TOP and TABLESAMPLE

  • OK, this is more my fault than Kevin's.

    To start, "is" changed to "are" and "select all that apply" added. I should have done that.

    The engine is built to show radio buttons if one answer is required, checkboxes if 2 or more are correct. That's how the MS tests work, but it also means there's a trick. If I forget the "select all the apply", you have to know that at least 2 answers are required. I'm not sure if I'd always like to have checkboxes, though that would remove the confusion from questions.

    I also can't an an either/or for partial credit. Enhancement is needed here, but I'm not sure how I can do this without confusing myself more often than not:w00t:

    I thought it was a good question, but I didn't read into it like a few of you. I also see it from a different perspective, so apologies for any confusion. The intent from me, and I'm guessing Kevin, was not to confuse, but show that SAMPLE isn't necessarily accurate.

  • As an FYI, I'm not upset about the complaints. I completely understand how it looks from your side and I apologize.

    The QOD is a hard place to get a good question written. And it's hard to think about all the ways things can be interpreted. You have valid reasons for not liking the question and I hope we've fixed them for people answering now and we'll keep them in mind in the future.

  • I've been caught out by the multiple answer thang before - but never again!

    This argument over lost points is hiding how good a question this is. Who at MS decided that a tablesample of 1000 rows should return *approximately* 1000 rows! I can see that 10 percent might be an approximation - but an exact number of rows! Sheesh.

    From BOL:

    When a number of rows is specified, rather than a percentage based on the total number of rows in the table, the number is converted into a percentage of the rows, and therefore, pages, that should be returned. The TABLESAMPLE is then performed with that computed percentage.

    This is silly.

  • Wow... although I've not needed to use it, I've heard about TableSample before. Didn't know it would return a random number of rows in the rows mode. What a POS command it is. If you use (10 rows) on a 10,000 row table, you get 0 rows. The guys that put that on together need a porkchop dinner Moden style! 😛

    --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)

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