Who is the odd man out?

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Who is the odd man out?

Shiva N

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June 28, 2015 at 8:49 am

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Shiva N
Database Consultant
June 29, 2015 at 3:20 am

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Toreador SSChampion Points: 11365 More actions · Answer 1

The question is too vague. I'm sure there are reasons for choosing most of them.

For instance, I went for CURRENT_TIMESTAMP because it does not require (and indeed cannot have) parentheses. ie

select CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

and not

select CURRENT_TIMESTAMP()

All the rest require arguments except for NEWID which requires empty parentheses,

select NEWID()

Heals SSCrazy Points: 2234 More actions · Answer 2

I agree - there needs to be some context (I got it right but only by fluke as I just guessed). Depending on what the author was thinking - any of them could be the odd one out...

Koen Verbeeck SSC Guru Points: 259105 More actions · Answer 3

Interesting question, thanks.

A bit more context could have been useful, as others have pointed out.

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MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP

free_mascot One Orange Chip Points: 27169 More actions · Answer 4

Thanks Shiva.

It would be good if more context have been used. As ROW_NUMBER and DENSE_RANK is "Ranking Functions", DATEADD and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is "Date and time function". Now NEWID is sytem Function hence consider as odd man out.

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Koen Verbeeck SSC Guru Points: 259105 More actions · Answer 5

free_mascot (6/29/2015)
Thanks Shiva.
It would be good if more context have been used. As ROW_NUMBER and DENSE_RANK is "Ranking Functions", DATEADD and CURRENT_TIMESTAMP is "Date and time function". Now NEWID is sytem Function hence consider as odd man out.

I'm not sure what you mean with "system function"?

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My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP

Toreador SSChampion Points: 11365 More actions · Answer 6

Koen Verbeeck (6/29/2015)
I'm not sure what you mean with "system function"?

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187786.aspx

Koen Verbeeck SSC Guru Points: 259105 More actions · Answer 7

Toreador (6/29/2015)
Koen Verbeeck (6/29/2015)
I'm not sure what you mean with "system function"?
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187786.aspx

Thanks.

They have quite a broad definition:

The following system functions perform operations on and return information about values, objects, and settings in SQL Server.

Even ISNULL is a "system" function.

Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP

Michael Riemer SSCertifiable Points: 5190 More actions · Answer 8

Very vague question - and as others say, multiple ways to consider something the odd one out.

psingla Hall of Fame Points: 3840 More actions · Answer 9

Heals (6/29/2015)
I agree - there needs to be some context (I got it right but only by fluke as I just guessed). Depending on what the author was thinking - any of them could be the odd one out...

+1

Anyways thanks for the question!

Pramod
SQL Server DBA | MCSE SQL Server 2012/2014
in.linkedin.com/in/pramodsingla/
http://pramodsingla.wordpress.com/

Xavon SSCrazy Points: 2280 More actions · Answer 10

Agreed on the vagueness. I got it right for the wrong reason; I thought "the other four are for row identification (in some way, shape, or form) while DATEADD is not".

TomThomson SSC Guru Points: 104773 More actions · Answer 11

It is indeed a rather vague question. That doesn't mean it's a bad question, though - it encourages us to think and to use our imaginations.

I got the right answer by sheer luck because I picked the only one of the listed functions whose mandatory parameter list (excluding parameters shifted to an OVER clause) couldn't be counted on the thumbs of one hand, since I hadn't a clue what sensible crtiteria (if any) could be used to select the odd one out - and after reading the explanation I still can't (because using the definition of deterministic won't work, one has to learn, parrot-fashion, the list).

Indeed, the whole deterministic/nondeterministic thing seems to be something of an awful kludge whose purpose rather unclear. For example CHECKSUM(*) is nondeterministic, despite the fact that it will always return the same value whenever called unless the state of the database has changed between calls - i.e. it fully satisfies the definition given in the BoL page for a deterministic function, but it counts as indeterministic for some unspecified reason, perhaps because someone thinks * is a bad thing, or perhaps because having a column containing CHECKSUM(*) in an indexed view would require some (fairly trivial, actually) code to keep the view corect when columns are added to and/or removed from the underlying tables. I suspect the purpose has by now been perverted to be to avoid some rather boring coding problems in implementation, although it probably started out as a genuine attempt to ban nondeterminism in contexts where it would be silly, and that this perversion is why it has become a kludge with no relation at all with its own definition or with the normal use of the word deterministic.

Tom

sknox SSChampion Points: 12388 More actions · Answer 12

TomThomson (6/29/2015)
For example CHECKSUM(*) is nondeterministic, despite the fact that it will always return the same value whenever called unless the state of the database has changed between calls...

That depends. Do you consider a non-persisted calculated column a change to the state of the database? Try this:

CREATE TABLE #t1 (ID INT, DT AS GETDATE());

INSERT [#t1] ([ID]) VALUES (1), (2), (3)

Then run this a few times:

SELECT ID, CHECKSUM(*) FROM #t1

Sean Lange SSC Guru Points: 286590 More actions · Answer 13

I too was bitten by the vague bug. I got the right answer but that was because it was the only non-ANSI function. There are just too many ways this question could be interpreted.

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