Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • It isn't the badly phrased, minimal information questions which make me see red but the posters who, given a line of research or something to try, just say "Just give me the solution, send me the code".

    This one was a prime example. Thankfully others had a similar problem and were much nicer to the first responder.

    BTW if it's kilt Wednesday at Pass who's entitled to wear which tartan?

    Hunting Stewart for Jeff Moden, master of the Pork Chop weapon?

  • P Jones (10/15/2009)


    It isn't the badly phrased, minimal information questions which make me see red but the posters who, given a line of research or something to try, just say "Just give me the solution, send me the code".

    This one was a prime example. Thankfully others had a similar problem and were much nicer to the first responder.

    BTW if it's kilt Wednesday at Pass who's entitled to wear which tartan?

    Hunting Stewart for Jeff Moden, master of the Pork Chop weapon?

    The one's that cause blood to shoot out of my ears due to overpressure are when you ask for clarification and they say "Never mind, I'll wait until someone who knows what they're talking about comes along." It's not that I'm claiming to have a clue what I'm talking about, but asking for clarification, even if I'm clueless, is the whole point of this place. Yeargh! I'm getting twisted just thinking about it.

    And... What makes you think we're wearing tartan. I've got an OD kilt that I call my business casual kilt and an camoflage patterned kilt for casual wear. But tartan is cool too. Any kilt in a storm.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • Grant Fritchey (10/15/2009)


    The one's that cause blood to shoot out of my ears due to overpressure are when you ask for clarification and they say "Never mind, I'll wait until someone who knows what they're talking about comes along."

    I got that once and just played arrogant with them. "Have fun waiting..."

    iirc, that particular question never got answered.

    What bugs me far more is when I reply saying that something cannot be done and the OP replies that they will wait for someone to give them a useful answer.

    And... What makes you think we're wearing tartan. I've got an OD kilt that I call my business casual kilt and an camoflage patterned kilt for casual wear. But tartan is cool too. Any kilt in a storm.

    Hmmm, I have a Scottish-style shirt and a scarf in the clan tartan. Maybe I'll pack them... Should make an impression, seeing as I'm presenting on Wed.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Wow, I go offline for a day and there are like 60 posts to catch up on.

    Glad you are almost there Lynn, have a great vacation.

    OP's who have urgent questions and don't reply when I ask a question are not helped.

    I don't have a kilt, if I did I'd wear on kilt Wednesday.

    Did all the eligible PASS members vote in the election?

  • Typical military, hurry up and wait. We are here on Fort Jackson waiting to get into the stadium for the ceremony. But hey, the line is finally moving.

  • Jack Corbett (10/15/2009)


    Wow, I go offline for a day and there are like 60 posts to catch up on.

    I was offline for 7 days. I'm not even going to try to catch up.



    Alvin Ramard
    Memphis PASS Chapter[/url]

    All my SSC forum answers come with a money back guarantee. If you didn't like the answer then I'll gladly refund what you paid for it.

    For best practices on asking questions, please read the following article: Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help[/url]

  • Elliott W (10/14/2009)


    While some of the questions have been gems.. Some of the responses, mostly from the inexperienced, are nothing shy of wild guesses based on nothing, let alone experience. Now I don't have a problem with them answering, everybody has to start somewhere, but where you can, TRY the solution you are putting forth, especially if you haven't ever done it yourself.

    I truly want as much participation as reasonably possible, but if you don't have any actual experience with a technology, it might make more sense to continue reading and wait to see someone else answer.

    Just venting a little.

    That could be me.... 🙂 I have made mistakes. But I usually ask someone to confirm if I was right or wrong. There are times when you cannot try the solution you are putting forward, maybe time constraints or lack of resources. You might be online with no SQL instances for you to test your solution in

    -Roy

  • GilaMonster (10/14/2009)


    Bob Hovious 24601 (10/14/2009)


    Which galaxy?

    This one. What would be the point of conquering any other?

    Before anyone gets worried...

    http://www.galciv2.com/

    Currently playing Altarians going for an ascension victory. Just need to do something about that Iconian empire....

    Worried??? Gail for Supreme Overlord!

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
    Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

  • Jack Corbett (10/15/2009)


    I don't have a kilt, if I did I'd wear on kilt Wednesday.

    http://www.utilikilts.com/, in Seattle no less.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    How best to post your question[/url]
    How to post performance problems[/url]
    Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

    "stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

  • Elliott W (10/14/2009)


    While some of the questions have been gems.. Some of the responses, mostly from the inexperienced, are nothing shy of wild guesses based on nothing, let alone experience. Now I don't have a problem with them answering, everybody has to start somewhere, but where you can, TRY the solution you are putting forth, especially if you haven't ever done it yourself.

