• Koen (da-zero) (2/8/2011)


    Although the article was well-written and a good introduction to DISTINCT, I didn't give it many stars.

    Why? I found that the article didn't introduce us anything that can't be found on the MSDN pages.

    I see it from a slightly different perspective; there are very few articles, here or anywhere, that give any information above what's available in MSDN. Their value is in their ability to explain concepts better than MSDN and to serve up information in bite-sized chunks. Both these approaches make the same information far more readily accessible, and I believe this article is another successful example.

    It would've been nice if the following were included in the article:

    * a critical look on the performance impact of DISTINCT

    * although the alternatives of GROUP BY are listed, it is not explained if one construct is prefered above the other, or if they are equivalent (if you look at the execution plans)

    * the behaviour of DISTINCT with NULL values and in aggregate functions

    However, the article itself was written well, with no obvious spelling mistakes and it had clear examples, so Sarvesh, as Jeff already mentioned, don't let this withhold you to write future articles!

    Here I agree. I'm not entirely sure wandering into execution plans would have been entirely appropriate for the intended audience, but a mention of performance, alternative functions and working with NULLs could have been included to good effect.

    Overall, I think it was a good beginner's introduction to an important SQL concept.

    Semper in excretia, suus solum profundum variat