I can appreciate domain-specific big data requirements in sciences or aggregating many streaming sensor data. However, I wonder if there exists a properly normalized schema that needs 253 foreign...

I am interested in Soundex only as a curiosity so I read this article mostly for entertainment. That said, I think the title might have reached a broader audience...

Hugo Kornelis (8/19/2013)

---

I often use RETURN to exit from predefined error conditions. Which are usually checked at the start of the procedure.

IF @DateArg IS NULL

BEGIN;

RAISERROR ('Date must be...

I don't understand the point of this QotD.

I understand the cleverly-contrived illustration code. However, I'd never want to see anyone write code like that for my production environment. ...

zerko (8/5/2013)

---

If I comment out the first line, the "Where" clause remains as it is. I don't update every employee, only those named "Smeith" ... that was the whole point....

zerko (8/4/2013)

---

Select * From Employee /*

Update Employee

Set LastName = 'Smith'

--*/

Where LastName = 'Smeith'

So I can now write quite a complex update statement if needed, it's protected in a comment...

Steve Jones - SSC Editor (8/2/2013)

---

If you look at many newsletters, they are fixed size. The more I've studied this, the more I notice it. Not that it's right, but...

This is why we need a "+1"...

Another consideration on this topic: specify _exactly_ what you want. If you need results in a particular order, you should request it that way.

A {large}% of the...

I hope I never have to inherit any of these scripts. It isn't exactly 'self documenting' to have nested commented code blocks that sometimes should run and other times...

My first thought was that I didn't like it. Then I thought maybe I was just resisting change.

This new layout looks too much like a blog. I feel...

Jeff Moden (6/20/2013)

---

I absolutely agree about the email thing where people keep stuff forever and that HTML formatting is worse than clunky if the data is to be consumed electronically....

Are we solving the problem right?

Are we solving the right problem?

Jeff asked why use xp_cmdshell to get to a third-party tool & suggested db_sendmail: depending on your environment,...

Jonathan AC Roberts (6/18/2013)

---

It can also be done even more simply with an INNER JOIN and tally table (and is faster than the rCTE version)

SELECT A.Seqno,

...

I noticed the "select 3" after hitting submit.

I didn't see the title because I clicked the QotD link from email.

I assumed "run successfully" meant "returns what it looks like it...