The SQL query that is used to produce the result that is inserted into the permanent table has its order specified by an ORDER BY statement. Relational tables are not ordered, so the ORDER BY is meaningless. Use a Row_Number() window clause instead, if you need to impose a particular order on rows in the Read more
There was a time when column aliases in SQL Server and Sybase were only declared by an assignment expression, and some people are still fond of the old way of doing it, in much the same way as some of us still like line-dancing, or singing madrigals dressed in tights. Nowadays, the other relational database Read more
The syntax of the TOP clause insists on a bracketed, or parenthesized, expression as its first argument, so that TOP 34 should, strictly speaking be TOP (34), although if you are just supplying a numeric constant, such as 34, as an argument then either style will work. Early incarnations of TOP could use only a Read more
Code analysis is a useful technique for identifying potential issues in your code base, and ensuring that it adheres to your pre-defined standards, so that you can release your software product with more confidence. SQL Prompt 9.2 and later also allows you to view a whole list of code issues detected in a SQL script, Read more
Database code analysis becomes more important as the team doing the database development gets bigger and more diverse in skills. Hard-working database developers sometimes check-in ‘temporary’ development code, by mistake, so it is always good to have a way of flagging up SQL Code issues and ‘smells’ that are agreed to be incompatible with ‘production’ Read more
Within SSMS, when executing a query, we can view the query results in a grid, or tabular, format (Ctrl-D), as plain text (Ctrl-T), or we can write them to a plain-text reporting (.rpt) file using Ctrl-Shift-F. However, over my 20 plus years as a SQL programmer, I’ve often needed to take these results and use Read more
Using SELECT * FROM within IF EXISTS statements are fine, but in other contexts it causes several problems. For example, INSERT INTO…SELECT * FROM statement assumes the columns are in a particular order, and that order may not last. Also, selecting all the columns in a table when you don’t need them all can cause Read more
Mistakes happen, occasionally .You accidentally close an SSMS query tab without saving it, before realizing it contained an essential bit of code. You’re working late, switching between test and development servers, and accidentally execute code against the wrong server. SSMS conspires against you and crashes unexpectedly, and you lose all your currently open query tabs, Read more
You’ve been working on a query, function or procedure and you want to store the results of executing it in a table; maybe a table variable, or a temporary table. These all require column definitions, and such things can be tiresome to do. Consider the following AdventureWorks query. Listing 1 You need to store the Read more
Using TOP in a SELECT statement without a subsequent ORDER BY clause is legal in SQL Server, but meaningless because asking for the TOP 10 rows implies that the data is guaranteed to be in a certain order, and tables have no implicit logical order. You must specify the order. In a SELECT statement, you Read more