    I truly want as much participation as reasonably possible, but if you don't have any actual experience with a technology, it might make more sense to continue reading and wait to see someone else answer.

    Just venting a little.

    Good vent... An equally sickening event is when a supposed "expert" (usually self appointed) provides an answer with a loop in it and then, when challenged with higher performance set based code, gets all puffy and actually defends the loop method to great lengths and on all fronts. Some of those moroff's will write pages of rhetoric trying to defend their looping code and, although I don't really have time to counter, I have to counter because I don't want some other poor slob to believe in the rhetoric or the loop code.

    Heh... another "favorite" is when an "expert" (whether in forums, books, whatever) wants to demonstrate a performance trick... "And today we're going to show you this wonderful performance trick. To demonstrate, we need a million row test table which the following code generates..." ... and the test table generator is a bloody loop and there's no explanation as to why the loop is necessary (and that reason better NOT be to make RAND work ;-)). Yeah... performance "expert"... r-i-g-h-t.

    --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)

  • P Jones (10/15/2009)


    BTW if it's kilt Wednesday at Pass who's entitled to wear which tartan?

    Hunting Stewart for Jeff Moden, master of the Pork Chop weapon?

    Heh... two things no one ever wants to see... the wrong end of a pork chop and me in a Kilt. 😛

    --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)

  • Bob Hovious 24601 (10/14/2009)


    That's how I interpreted it, Gail. This was my quick-and-dirty solution.

    Sample code removed to limit the amount of actual code on THE THREAD.

    if you can't hesitate please see Bobs original post. 🙂

    May The Thread forgive me for actually posting code here.

    Since I'm "another one" who participated in the "trialed" thread in question:

    Yes, I admit not to have posted the solution I think would have helped.

    Yes, I admit I thought the UNPIVOT hint being an appropriate answer for the quality of information given by the OP.

    And I herewith declare that I would have posted the solution a while ago if the OP would have taken the time to either provide sample data or show any other effort he made to support the urgency.

    The reason to make this decision is simple (at least to me):

    Even though setting up the sample data by the OP wouldn't take that long and looking up unpivot in BOL maybe didn't solve his issue completely, it would have shown one basic thing: that the OP is willing to help us help him. I use this once in a while to check if the OP is really interested to participate finding the solution.

    And no, I don't regret my decision. 😉

    Since Bob posted his solution, I'll add the unpivot I suggested:

    declare @sample table (channel varchar(5), line_of_bus varchar(20), prod_nm varchar(20))

    insert into @sample

    select 'all', 'C1','last year p&c' union all

    select 'all', 'D1','busi module' union all

    select 'all', 'd1','bus term' union all

    select 'IA', 'c1','exp cum total' union all

    select 'IA','D1','busi module'

    SELECT channel, upvt_val AS line_of_bus

    FROM

    (SELECT channel, line_of_bus, prod_nm

    FROM @sample) p

    UNPIVOT

    (upvt_val FOR upvt_col IN

    (line_of_bus, prod_nm)

    )AS unpvt

    Edit: spelling fixed

    Edit 2: Sample code partially removed.



    Lutz
    A pessimist is an optimist with experience.

    How to get fast answers to your question[/url]
    How to post performance related questions[/url]
    Links for Tally Table [/url] , Cross Tabs [/url] and Dynamic Cross Tabs [/url], Delimited Split Function[/url]

  • What is going on in THE THREAD? Wasnt there a Code ban on THE THREAD? :hehe:

    -Roy

  • Roy Ernest (10/15/2009)


    What is going on in THE THREAD? Wasnt there a Code ban on THE THREAD? :hehe:

    Even worse, recent discussions have been "On Topic". What's with that????



    Alvin Ramard
    Memphis PASS Chapter[/url]

    All my SSC forum answers come with a money back guarantee. If you didn't like the answer then I'll gladly refund what you paid for it.

    For best practices on asking questions, please read the following article: Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help[/url]

  • Roy Ernest (10/15/2009)


    What is going on in THE THREAD? Wasnt there a Code ban on THE THREAD? :hehe:

    [childish] It wasn't me who started it regarding the specific issue.[/childish]

    Want me to start a new thread like "Sample code belonging to a thread I don't feel like posting in?"? 😀

    Another option would be to describe it without using any line of code (would have extended the post even more....)

    Since Lynn is around he might give us absolution...



    Lutz
    A pessimist is an optimist with experience.

    How to get fast answers to your question[/url]
    How to post performance related questions[/url]
    Links for Tally Table [/url] , Cross Tabs [/url] and Dynamic Cross Tabs [/url], Delimited Split Function[/url]

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