Michael Valentine Jones (3/27/2012)

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It's pretty easy to show that the modulus operator will return a negative number:

select x = -1111%100

Results:

x           
----------- 
        -11 

dwain.c (3/26/2012)

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Jeff,

The following thought occurred to me last night but I didn't get a chance to test it until this morning.

Isn't the modulo function designed to always return a positive integer?

Hence, in this part of your data generator, I don't believe you need to use ABS:

SomeRandomInteger =  CHECKSUM(NEWID()) % @Range + @StartValue

I didn't try it for a million rows but the first 200 came up all as positives.

SELECT -1111 % 100,
        1111 %-100,
       -1111 %-100

----------- ----------- -----------
-11         11          -11

(1 row(s) affected)

Scott Abrants (3/26/2012)

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Excellent post! Great examples, great code, and easy to follow!
Nice job Jeff!

ALZDBA (3/26/2012)

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Great extrapolation of the KISS principle, Jeff.

Need it to be sead ... I LOVE IT

dwain.c (3/26/2012)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff,

The following thought occurred to me last night but I didn't get a chance to test it until this morning.

Isn't the modulo function designed to always return a positive integer?

Hence, in this part of your data generator, I don't believe you need to use ABS:

SomeRandomInteger = CHECKSUM(NEWID()) % @Range + @StartValue
I didn't try it for a million rows but the first 200 came up all as positives.


Apologies, Dwain. I'm not sure how I missed your question on this.

Jeff Moden (3/30/2012)

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Cool... 5 birds with 1 stone. SPAM reported.