Just for giggles and grins today, I wrote a version of Jonathan's function that is similar but does not use the CROSS JOIN nor the IIF/CASE statements:

CREATE...

IMHO, the closest thing to a CROSS APPLY is a "Correlated Sub-Query" with an implicit join, which can return more than one row per input row if you're not...

Personally, I would avoid recursive CTEs whenever possible. By using the Tally, it replaces the hidden loop that the recursive CTE performs with an efficient set-based manner. Take a look...

It's true that the result is the same either way, however I prefer not to use the old method you have in your FROM statement of comma separated sources instead...

I think it comes down to a balance between performance and management. Sure, your proposal to have a slew of functions to fit various criteria would work and would likely...

No worries, Jeff. I also use the first one most primarily (99+%) with only a few use cases for the offset one. You got me to thinking about the UNION...

Hi Jeff! Here's a version that I've used for a while that's been pretty handy for me:

CREATE FUNCTION dbo.fnTally(@RowCnt bigint, @ZeroOrOne bit = 1)
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS...

I have used the analogy of medical doctors before to describe the different fields within the computing space. It does help people to recognize that there is quite a bit...

• This reply was modified 6 years, 3 months ago by Aaron N. Cutshall.

I thought the same thing initially, but it won't work because DATEPART(mm,oh.OrderDate) is not part of the GROUP BY whereas DATENAME(mm,oh.OrderDate) is.

Arg! I clicked the wrong one! I got so excited because I new that it would list it by month name yet be in the proper order (month number). This...

Great article Thom! I've been working on a SQL Saturday presentation right along these lines. There were a couple of points that I'd like to include in my presentation with...

This post was a great recognition to those who travel extensively and the impact that it has on them and their family. For a period of time, I figured that...

Good morning Steve! When travel becomes a weekly issue with multiple legs on the journey, such scheduling issues can indeed become a major problem. I figured out one time that...

I tend to agree with Jeff in that the length of the presentation depends on the subject and the required depth of discussion needed for it to be properly understood....