Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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LutzM SSC Guru Points: 107049 More actions · Answer 1

Florian Reischl (6/23/2009)

GilaMonster (6/23/2009)

Florian Reischl (6/23/2009)

@Roy: You just have to come to Germany.

How far are you from Berlin? There's a very, very, very, very small chance that I may be in that area in Nov.

About 600km (almost other side of Germany). Let me know if you come to Berlin. Maybe I'll visit some friends there.

Hey, Leipzig is about 4 1/2hrs from Munich and 2 1/2hrs from Berlin! Why don't meet half-way? But even the trip to Berlin would be worth it to meet one of "the masters of SQL Performance & Martial Arts". 🙂

Lutz
A pessimist is an optimist with experience.

How to get fast answers to your question[/url]
How to post performance related questions[/url]
Links for Tally Table [/url] , Cross Tabs [/url] and Dynamic Cross Tabs [/url], Delimited Split Function[/url]

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 728159 More actions · Answer 2

Note that I've received a complaint on this thread.

I don't think anyone has crossed a line, but I see a few posts that are close. Please remember that this is a public thread, and your comments are public, and they reflect on you.

It is one thing to vent about posts or mistakes, it's another to directly call someone out of insult them. As I said, I don't think anyone crossed my line, but it's close. Please be professional in your posts.

Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/way0utwest
Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help
My Blog: www.voiceofthedba.com

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1000539 More actions · Answer 3

Paul White (6/23/2009)

Oh boy. So now "standard SQL" has been invoked.

Jeff's gonna absolutely love this - I just hope Carl likes pork.

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost740591.aspx

Heh... I never thought I'd tell someone to use a cursor. 😉

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
"Change is inevitable... change for the better is not".

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)
Intro to Tally Tables and Functions

Jeff Moden SSC Guru Points: 1000539 More actions · Answer 4

Steve Jones - Editor (6/23/2009)

Note that I've received a complaint on this thread.

I don't think anyone has crossed a line, but I see a few posts that are close. Please remember that this is a public thread, and your comments are public, and they reflect on you.

It is one thing to vent about posts or mistakes, it's another to directly call someone out of insult them. As I said, I don't think anyone crossed my line, but it's close. Please be professional in your posts.

Heh... shoot... now they'll never fix the code windows. 😛

--Jeff Moden

RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.
"Change is inevitable... change for the better is not".

Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally)
Intro to Tally Tables and Functions

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004494 More actions · Answer 5

Along the lines of that rather strange comment on SimpleTalk a week or so back (asking for BioTech books iirc), I thought this might provide a few laughs.

http://plzsendmethecode.blogspot.com/

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

RBarryYoung SSC Guru Points: 143329 More actions · Answer 6

Paul White (6/23/2009)

RBarryYoung (6/23/2009)

It looks like my code got partially garbled when they tried to format it for the article. I have attached the actual code in a text file for your enjoyment. 🙂

:laugh:

The in-line version became slightly garbled too!

declare @S nvarchar(999) Set @S='Œ''~‚,ROWS~€ŒŒ~}and~|le~{char(1~\e ~Q Se|ct ~Jexec sp_~4 BEGIN /$ 6 Jspaceused &Œ?&&,@where}=€} o.namot lik\&Œ#[0-9]%&&,@postcomm}=6tQdb_name(),*: De|te:€ END Œ, Œ^ŒQTOP 5 BAS\,[$] ,7‚:t order by cast(|ft(7,|n(7)-3) as int) desc<' WHILE ASCII(@s)99SELECT @S=REPLACE(Right(@s,Len(@s)-(Charindex('~',@s))),left(@s,1),substring(@s,2,Charindex('~',@s)-2)) EXEC(@s)

[font="Courier New"]Msg 173, Level 15, State 1, Line 1

The definition for column 'BASvarchar' must include a data type.[/font]

Luckily, the attachment worked just fine, and is just outrageous - but so cool.

Appreciating it is one thing - understanding it will have to wait until after work 🙁

Paul

The funny thing is about a week after I submitted that, I came up with a cople of different compression schemes that are almost twice as efficient. I guess I'll hold those for the next time. 😀

[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung [font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]

Paul White SSC Guru Points: 150457 More actions · Answer 7

RBarryYoung (6/24/2009)

The funny thing is about a week after I submitted that, I came up with a cople of different compression schemes that are almost twice as efficient. I guess I'll hold those for the next time. 😀

Oh hai!...............I need that project too.....and powerpoint presentation...help me,,,,,,,plz...send teh codez!

Paul White
SQLPerformance.com
SQLkiwi blog
@SQL_Kiwi

jcrawf02 SSC-Insane Points: 24198 More actions · Answer 8

Has codez, needs brainz . ..:-P

Ok math geeks. My poor little head can't wrap around why I get different results for these, and hoping you can help.

Trying to determine the average utilization per thousand member months of a service rendered (CPT code). Looking at it per thousand months in order to nullify the impact of membership growth.

I need to come up with an average from 1/1/2007 until the end of June 2009.

Two schools of thought:

1 - calculate the utilization per thousand (util per K) each month,

sum up all those numbers and divide by 30 to get the average (30 months between 1/1/2007 and 6/1/2009, and codes don't appear in every month)

2 - just take the true utilization since 1/1/2007 and divide by the member months for the entire timespan.

