Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Phil Parkin SSC Guru Points: 246716 More actions · Answer 1

Brandie Tarvin wrote:

Forget leading commas. Let's debate leading semi-colons. @=)

This could start a flame war! I've seen instances of otherwise-seasoned coders on here using the dreaded

;WITH CTE AS (

pattern, as if it's the right thing to do.

If you haven't even tried to resolve your issue, please don't expect the hard-working volunteers here to waste their time providing links to answers which you could easily have found yourself.

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398712 More actions · Answer 2

Jeff Moden wrote:

David Burrows wrote:
Jeff Moden wrote:
David Burrows wrote:
That’s why I like you Jeff, you’re such a smart guy 😍🥳
Heh... if I were really smart, I'd just up and retire. That would probably kill me though.
Just like me 😂, glad I didn’t. You’ll out live us all 😀 you’re an institution you know 😃
I think most folks would say your confused, David. They rather think I should be IN an institution. 😀 😀 😀

Second!!

All in favor?

And you know I'm kidding.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398712 More actions · Answer 3

Thom A wrote:

Brandie Tarvin wrote:
Forget leading commas. Let's debate leading semi-colons. @=)
.Please no >_< .Leading commas I accept as a preference, but leading semicolons are another matter entirely, lol .Those are like starting every sentence with a full stop, and not ending your last sentence with one

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^!!

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398712 More actions · Answer 4

Thom A wrote:

Brandie Tarvin wrote:
Forget leading commas. Let's debate leading semi-colons. @=)
.Please no >_< .Leading commas I accept as a preference, but leading semicolons are another matter entirely, lol .Those are like starting every sentence with a full stop, and not ending your last sentence with one

THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^!!

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398712 More actions · Answer 5

Phil Parkin wrote:

Brandie Tarvin wrote:
Forget leading commas. Let's debate leading semi-colons. @=)
This could start a flame war! I've seen instances of otherwise-seasoned coders on here using the dreaded
;WITH CTE AS (
pattern, as if it's the right thing to do.

A good friend, Aaron Bertrand, does it for all his demo scripts. However, he has a good reason (even if I don't agree). Because people are more than a bit ignorant about the use of semi-colons, for his examples, he always puts it at the front so that they can copy & paste it and it will always work. I think he's modelling bad behavior, like having SELECT * in example code (something I used to do). He disagrees. I'm not losing a friendship over it, but I do occasionally poke him on it.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

Thom A SSC Guru Points: 99126 More actions · Answer 6

Grant Fritchey wrote:

A good friend, Aaron Bertrand, does it for all his demo scripts. However, he has a good reason (even if I don't agree). Because people are more than a bit ignorant about the use of semi-colons, for his examples, he always puts it at the front so that they can copy & paste it and it will always work. I think he's modelling bad behavior, like having SELECT * in example code (something I used to do). He disagrees. I'm not losing a friendship over it, but I do occasionally poke him on it.

I had a very similar, albiet it breif, conversation with him on this last year as well. I was on the same side as you, I don't agree with it, but I do understand why he does it.

Honestly, it's more frustrating that when someone who "copy pastas" code from somewhere and gets the error Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'with'. If this statement is a common table expression, an xmlnamespaces clause or a change tracking context clause, the previous statement must be terminated with a semicolon. That instead of reading the error (as the problem is literally spelt out in the it), they just proclaim that the code they're copied, and have not taken the time to understand, is wrong and broken. /sigh

For someone that does provide as much content as he does/has, I can completely understand how that can wear away your sanity. 😉

Thom~

Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk

Brandie Tarvin SSC Guru Points: 173003 More actions · Answer 7

Looks like I woke everyone up this morning. Heeeheee.

@=)

Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398712 More actions · Answer 8

Thom A wrote:

For someone that does provide as much content as he does/has, I can completely understand how that can wear away your sanity. 😉

Exactly. I totally understand why he does it and, as I said, I wouldn't damage a friendship over such trivial crap. However, I certainly do poke the bear on occasion. Meanest Canadian I know. Ha!

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

ZZartin SSC-Dedicated Points: 30899 More actions · Answer 9

Thom A wrote:

Brandie Tarvin wrote:
Forget leading commas. Let's debate leading semi-colons. @=)
.Please no >_< .Leading commas I accept as a preference, but leading semicolons are another matter entirely, lol .Those are like starting every sentence with a full stop, and not ending your last sentence with one

/shrug I blame the interpreter for this. SQL Server is perfectly happy with some statements not being terminated by a semi colon, including the very statements that require the previous statement to be terminated by a semi colon. This effectively makes semi colons a statement beginner in some cases and not a true statement terminator.

ScottPletcher SSC Guru Points: 100950 More actions · Answer 10

I use

;WITH

just to help prevent possible errors. Sure, I could be technically correct and blame someone else when there was a problem with the code, but I prefer to avoid the problem altogether. Someone making a quick fix in a proc sometimes just writes a line of code without fully examining all the other code around it -- because they don't need to do that to add their particular code fix. Should they still use a ;? Sure, but it's not always required so most people don't routinely code them. I don't want a major client to have a problem in production because of something that trivial. The time to parse an extra ; is so small it can't even be measured.

SQL DBA,SQL Server MVP(07, 08, 09) A socialist is someone who will give you the shirt off *someone else's* back.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 734552 More actions · Answer 11

I prefer:

;


-- ^
-- |
-- |
-- semi colon above because most of you don't use them
WITH mycte ....

Thom A SSC Guru Points: 99126 More actions · Answer 12

I will admit, and though I know it shouldn't, it does amuse me when I see code that has something like this:

SELECT *
FROM dbo.MyTable MT ;WITH (NOLOCK)
     JOIN dbo.YourTable YT ;WITH (NOLOCK) ON MT.ID = YT.MTID

Or even "better":

SELECT *
FROM (;WITH CTE AS(
            SELECT *,
                   ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY SomeCol ORDER BY ID) AS RN
            FROM dbo.MyTable)
       SELECT *
       FROM CTE
       WHERE RN = 1) DT
WHERE SomeCol > 5

It's that some people seem to think it's a ;WITH clause, rather than just WITH with a statement "beginningator" that really sells me against the syntax.

Thom~

Excuse my typos and sometimes awful grammar. My fingers work faster than my brain does.
Larnu.uk

Jonathan AC Roberts SSCoach Points: 18271 More actions · Answer 13

What I find extremely frustrating is when someone writes SQL code that joins multiple tables without prefixing the column names with their originating table or alias using dot notation. This adds a significant amount of time to the task of determining which columns belong to which tables.

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003894 More actions · Answer 14

Grant Fritchey wrote:

Jeff Moden wrote:
David Burrows wrote:
Jeff Moden wrote:
David Burrows wrote:
That’s why I like you Jeff, you’re such a smart guy 😍🥳
Heh... if I were really smart, I'd just up and retire. That would probably kill me though.
Just like me 😂, glad I didn’t. You’ll out live us all 😀 you’re an institution you know 😃
I think most folks would say your confused, David. They rather think I should be IN an institution. 😀 😀 😀
Second!!
All in favor?
And you know I'm kidding.

Kidding??? Why??? We were going to invite you to join us! 😀 😀 😀

--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.

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)

frederico_fonseca SSCoach Points: 16036 More actions · Answer 15

Jeff Moden wrote:

Grant Fritchey wrote:
Jeff Moden wrote:
David Burrows wrote:
Jeff Moden wrote:
David Burrows wrote:
That’s why I like you Jeff, you’re such a smart guy 😍🥳
Heh... if I were really smart, I'd just up and retire. That would probably kill me though.
Just like me 😂, glad I didn’t. You’ll out live us all 😀 you’re an institution you know 😃
I think most folks would say your confused, David. They rather think I should be IN an institution. 😀 😀 😀
Second!!
All in favor?
And you know I'm kidding.
Kidding??? Why??? We were going to invite you to join us! 😀 😀 😀

by the looks of it WE are ALL in one already (SSC)