Re: SQL: Duration Question

Michael Austin wrote:
> Michel Cadot wrote:
>
> > "Charles Hooper" <hooperc2000_at_yahoo.com> a écrit dans le message de news: 1165168282.119663.136140_at_73g2000cwn.googlegroups.com...
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > | Using my example, if the plant manager comes to me and asks, how many
> > | of my machines were in use between 6 AM and 7 AM...(<snip>)
> >
> > Which plant? OP talked about car trips and number of cars on road.
> >
> > | You are correct that the SQL solution that I provided may not be the
> > | one that the OP wanted... (<snip>)
> >
> > I thought the purpose of this newsgroup was to answer to other's problem.
> >
> > | Charles Hooper
> > | PC Support Specialist
> > | K&M Machine-Fabricating, Inc.
> >
> > Finally, the most important point is that you had fun to post this (I hope so). :)
> >
> > Regards
> > Michel Cadot
> >
> >
>
> Hopfully the object is not necessarily to give someone complete working code,
> but to teach them how to work it out for themselves. A quick example or a
> pointer to how someone else achieved the same result should be all that is
> necessary as opposed to giving them them a fully working code... After all,
> isn't that what test databases/boxes are for :) ?

Some people think complete working code _is_ the object. For example, someone
posts a question including create statements and inserts for test data, it becomes
very easy for anyone to "get onto the same page" and play around with it on their
own systems. Other times a quick pointer is enough of a bootstrap. Questions
that are repeated often are, well, frequently asked, and a polite pointer is appropriate.

>
> I say this because:
> 1) if they are in school, you just gave them an answer to their homework

I agree, that is bad.

> 2) if they are working at a company (most likely as a contractor - then they
> really shouldn't be... resulting in more highly qualified/compensated people
> getting those jobs.

I don't agree. I'm a contractor, and I'm often thrown into stuff I don't know
anything about. Fortunately, I'm really good at figuring things out quickly.
Some things I've figured out a few times, but don't use enough to really grasp.
Some of the newer sql semantics fall under this category, and when Michel or
Charles (or Tom or Jonathan or ...) have posted working examples, I just think
they are geniuses and am eternally grateful. I work in another language than
SQL most of the time, by the way, and have had projects similar to the OP's
question recently, like having to periodically allocate employee hours across
multiple jobs in a job costing system. So any code I've come up with is basically
worthless for this thread, but I'm intensely interested in analogous SQL solutions
for if/when I have performance issues.

> 3) posting code they are/will be using in production could be considered
> Intellectual Property by their employer - even though given a particular
> problem, multiple developers would come up with the same answer - but that is
> another nit.

This is a good point, not a nit. It can be quite a job to anonymize problem code
for usenet.

>
> And before anyone gets too defensive, yes, I have even given out complete
> working code.
>
> And yes, I do have fun doing this...

Wheeeeee! :-)

jg

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