Adam;

This sentiment is expressed quite often by practitioners in our particular field. For substantiation, go to Database Debunkings (http://www.dbdebunk.com) and peruse some of the "Quotes of the Week" (

Actually, I suggested a new category called "Fundamentals" or something like that ("Theory" would also be good).

Interesting reactions so far... keep 'em coming!

Hi Rajiv;

I know that at this point, many will disagree with me, but here's my opinion anyway, based on having obtained an MCSD certification back in 1998.

Originally, the Microsoft Certification...

blessing;

"...you can also look for brain dumps. ..."

If you uses this method to get "certified", I guarantee you that I will be able to tell when I'm interviewing you that...

Yes, Chris. Your server is set up to only allow NULLs in columns where "NULL" is explicitely included in the column declaration. (Not sure off the top of my head...

I'll throw in another side to the coin of how certification may affect your interview process...

If you list a certification on your resume, you darn well better be able to...

The merit of a particular product can't simply be measured by one's ability to make money from it (think "tobacco company executive" here).

There are many weaknesses with the T-SQL implementation...

Well... I guessed what the author of this question was getting at and got it right, but one certainly shouldn't rely on a particular ordering of rows in their SELECT statements...

Excellent question! I am a big fan of any question that exposes weaknesses in T-SQL and/or the SQL pseudo-implementation of the Relational Model. A practitioner who is aware of these...

I like this question because it brings to light one of the weaknesses in the SQL pseudo-implementation of the relational model.

I typically work around view updatability issues by using INSTEAD...

Without getting into the issue of how random machine-generated "random" numbers actually are, the main point of this question is that the RAND() function always returns the same result for...

I would have used a comma before the PK constraint, too.

My scripting standards for DDL state that single-column constraints get defined along with the column in question without a...

Hi Chris;

Yes, I think we are on the same page with this aspect of the discussion. I suppose the main point I'd like to drive to is for people to...

Hi Chris;

The dbdebunk.com site is a favorite of mine. Following the lead of the editors there, I try to think precisely and present my ideas thus, but probably fail at...

Frank;

It's interesting that no one has picked up this aspect of the discussion.

Remember, people, that a mathematical set has no ordering. The ordering behavior we see is an attribute of...