I had assumed that these would be equivalent. D'oh!

Why are these numbers so drastically different? Which one is more accurate?

I'm going to be applying this rate to projected membership, so I'll be multiplying by 200,000 or so to find future utilization per code, that's why it makes such a big difference.

Example attached, I inserted data with zero utilization for the missing months.

**Edit: moved code to an attachment

---------------------------------------------------------
How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

RBarryYoung SSC Guru Points: 143329 More actions · Answer 9

jcrawf02 (6/24/2009)

Has codez, needs brainz . ..:-P

Ok math geeks. My poor little head can't wrap around why I get different results for these, and hoping you can help.

Trying to determine the average utilization per thousand member months of a service rendered (CPT code). Looking at it per thousand months in order to nullify the impact of membership growth.

I need to come up with an average from 1/1/2007 until the end of June 2009.

Two schools of thought:

1 - calculate the utilization per thousand (util per K) each month,

sum up all those numbers and divide by 30 to get the average (30 months between 1/1/2007 and 6/1/2009, and codes don't appear in every month)

2 - just take the true utilization since 1/1/2007 and divide by the member months for the entire timespan.

I had assumed that these would be equivalent. D'oh!

Why are these numbers so drastically different? Which one is more accurate?

I'm going to be applying this rate to projected membership, so I'll be multiplying by 200,000 or so to find future utilization per code, that's why it makes such a big difference.

Example attached, I inserted data with zero utilization for the missing months.

**Edit: moved code to an attachment

You know all of the UtilPerK values for code 11975 are zero in the second half of your table? That's pretty much always going to drag down any comparison.

[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung [font="Arial Black"]
Proactive Performance Solutions, Inc. [/font][font="Verdana"] "Performance is our middle name."[/font]

jcrawf02 SSC-Insane Points: 24198 More actions · Answer 10

Yes, I know they're zeroes. That's to counteract the average being too high when the code isn't present in the utilization at all.

Anyway, the zeroes are in both methods, so that shouldn't be the problem. (says the guy who can't figure it out):-D

---------------------------------------------------------
How best to post your question[/url]
How to post performance problems[/url]
Tally Table:What it is and how it replaces a loop[/url]

"stewsterl 80804 (10/16/2009)I guess when you stop and try to understand the solution provided you not only learn, but save yourself some headaches when you need to make any slight changes."

Alvin Ramard SSC-Forever Points: 41190 More actions · Answer 11

jcrawf02 (6/24/2009)

Yes, I know they're zeroes. That's to counteract the average being too high when the code isn't present in the utilization at all.

Anyway, the zeroes are in both methods, so that shouldn't be the problem. (says the guy who can't figure it out):-D

Is this a case of the "average of averages" not being equal to the "average of the total"? You should never assume that those to be equal.

Alvin Ramard
Memphis PASS Chapter[/url]

All my SSC forum answers come with a money back guarantee. If you didn't like the answer then I'll gladly refund what you paid for it.

For best practices on asking questions, please read the following article: Forum Etiquette: How to post data/code on a forum to get the best help[/url]

spaghettidba SSC Guru Points: 105712 More actions · Answer 12

Florian Reischl (6/23/2009)

Roy Ernest (6/23/2009)

Did anyone see this request

He has some nerve...:-)

Yep. There is the second part of the story:

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic740368-146-1.aspx

And there is the third

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost741056.aspx

and fourth

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost741074.aspx

Maybe the same person? Did you notice he edited the posts linked by Flo and Roy?

-- Gianluca Sartori

Florian Reischl SSC-Dedicated Points: 37299 More actions · Answer 13

Gianluca Sartori (6/24/2009)

Florian Reischl (6/23/2009)

Roy Ernest (6/23/2009)

Did anyone see this request

He has some nerve...:-)

Yep. There is the second part of the story:

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic740368-146-1.aspx

And there is the third

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost741056.aspx

and fourth

http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost741074.aspx

Good job to refer to the other threads, Gianluca! I don't know if it is the same person but it definitely seems to be.

Maybe the same person? Did you notice he edited the posts linked by Flo and Roy?

Reminds me of the T**ll. :w00t:

The more I learn, the more I know what I do not know
Blog: Things about Software Architecture, .NET development and T-SQL

How to Post Data/Code to get the best Help How to Post Performance Problems

WayneS SSC Guru Points: 95405 More actions · Answer 14

Gianluca Sartori (6/23/2009)

WayneS (6/23/2009)

Well, I let him know a solution is available, but... well, see for yourself... http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/FindPost740549.aspx

LOL! What's your hourly fee, Wayne? I need to get the grass cut... 😀

How's that saying go? If you have to ask, you can't afford it...

Wayne
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008
Author - SQL Server T-SQL Recipes

If you can't explain to another person how the code that you're copying from the internet works, then DON'T USE IT on a production system! After all, you will be the one supporting it!

Links:
For better assistance in answering your questions
Performance Problems
Common date/time routines
Understanding and Using APPLY Part 1 & Part 2

Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442447 More actions · Answer 15

Lynn Pettis

SSC Guru

Points: 442447

June 24, 2009 at 10:46 am

#1014780

Looks like he'd have deleted his posts if he could have. Doesn't help, however, where those posts had been quoted.