into the newer versions at work.

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Ed Wagner SSC Guru Points: 287026 More actions · Answer 12

jonathan.crawford - Friday, September 21, 2018 12:24 PM
Steve Jones - SSC Editor - Friday, September 21, 2018 9:39 AM
Sean Lange - Tuesday, September 18, 2018 9:45 AM
I might "borrow" this project as we put flags out on the grave stones every Memorial Day. We never really know if we get flags on all the graves or not. Our local cemetery is pretty small because it is a small town and many gravestones have not been maintained in decades. That is another project in itself that I have suggested to one of our boys looking for an Eagle project. I suggested that he research how to properly restore headstones. Then do everything he can to contact the family members if any exist and get permission from the cemetery for the remainder. We have quite a few headstones that are nearly lost because they are small and not kept up. Thanks for the idea!!
We had a kid do something similar. He built a database and map, but also had a steel box constructed and mounted at the cemetery. A book was in there with a map and cross referenced sites by name, service branch, and year.
These are all awesome. I just sent a suggestion for findagrave.com to add searchable parameters for veteran and branch of service too.

Uh oh. Wait until I tell my wife of this post. She'll be all over it.

Tally Tables - Performance Personified
String Splitting with True Performance
Best practices on how to ask questions

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 13

patrickmcginnis59 10839 - Tuesday, September 18, 2018 6:55 AM
My thoughts are that the interesting parts of T-SQL are declarative, and in their absence T-SQL would just be a rather slow interpreted language with some database capabilities. I view the procedural elements of T-SQL and others as additions to allow turing complete programming when needed.
...
...
I do agree that T-SQL has some imperative parts, I just think a major interesting part of T-SQL (ie., the non procedural SQL parts) should be allowed to be called declarative. I've taken a liking to using the "declarative" description in place of "set oriented". Obviously personal preference and an offered 2 cents worth of opinion!

Well, any language in which a single statement manages to be non-declarative on its own would be rather nasty. Currently single DML statements are declarative, as are single DDL statements.

The problem is that sequences of DDL and/or DML statements are not always declarative. The language does partly address this, by providing explicit transactions - but that only does part of the job, as (a) the default isolation level (whether for SQL Server or Oracle or ...) allows a sequence of DML statements within a transaction to violate declarativeness and (b) a sequence with both DDL statements and DML statements can be non-declarative regardless of the isolation level. Point (a) can be avoided by always using one of the two isolation levels which prevents phantom reads as (well as other anomalies) but I suspect that (b) is unavoidable unless one puts DDL and DML into separate transactions. Also sequences involving assignment of values to variables are usually not declarative, but that's not really interesting. So it's generally (but not always) possible to write declaratively in SQL. But regrettably most developers working in SQL can't think declaratively (in fact most even don't know what "declarative" means) so most SQL actually written is not declarative.

Tom

Jonathan AC Roberts SSCoach Points: 18356 More actions · Answer 14

TomThomson - Sunday, September 23, 2018 6:20 PM
patrickmcginnis59 10839 - Tuesday, September 18, 2018 6:55 AM
My thoughts are that the interesting parts of T-SQL are declarative, and in their absence T-SQL would just be a rather slow interpreted language with some database capabilities. I view the procedural elements of T-SQL and others as additions to allow turing complete programming when needed.
...
...
I do agree that T-SQL has some imperative parts, I just think a major interesting part of T-SQL (ie., the non procedural SQL parts) should be allowed to be called declarative. I've taken a liking to using the "declarative" description in place of "set oriented". Obviously personal preference and an offered 2 cents worth of opinion!
Well, any language in which a single statement manages to be non-declarative on its own would be rather nasty. Currently single DML statements are declarative, as are single DDL statements.
The problem is that sequences of DDL and/or DML statements are not always declarative. The language does partly address this, by providing explicit transactions - but that only does part of the job, as (a) the default isolation level (whether for SQL Server or Oracle or ...) allows a sequence of DML statements within a transaction to violate declarativeness and (b) a sequence with both DDL statements and DML statements can be non-declarative regardless of the isolation level. Point (a) can be avoided by always using one of the two isolation levels which prevents phantom reads as (well as other anomalies) but I suspect that (b) is unavoidable unless one puts DDL and DML into separate transactions. Also sequences involving assignment of values to variables are usually not declarative, but that's not really interesting. So it's generally (but not always) possible to write declaratively in SQL. But regrettably most developers working in SQL can't think declaratively (in fact most even don't know what "declarative" means) so most SQL actually written is not declarative.

When people refer to SQL being declarative they are referring to an individual SQL statement. For example, with the simple query:
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE col1 = 'X' ORDER BY col2
is declarative. You don't have to tell the compiler to open a file then to read through until it finds all the rows with col1='X', you don't have to tell it how to sort the results, and output the resultset then close the files. All you really do is tell the database engine the results you want and the database engine and optimizer will work out how to get them.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004363 More actions · Answer 15

The real fact of the matter is that whether or not T-SQL is actually declarative or not, doesn't actually matter. It is what it is. The key is to get people to understand what it does and get them to make the paradigm shift from procedural (meaning row based in this context) programming to the way T-SQL and SQL Server work. If people want to call that way "Declarative", I'm ok with that even if it may not meet all of the requirements of a pure "Declarative" language, which I'm not actually going to take the time to explore further. 😀

--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)