T-Sql-Tuesday

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday is hosted by Brent Ozar and he’s asked everyone to find interesting bug or enhancement requests in Microsoft Connect related to SQL Server.

The Connect item doesn’t have to have anything to do with T-SQL – it could be about the engine, SSRS, R, the installer, whatever. Now, more than ever, Microsoft has started to respond to Connect requests and get ’em fixed not just in upcoming versions of SQL Server, but even in cumulative updates for existing versions.

It’s 2016. So why are we still dealing with T-SQL code and design patterns that were designed 7 versions ago?

In the 15 years I have been using databases professionally, we’re still dealing with:

• Peoples’ names are split into first name, last name and middle initial fields. Ignoring that this falls afoul of several of the myths programmers believe about names, the first name column was defined as CHAR(10) in a standard installation. How many characters are in the name Christopher (hint: I had to take off a shoe to count them all)?
• Other arbitrarily short column sizes which cause problems as the system scales out in usage. For example, an event ID field that’s 8 characters: 2 letters and a 6-digit number which is used as a sequence. Guess what happens when you hit the millionth event in that sequence.
• Processes originally developed as transactions (for good reasons), but not designed in such a way that they scale to today’s demands.
• NOLOCK hints everywhere. It’s even in newly-developed code for this application.
• Cursors used anytime a set of records has to be updated with a small bit of conditional logic built in. A set-based operation with appropriate CASE statements would work much better.

The primary system I deal with on a daily basis was originally developed as a DOS application and several of the above examples are drawn from it. Looking at the core tables and columns, it’s easy to identify those that began life in those early days - they all have 8-character names. Time moved on and the system grew and evolved. DOS to Windows. Windows to the web. But the database, and the practices and patterns used in the database, haven’t come along for the ride.

Wayne Sheffield (blog|twitter) is hosting this month’s T-SQL Tuesday and his topic is Giving Back to the SQL Community. More specifically, he’s asking how each of us is planning on giving something back to the SQL Community in 2015. He offers up a few suggestions, so I’ll start by addressing those and then move on to additional ideas.

• Are you going to start speaking at your local user group? Yes, I expect that by the end of 2015 I will have spoken to our local chapter at least once. I spoke to various groups at work in 2014 and plan to continue doing so in 2015 as well.
• Perhaps step up and help run your local user group? I was named the Vice President of our local chapter a couple months ago, and I will continue in that capacity.
• Do you want to start becoming an active blogger – or increase your blogging? Yes! At the time of this writing I’ve only published 7 posts here, and I have 6 others in various stages of preparation. I have some ideas brewing, I just need to get things written and then actually press that Publish button. Part of it is fear/insecurity, and I need to get out of my comfort zone a little and Just Do It.
• Do you plan on volunteering your time with larger organizations (such as PASS), so that SQL Training can occur at a larger level? If I have the opportunity to attend PASS Summit in 2015, I will volunteer at the event. When the call for pre-event volunteers go out, I’ll look at what’s needed and try to step a little out of my comfort zone & do something there as well.
• Other ways of contributing
  • For the 3rd year, I will be helping to organize and run SQL Saturday Rochester in 2015. If you’re reading this, you probably know about SQL Saturday, and have probably even been to one. Next time, bring a friend!
  • I’ve been promoting PASS and our local chapter for a while at work and will be a more vocal in 2015. There are a lot of people with knowledge and experience they can share who aren’t even aware that PASS and the local and virtual user groups exist. I want to help bring those people into the community.

This month’s T-SQL Tuesday topic is passwords. I’m neither a DBA nor server/system admin, so the only passwords I get to manage are my own. But there’s still lots to talk about. Passwords (or rather, weak passwords) have been in the news a lotover the past two weeks, so it’s timely.

This is the password story I’d like to tell my kids, but they’re too young to understand yet.

My first official entry for T-SQL Tuesday (my first was a guest post hosted by Kendal Van Dyke (blog|twitter), so I’m not really counting it) is brought to you by PowerShell, or PoSH. Ever since I discovered PoSH and really dove into learning it a couple years ago, my co-workers have gotten a bit annoyed by my insistence upon using it for everything. It is my favorite hammer, and around me I see nothing but acres and acres of nails.