Scripts

Technical Article

Stupid Coding Tricks: The T-SQL Mandelbrot

The bar for entry into CodeSOD is pretty straight forward: professionally-developed code that elicits that certain What The— reaction. Though there have been a few exceptions over the years, generally speaking, student code, hobbyist code, and amateur code need not apply. That said, I'd like to try something a little different today. Today's example is not technically professionally-developed, it's a Stupid Coding Trick.

"So I was bored at work one day," Graeme Job explains, "and wondered, what's the most useless thing I could do with my time without actually doing anything. Then it hit me. I could use T-SQL to generate... Mandelbrot."

Graeme continued, "Following is a single T-SQL SELECT statement that generates a text-representation of a Mandelbrot Set. The results are best viewed in text-mode."

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

(19)

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2016-09-02 (first published: )

5,493 reads

Blogs

T-SQL Tuesday #203: Risk and Reward

By

This is timely, as I’m currently on a boat in the Adriatic taking a...

dataMinds Connect 2026 – Slides & Scripts

By

You can find the slides and SQL scripts for my session “Spice up your...

How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later)

By

How to Clear the SSMS Cache (SSMS 21 and Later) Updated...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

Alamat BCA KCP Pasar Kenari Telp:08218200203

By layanan_Bca88

Telp/Wa 628218200203 Gedung Sutrado, Jl. Kenari 2 No.5 Lt. 1, RT.2/RW.3, Kenari, Kec. Senen,...

Alamat BCA KCP Biak Telp:08217555651

By R4nt4u

Telp/Wa 628218200203 Jl. Biak No.44 AB, RT.8/RW.11, Cideng, Kecamatan Gambir, Kota Jakarta Pusat, Daerah...

Alamat BCA KCP Plaza Index Telp:08217555651

By m4rt1n4

Telp/Wa 628217555651 Gedung Plaza Bank Index Ground, Jl. M.H. Thamrin No.57 Floor Suite GF-21,...

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

Using CHOOSE()

We have this code that sets some status values and then queries them using the CHOOSE() function in SQL Server 2025.

CREATE TABLE Status
(
    StatusID INT,
    StatusDescription VARCHAR(20)
);
GO
INSERT dbo.Status
(
    StatusID,
    StatusDescription
)
VALUES
(0, 'Uncategorized'),
(1, 'Active'),
(2, 'Inactive'),
(3, 'Temp');

GO
SELECT CHOOSE(StatusID, 'Unknown', 'Active', 'Inactive', 'Temporary')
FROM Status;
When the SELECT runs, what is returned?

See possible answers