Comments on: Hi, I need help on simplyfying this Update query!

By: PaulM

PaulM — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:32:41 +0000

If this is SQL 2005 use Common Table Expressions (CTE) if it is Oracle 10 use WITH …
(which is along the same lines) and if you want, throw it through the advisors in both and see what they say.

I agree with John and Paul, knowing what it is trying to retrieve is normally the first step to getting a handle on the SQL.

I am worried Paul has just found a new interview question for getting a job with Pythian…
Simplify this SQL. You have 1 hour ;)

By: Paul Vallee

Paul Vallee — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:10:35 +0000

John, I’m totally with you, but tell me the truth - if you took a new job or appeared at a client site and this was the task they assigned you - tell me you wouldn’t desperately clutch at straws and scratch at the coffin in hopes of getting someone else to do that for you.

By: John Flack

John Flack — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:35:36 +0000

I wish that instead of giving a query that doesn’t work, people would show their data structure and explain what they need to retrieve from it. In plain language. You need to understand the problem you are trying to solve, not the failed attempts to solve it.

By: Shakir Sadikali

Shakir Sadikali — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:12:16 +0000

Haha, i was about to send this off to Rob Hamel. If he can’t do it, no one can! :-)