RE: Are there such things as SQL heresies?

SSC Guru

Points: 1003861

September 24, 2018 at 8:45 am

#2006752

RonKyle - Monday, September 24, 2018 8:02 AM
I would still caution that too many "it depends" becomes "I'll do it like I want without understanding why the best practice is the best practice." Just an observation that I've made all too often in real life. Maybe better to phrase "normally this way but we need an exception here because..." I occasionally use NOLOCK under very select circumstances. But I don't proceed from there to say "it depends." I would say NOLOCK is generally a bad idea because..... However, in this case it's okay because â€¦.. That's not the same as "it depends."

That's also how new and terrible "Best Practices" are born. And, yes, I agree.... "It Depends" is correct but can be abused like anything else. Eventually, people need to get something done and that means that someone eventually has to make a decision. As we all know, it's far too often that decision is made by people that aren't actually qualified to make such a decision.

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.

Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.

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