What Do We Want?

Question

What Do We Want?

Forum Etiquette: How to post Reporting Services problems

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Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help - by Jeff Moden
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How to Post Performance Problems - by Gail Shaw
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TravisDBA SSCoach Points: 15780 More actions · Answer 1

To my knowledge, an ALTER still does not update the timestamp on the object where DROP/CREATE does and that has always been a little bit of an annoyance for me. I always want the timestamp updated on every object I, or ANYONE else changes, no matter how trivial. However, on the other hand, I don't necessarily want to DROP/CREATE the object every time and risk losing other things like perms,etc. just for a trivial change either. So, come on Mickeysoft, how hard is it to do this? and why would you not do this in the first place in previous versions when changing any object on your database? Duh? Documenting objects should be done as a supplement, but tough to enforce in many shops. So, automatically having the db engine update timestamps for ANY change to db objects would take this out of the hands of developers/DBA's that won't follow the rules for whatever reason. 😀

"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"

Trey Staker SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4796 More actions · Answer 2

I'd like to see more of the Enterprise features released to standard as they come up with new Enterprise features. They sometimes do this, there was a lot of this between 2000 and 2005.

Someone else said it but a built in code beautifyer would be nice. Better yet would be the ability to have several style templates including the ability to customize it to fit your company's coding standards.

I'd like to have a way, maybe a database property, that would change the nature of the database as it changed from a SANDBOX/DEV/TEST/PRODUCTION with a set of rules for the database in each of these enviornments and could be quickly toggled after a database is restored.

I'd like a tool that uses extended properties to easily document the database. I know some of this exists in 3rd party apps but it would be nice to be bundled in Redgates products or even part of SQL Server.

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KB Article from Microsoft on how to ask a question on a Forum

Ryan D. SSCommitted Points: 1595 More actions · Answer 3

I would like easier manageability of job access and creation. Something like a table matrix where you can set who can exec, run, modify instead of going through the process of changing jobs owners.

mister.magoo SSC-Forever Points: 47174 More actions · Answer 4

Terry Mott (4/22/2010)
Nested transactions.
I should be able to begin / commit / rollback a transaction in a stored procedure without worrying about whether an upstream procedure has begun a transaction or not. This has been on my wish list since version 4.7(?).
I know you get clever with savepoints and do conditional stuff based on @@TRANCOUNT. What I'm talking about is the ability to simply begin and commit / rollback a transaction within a procedure and not care if a higher level transaction exists -- if the lower level transaction is rolled back, its changes go away and the higher level transaction can still be committed. If the lower level transaction is committed and the higher level transaction is rolled back, the lower level's changes are rolled back as well.
IIRC, Oracle had this as far back as version 6, maybe before.

I second that.

MM

select geometry::STGeomFromWKB(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

j.a.c SSCrazy Points: 2283 More actions · Answer 5

Bring back the old config files (sqc) that Query Analyzer used!! These were great for setting the background color, font, whatever you wanted on a per connection basis.

It would be great if SSMS could handle some kind of per connection config file. The registered servers properties tab just does not go far enough.

Andy

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004302 More actions · Answer 6

I wish they'd actually stop listening to most customers. Asking for things like enhancements to cursors just don't make sense to me. If they made things like PIVOT and the Windowing Functions actually work correctly, there would be no need for cursor enhancements.

--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)

Dan.Humphries SSChampion Points: 12125 More actions · Answer 7

In SSMS I would love to see some basic functions that have been around in any good code editor for a long time. If I miss a comma highlight that in read. tell me when I fat fingure it. intellesence was added to 2008 but only works if you are on a 2008 database. some backewards compatibility would be nice.

Dan

If only I could snap my figures and have all the correct indexes apear and the buffer clean and.... Start day dream here.

Terry Mott SSC Journeyman Points: 84 More actions · Answer 8

One more:

A built-in date truncation function to strip the time portion from a datetime value.

I guess this is not so big an issue anymore, as you can now use "convert(date, <datetime>)", but I've never understood not having a built-in function for this.

WayneS SSC Guru Points: 95460 More actions · Answer 9

Jeff Moden (4/22/2010)
I wish they'd actually stop listening to most customers. Asking for things like enhancements to cursors just don't make sense to me. If they made things like PIVOT and the Windowing Functions actually work correctly, there would be no need for cursor enhancements.

I'm in agreement here. Getting the ANSI stuff implemented, especially ALL of the windowing functions, will be great. Even things like the running total has been spec'd out in ANSI... it would really be wonderful to get these done.

Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes

If you can't explain to another person how the code that you're copying from the internet works, then DON'T USE IT on a production system! After all, you will be the one supporting it!

Links:
For better assistance in answering your questions
Performance Problems
Common date/time routines
Understanding and Using APPLY Part 1 & Part 2

TravisDBA SSCoach Points: 15780 More actions · Answer 10

Jeff Moden (4/22/2010)
I wish they'd actually stop listening to most customers.

I thought this was standard practice for Mickeysoft anyway. 😀

"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"

LutzM SSC Guru Points: 107049 More actions · Answer 11

Regarding PIVOT:

Would be great if it would be enhanced to handle more than just one column to be pivoted.

So, instead of just (BOL sample snippet)

...PIVOT

(

COUNT (PurchaseOrderID)

FOR EmployeeID IN

( [164], [198], [223], [231], [233] )

) AS pvt

being able to do something like

SELECT VendorID, [164].cnt AS Emp1_cnt, [164].mi AS Emp1_min , [164].ma AS Emp1_max, [198].cnt AS Emp2_cnt, [198].mi AS Emp2_min , [198].ma AS Emp2_max

...

FROM

(SELECT PurchaseOrderID, EmployeeID, VendorID

FROM Purchasing.PurchaseOrderHeader) p

PIVOT

(

COUNT (PurchaseOrderID) cnt,

MIN (PurchaseOrderID) mi,

MAX (PurchaseOrderID) ma

FOR EmployeeID IN

( [164], [198], [223], [231], [233] )

) AS pvt

And, of course, having the same performance like using CrossTab 😉

I'm not asking to change the syntax to be more intuitive...

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]

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1004302 More actions · Answer 12

Terry Mott (4/22/2010)
One more:
A built-in date truncation function to strip the time portion from a datetime value.
I guess this is not so big an issue anymore, as you can now use "convert(date, <datetime>)", but I've never understood not having a built-in function for this.

Heh... even Oracle doesn't have one. You have to use TRUNC to do that in Oracle. 99% of the time you don't need it but I agree that it would be really handy to have for those other 1%.

{edit}... and just in case you don't know how to do it in SQL Server...

SELECT DATEADD(dd,DATEDIFF(dd,0,somedatecolumn),0)

FROM dbo.sometable

--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)

karyn.webb SSChasing Mays Points: 618 More actions · Answer 13

george sibbald (4/22/2010)
This one is very basic and simple but seems a complete no-brainer to me:
the ability to specify who the owner of the jobs will be when creating\amending maintenance plans.
Then you wouldn't have to go through and amend all the job owners afterwards (and every time you amend a plan). That is sooooooo irritating.

I second this!