Jeff Moden (2/18/2013)
dwain.c (2/17/2013)
You can also do this with a recursive CTE, which can be put into an iTVF.See the first example, in the third article in my signature links.
Yes, you could. But even Peter Larsson's super trimmed down rCTE has a "counting rCTE" as a base. It may not matter much for single use but the formula method runs in sub-millisecond times whereas the rCTE takes 38 milliseconds (on my ever so humble desktop) for elements 0 through 70. You should check out the rads, as well. Recursion just ins't the answer for things like this unless it's to build a lookup table just one time.
I agree that the formula method would be faster even without running the actual test. That was a very clever approach by the way Jeff.
I was just offering an alternative that could be put into an iTVF (unlike the loop).
My thought question: Have you ever been told that your query runs too fast?
My advice:
INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?
The path of least resistance can be a slippery slope. Take care that fixing your fixes of fixes doesn't snowball and end up costing you more than fixing the root cause would have in the first place.
Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?[/url]
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some![/url]
Learn to understand recursive CTEs by example.[/url]
[url url=http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/St