Re: How do I make this SQL more efficient?

I am sorry to say (not too sorry) that you are correct.

It is always a judgement call. When people ask about performance ... my first thought is ... is there an index anywhere? Even the best SQL will run poorly without the proper indexes. Ask me how I know. ;-)

Sometimes I post solutions ... but usually I like to point people in the right direction. I guess that comes from teaching. But his SQL was as you say. Well thought out ... and indicating a lot of hard work ... but horrifying. So I did think he was just trying to get someone to do his work. And since my time here on the board is generally short bits interspersed between testing procs or performance tuning things ... it tends to be 30 seconds here, 45 seconds there. It doesn't allow me the luxury of really getting into things as deeply as you obviously did.

On reflection I agree with your analysis.

Daniel Morgan

Galen Boyer wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, damorgan_at_exesolutions.com wrote:
>
> > Nicely done ... but you were way to generous. <g>
>
> I don't know Daniel. Looking at his SQL, it was obvious that the
> guy had tried long and hard. It took a bit of gandering, but it
> was well-formatted and after a bit of study I was able to gleam
> what he was trying to do from it. At that point, I truly was
> impressed. The guy is a beginner, but he wrote complicated code
> that looked like it worked. His logic seemed almost obvious. I
> would love to work with a beginning SQL coder like Luke anyday.
> In my opinion, he has what it takes to really go far. He
> certainly needs to think much more about performance and such,
> but being able to build the set logic he did is the type of
> intelligence needed in a good SQL developer. The performance
> stuff can be taught. Logical thinking can't.
>
> I think that he just hadn't been shown the excellent ways of
> getting answers down to ones and zeros. Once I was shown those
> cool tricks a long time ago, I now look for ways to use it. But,
> if I hadn't been shown it by someone else, I'm not so sure I
> could have written the set logic he did, especially as a
> beginner.
>
> Try to give people more benefit of the doubt sometimes. Not
> everybody is just trying to get others to do their work for them
> or are just stupid developers. Some people just need a new path
> to follow or a set of fresh eyes.
>
> --
> Galen Boyer
Received on Fri Apr 19 2002 - 14:02:32 CDT