Category: TSQL

N Things Worth Knowing About CTEs

Edit: This post was originally published on August 26, 2010. If you haven’t messed with them yet, you should know that CTEs (Common Table Expressions) – new in SQL Server 2005 – are actualy pretty #awesomesauce. A CTE is, in essence, a temporary view attached to your SELECT statement.  They’re good for a number of uses, […]

N Things Worth Knowing About SELECT

SELECT is our bedrock, our foundation, our now-and-forever T-SQL multitasker…and it’s one of the most complicated structures available to us.  Here are a few things worth knowing about it, from the basic to the obscure.  More-or-Less Basic Structure There’s tons more that can go into the SELECT statement, of course, but the basic structure is:  WITH […]

The Right Level of “Right”

…or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb I had a SQL dev’s dream come to me via email yesterday: a high-urgency, high-profile request for data that was both interesting and doable. I spent a few hours on it last night and this morning, and handed over a beautiful solution that was […]