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Phil Factor Challenge - Part 3

Dave Ballantyne — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:23:02 GMT

Fancy $100 ?Give the latest Phil Factor challenge a go[url]http://ask.sqlservercentral.com/questions/2295/phil-factor-speed-phreak-challenge-3[/url]

SQL Server Performance Story Contest - Win an iPad2!

RSP — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:24:17 GMT

Want to win an iPad2? Well you can! Tell your story, 50/50, refer a friend! No this isn’t “Who wants to be a Millionaire?”, but there is an exciting new competition that is rocking the SQL Server world.Welcome to [url=http://bit.ly/oJ5v4k]Safe Peak's SQL Server Performance Story Contest, 2011[/url]! Robert Pearl is hosting this cool beans contest that can score you some awesome prizes, like that iPad2, and much more! Everyone who participates will be eligible to win a prize, and not just for your story! Read on to learn how to enter, as well as the unique details of this exciting challenge that is sure to make your end-of-summer blues disappear – just like Safe Peak can make those SQL Performance Issues disappear. Link: http://bit.ly/oJ5v4k

T-SQL Tuesday #5 Suggestions

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:48:30 GMT

If you have an idea, but don't want to write about it, post it here. If you want ideas, feel free to grab one from here.This is based on Aaron Nelson's idea for [url=http://sqlvariant.com/wordpress/index.php/2010/04/t-sql-tuesday-005-reporting/]T-SQL Tuesday #5: Reporting[/url]. Read his thoughts and look for trackbacks from other posts.

New Monthly Contest Back!

Brian Knight — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 11:43:00 GMT

The popular old style SQLServerCentral.com contest is back at :

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/contest/

1st Prize - Log P.I. Tier 1 Pack (2 CPUs) (a $975 value!)

2nd Prize - 1 Year Subscription to SQL Server Standard ($19.95 value)

Top 50 Prizes - Copy of the March/May issue of SQL Server Standard ($5 value)

Be one of 50 who win a copy of our upcoming issue of SQL Server Standard.

T-SQL Haiku

jburkman — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:51:52 GMT

[i]Many thanks to Derek Karpinski for providing the basis of this idea![/i]Let's have a haiku contest!You can only use the Reserved Keywords for T-SQL (ms-help://MS.SQLCC.v9/MS.SQLSVR.v9.en/tsqlref9/html/ed8b3e27-6796-40f0-aef3-0cac5e0e2418.htm), and the non-fancy old 5-7-5 kind of Haiku.Yes, it's a silly idea. But you may also see a keyword you didn't know existed and learn something new :DI offer this hairball of creativity, posted earlier on a derail:[center]DENY SOME USERIDENTITY IS SHUTDOWNPRIMARY ESCAPE[/center]

intersting sql puzzle

bishu thomas — Tue, 10 May 2005 07:57:00 GMT

Independence Day - II

The All Nations United Force (ANUF), formed to protect the human race

against alien attacks, maintains a database of known extra terrestrial

species and the types of missiles that these species are capable of

using.

The ANUF has developed several anti-missiles each of which is capable of

protecting against one or more types of alien missiles. On one dark day

the

ANUF radars signal that several missiles that are known to be originated

from species X are heading towards the Earth. The ANUF Chief of Staff

calls

you and asks to find out if there is a single ANUF anti-missile that can

defuse ALL types of missiles that species X can use. As the application

ANUF

uses does not allow such a query to be answered you are required to

issue a

direct query against the ANUF database and find out the list of

anti-missiles each of which can defuse ALL the missiles that can be used

species X.

For example, assume species X can use missiles M-1, M-2 and M-3. Further

assume ANUF anti-missile AM-1 can defuse {M-1, M-2, M-3, M-4}, ANUF

anti-missile AM-2 can defuse {M-1, M-2} and ANUF anti-missile AM-3 can

defuse {M-1, M-2, M-3}. Now your query should list AM-1 and AM-3 as the

candidate anti-missiles since each of these have potential to defuse ALL

the

missiles that can be used by species X.

The relational schema of the ANUF missile database is as follows:

SPECIES(spcid INTEGER primary key,

spcname VARCHAR(100));

ALIEN_MISSILE(missile_id INTEGER primary key,

missile_name VARCHAR(100),

descr VARCHAR(400));

ALIEN_CAPABILITY(spcid INTEGER references SPECIES(spcid),

missile_id INTEGER,

references ALIEN_MISSILE(missile_id));

ANTI_MISSILE(antim_id INTEGER primary key,

anitm_name VARCHAR(100),

anitm_descr VARCHAR(400));

DEFUSE_CAPABILITY(antim_id INTEGER references ANTI_MISSILE(antim_id),

missile_id INTEGER references

ALIEN_MISSILE(missile_id));

Instructions

1. Your answer should be a single SQL query

2. The query should be database neutral (should conform to the SQL92

standard). You should not use any vendor specific SQL extensions,

user-defined functions or stored procedures.

3. The species name should NOT be hard coded in the query and should

instead

be the parameter marker - "?"

4. The query result should have exactly two columns antim_id and

antim_name.

5. The query should be submitted in a file and should be written in a

single

line.

Christmas Competition

Mike Metcalf — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 03:14:00 GMT

Hi All, hope you don't mind me double-posting for this

In one of the other threads we've been discussing an online game that one of our sister companies has produced (read about it here http://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=61&messageid=239913&p=1)

Anyway, because it's christmas i've decided to open up a competition for people at SQLServerCentral, details are below in the extract from a post i made on the 3rd page.

Here's a nice thought that i've just had; i propose we have a competition for people on this site (away from everything else that's going on). To enter send me a PM with your login and the email address that you used to register the game and after the new year (coz i'm off till then) i'll produce a leader board just for the entrants, with the winner getting a small prize (something internet gift voucher related, i'm open to suggestions)

I just hope i'm in the top 10, and higher than certain other people in the forum

Rules contest

Brian Lockwood — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:13:00 GMT

here is a post to my blog looking for sql rulez - and offering sweet sweet swag in return

http://www.apexsql.com/blog/2006/12/da-rules.htm

Current contest banner for running score has wrong dates, please fix

Antares686 — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 11:11:00 GMT

Shows

Here's the running score (starting 2/10/04 and ending 2/28/04 and updated hourly):

Instead of

Here's the running score (starting 2/29/04 and ending 3/31/04 and updated hourly):

Contest 200401 - Try SQLCompare from Red Gate

Andy Warren — Sun, 25 Jan 2004 15:26:00 GMT

This contest begins Jan 29, 2004 and runs through Feb 27, 2004. Details can be found at the following link:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/contests/200401/contest.aspx