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: )

5,496 reads

Blogs

Asking for Help Isn’t a Weakness

By

During COVID, I attended training on software/enterprise architecture given by Mark Richards. One of...

The Proof of the Backup Is in the Pudding

By

For me, the objective is straightforward: have a backup strategy that is reliable, understandable,...

T-SQL Tuesday #204 – Are blogs still relevant?

By

Note: This post is the invitation for T-SQL Tuesday #204 on November 3rd, 2026....

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

The ##MS_DatabaseConnector## User

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The ##MS_DatabaseConnector## User

Planning for Change

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Planning for Change

Importing Excel files into SQL Server, Azure Edition

By Cláudio Tereso

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Importing Excel files into SQL...

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

The ##MS_DatabaseConnector## User

On SQL Server 2025, I run this code as a sysadmin:

CREATE LOGIN Demo WITH PASSWORD = 'Demo1234567'
GO
ALTER SERVER ROLE ##MS_DatabaseConnector## ADD MEMBER Demo
GO
I then login as Demo and run this:
USE sandbox
go
SELECT CURRENT_USER
What is returned?

See possible answers