A useful and informative article, thanks 🙂

Observation only: I find it rather annoying that every element is repeated at least three times!

Forgive (unwashed!) isn't generate_series() available?

Anyone else thought exactly as Steve did (do it manually better than testing a script), but thought again when the "force encryption" was cleared? Can't work out how it happened,...

Compare and contrast "EXCEPT".

Does it recommend against using '--' as comment delimiters 😛

But seriously, good luck on this, Steve.

Good timing - the current feature list for SQL Server 2022 includes the function GENERATE_SERIES(), which looks like a handy way to generate the Numbers or Tally rows.

You can use something like the below to indicate a total failure somewhere. At least in the testing phase.

DELETE
FROM dbo.star_wars_film
WHERE film_id IN (
SELECT film_id
FROM dbo.purge_test
WHERE purge_type...

As a near-senior citizen, I’d like to know how one goes about protecting and remembering 30 or 40 different accounts/passwords. Password vaults are only as secure as the password...

I will still continue asking stupid questions about queries until I feel fit enough, after all I’m a junior BI Developer now

And that is the very reason Steve's approach...

• This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by david.wright-948385.

Some great points, Steve, but please don't go down the sensationalist/quasi-abusive route to spark debate.

Wow.

Nice one David.

These issues come up time and again: the need for an environment that support honesty, while still maintaining accountability. The need to identify and learn from...

One of my devs had exactly this problem a few weeks back. My advice was:
* always alias tables
* always prefix column name references with the table alias
* it's...

If you don't already enjoy your work, find a way to enjoy it. Whatever you're employed to do, you'll be better at your job; you, your colleagues and your employers...