Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 5: The Mathematics of SQL: Part 2

  • A very clear and informative article. A minor point is that the Figure numbers appear to be incorrect in the INNER Join Operator and OUTER JOIN Operator sections

  • I reviewed the article text and your comment and I'm not following what part of the article has incorrect figure numbers. Would you please explain a little further so I can get the article corrected so it contains references to figures that a accurate.

    Thank you

    Greg

    Gregory A. Larsen, MVP

  • "as shown in the Venn diagram in Figure 5" should this be Figure 3?

    "INNER JOIN operation to return part 2 of Figure 6" should this be Figure 4?

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to T-SQL DML Level 5: The Mathematics of SQL: Part 2

    Gregory A. Larsen, MVP

  • Thanks Gregory

    It's always useful to review the basics.

    I think a mathematical set regards any identical member as being the same thing, so in the diagrams there would only be one representative of any number.

    I don't know where that leaves us with UNION ALL though, it seems to break the rules.

    I'm happy to be corrected, I just scraped through my maths degree.

    Craig

  • Very clear explanation of things we use daily and may never think about. Former Republican governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker should have read this a year ago.

  • Thanks Gregory

    It's always useful to review the basics.

    I think a mathematical set regards any identical member as being the same thing, so in the diagrams there would only be one representative of any number.

    I don't know where that leaves us with UNION ALL though, it seems to break the rules.

    I'm happy to be corrected, I just scraped through my maths degree.

    Craig

    You're correct. Sets are defined as collections of unique elements. SQL however isn't set based, but rather based on bags (think Sets that allow duplicates).

    See any of Chris Date's books for long rants about this 🙂

  • I think this is a very good way to teach essentials, using mathematical objects leached of the connotations of the "real world".  Thank you.

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply