How to calculate the Bi-weekly in SQL

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How to calculate the Bi-weekly in SQL

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RBarryYoung SSC Guru Points: 143329 More actions · Answer 1

Christian Buettner (12/29/2008)

RBarryYoung (12/28/2008)
Christian Buettner (12/28/2008)
I might be nitpicking here again, but the semicolon is required after the preceding statement, not before the WITH statement.
Of course the end result is a semicolon between the two statements, but I want to emphasize again that the semicolon ENDs a statement and does not START a statement.
Ah, and can you describe what the difference is between these two things?
🙂
I am not sure what your intention is here, but the difference is where the terminator is located.

And the problem with your claim that semicolon is a statement terminator is that it does not matter whether the ";" is immediately at the end of the preceding statement or immediately at the beginning of the succeeding statement. Or anywhere in the whitespace in-between. And that's the definition of a statement separator, rather than a terminator or an initiator.

Just like you end questions with a questionmark. Or would you start sentences after a question with a question mark like this
?Looks odd, doesn't it ?

Yes it does, but that is because that is invalid in the language that you are using (English). And it is invalid in English because "?" is an actual sentence terminator. On the other hand, this:;WITH ... is perfectly valid in the language that I am using (SQL). And again, this is because the semicolon is really a statement separator.

[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung [font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]

RBarryYoung SSC Guru Points: 143329 More actions · Answer 2

Christian Buettner (12/29/2008)
Hi RBarryYoung,
Why do you think it is not a statement terminator?

I think that it is not a statement terminator because it does not meet the definition of a statement terminator. And I am basing that on your definition of a statement terminator (above).

;
Transact-SQL statement terminator.Although the semicolon is not required for most statements in this version of SQL Server, it will be required in a future version.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms177563.aspx
SQL statements also include the semicolon (";") statement terminator. Though not required on every platform, it is defined as a standard part of the SQL grammar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL

Yes, Microsoft, Wikipedia and lots of other places call it a terminator. The problem is that it does not meet the definition of a terminator that most people would agree to. And this is exactly why I said that the semicolon is called a statement terminator but it is actually a statement separator.

[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung [font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003859 More actions · Answer 3

Chris Harshman (12/29/2008)
I think it's probably good practice to follow trends that are closer to the SQL standard than the local flavors that each vendor supports

Heh... even though close to a million people are doing it wrong, it's still wrong. 😛

--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)

Madhivanan-208264 SSCertifiable Points: 7516 More actions · Answer 4

As far as I know the only case that I needed to use semicolon to terminate the statement is when I used GO as the procedure name

create procedure go

as

select 45 as number

Now this wont work

GO

but this

GO;

Here is Fun with GO

http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/madhivanan/archive/2008/09/05/fun-with-go.aspx

Madhivanan

Failing to plan is Planning to fail

Kenneth Wilhelmsson SSC-Dedicated Points: 30043 More actions · Answer 5

If you change the connections default batch separator token from it's default 'GO' to something else, then (without ending semicolon)...

GO

.. will indeed work.

/Kenneth

RBarryYoung SSC Guru Points: 143329 More actions · Answer 6

Cute trick, Madhivanan. Of course "[GO]" and "EXEC GO" would also work, but I like this.

[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung [font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]

Madhivanan-208264 SSCertifiable Points: 7516 More actions · Answer 7

RBarryYoung (12/30/2008)
Cute trick, Madhivanan. Of course "[GO]" and "EXEC GO" would also work, but I like this.

Thanks for the feedback 🙂

Madhivanan

Failing to plan is Planning to fail

Christian Buettner-167247 SSChampion Points: 13729 More actions · Answer 8

RBarryYoung (12/29/2008)
Yes, Microsoft, Wikipedia and lots of other places call it a terminator. The problem is that it does not meet the definition of a terminator that most people would agree to. And this is exactly why I said that the semicolon is called a statement terminator but it is actually a statement separator.

Is your concern that it is not correctly implemented as a statement terminator in SQL Server?

The MSDN link gives the info that It will be required for all statements in the future.

So I agree that we are somehow in grey area right now with the current implementation, but according to the documentation in BOL (the link), the semicolon should really be a statement terminator, not just a separator.

The difference according to my tiny theoretical knowledge is that

a) you separate two or more statements with separators. (A;B;C)

b) terminators end all statements, including the last statement or single statements. (A;B;C;)

Let me know if this does not match your definition.

Just as a sidenote - BOL 2005 mentions the semicolon as an "optional" statement terminator.

Best Regards,

Chris Büttner

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003859 More actions · Answer 9

BWA-HAA! See why I hate the damned things? You guys are still going on about punctuation marks... :P:hehe:

--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)

RBarryYoung SSC Guru Points: 143329 More actions · Answer 10

Christian Buettner (12/30/2008)
The difference according to my tiny theoretical knowledge is that
a) you separate two or more statements with separators. (A;B;C;)
b) terminators end all statements, including the last statement or single statements. (A;B;C;)
Let me know if this does not match your definition.

Ah, but now you've changed your definitions to suit your argument, and that's not really cricket, is it?

[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung [font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]

Christian Buettner-167247 SSChampion Points: 13729 More actions · Answer 11

Jeff Moden (12/30/2008)
BWA-HAA! See why I hate the damned things? You guys are still going on about punctuation marks... :P:hehe:

Well, you started all this

!:P

No, point taken, this discussion leads to no important benefit.

The time of the statement terminator will come (or might it might disappear, how knows). Until then I'll just agree that we disagree 🙂

Best Regards,

Chris Büttner

Christian Buettner-167247 SSChampion Points: 13729 More actions · Answer 12

RBarryYoung (12/30/2008)
Christian Buettner (12/30/2008)
The difference according to my tiny theoretical knowledge is that
a) you separate two or more statements with separators. (A;B;C;)
b) terminators end all statements, including the last statement or single statements. (A;B;C;)
Let me know if this does not match your definition.
Ah, but now you've changed your definitions to suit your argument, and that's not really cricket, is it?

Hm, I must be missing something important here. Where did I define the statement terminator?

Please quote.

Thanks!

Best Regards,

Chris Büttner

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003859 More actions · Answer 13

Heh... wha? Moi? Oh... you mean I started it all with my "statement prefix"? 😛

--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)

Chris Harshman SSC-Forever Points: 42192 More actions · Answer 14

:Wow: Can't we just all get along??? Personally I think there are things worse than semicolons in SQL, but I'm not going to get into them here. 😛

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1003859 More actions · Answer 15

Chris Harshman (12/31/2008)
:Wow: Can't we just all get along??? Personally I think there are things worse than semicolons in SQL, but I'm not going to get into them here. 😛

Sure we can[font="Arial Black"]; [/font]If you want... 😛

--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)