| April 9, 2013
4 comments

T-SQL Tuesday #41–It All Started with A Flower

T-sql Tuesday
Bob Pusateri (B|T) is hosting this month’s T-SQL Tuesday blog party. (Thank you Bob!) The party was originally started by Adam Machanic (B|T) just over three years ago. The topic this month is “Presenting and Loving It”. This is an interesting question for me, because it touches most of my life.

For those that know me, I’m very artistic, in fact I have an art minor and even tried to be a full time artist for a couple of years. The first time I remember teaching others about a topic, was in 6th grade. I taught my class how to make paper flowers by cutting out individual petals. Answering the class’ questions was my favorite part of the presentation.

Jump to 1994, which is when I graduated from college. Jobs were not the easiest to find. Probably because Dice.com hadn’t been written yet. So my first job out of college was teaching Microsoft Office to professionals, and within six months I became an MCT. I taught Visual Basic for two years before the travel got to me. I had some great classes and some boring classes, but I don’t think it was as exciting as presenting at SQL Saturdays.

At the beginning I found that most of the students in the classes were not very engaging. It was like pulling teeth to get them to ask questions or even to voluntarily answer the review questions. So I devised a plan. I brought a bag of Hershey’s Miniatures and I tossed them to the students who asked questions. Let me tell you, by Friday they were all asking questions. As time went on, I tried other things. I brought in monopoly money and handed out a pink $5 for leading questions. They loved that too, but the best idea was my version of Jeopardy. I divided the class into two teams and they had to name each other. Then they answered the review questions and any questions I made up as a team. Now I had team spirit, cooperation, and fun in my class. The best was the class that named each other “The Banana Slugs” and “The Sage Hens”. (Why sage hens? Because if you scare them, they can die. True story.) That one week class had so much fun that one of them wrote me a letter thanking me. But speaking at SQL Saturday is still better.

In 2002 I was so fed up with the way I was treated as a programmer that I tried to leave the field. I had always wanted to teach math, so I went back to college that spring and taught high school algebra that summer. (What was I thinking?) Presenting at SQL Saturdays is WAY better than that.

Which brings me to 2013 and SQL Saturdays. At SQL Saturday I get to present on whatever I want, providing they pick my abstract of course. At SQL Saturday the only people in my class are people who want to hear what I have to say. When I was an MCT, some of my students were there because their boss made them. Nobody is forced to attend a SQL Saturday. At SQL Saturday’s I can be me because I’m representing myself, not the company I work for. This also means I can give my friends hugs, eat lunch with my friends, and not talk for five days straight.

When it comes right down to it…

The number one reason why I like presenting is the same reason as 30 years ago, I like to answer questions and teach people. (And I still like to bring chocolate to my sessions too…all though I might try bacon.)

Category: Speaking, SQL PASS, SQL Saturday, T-SQL Tuesday | Tags: , , , ,
| March 30, 2013
4 comments

Speaking Engagements–Engaging Speaking

71 VetteThis past September (2012) I attended my first SQL Saturday in San Diego. After the SQL Saturday event I went to the after party where I had the opportunity to network with some wonderful people. One of them being Benjamin Nevarez (b|t). He asked me if I had thought about speaking at a SQL Saturday. I told him that I wasn’t considering it for another year. He told me, “Why wait? Speak at the next SQL Saturday. There will be one in Orange County in the spring.”

I thought the idea was insane. I hadn’t done any technical speaking in years, like over 15 years….and I’ve never written my own content.  OK, once I wrote my own content, but that was also over 15 years ago.

But he got me thinking…

By November I had decided I would submit an abstract to TWO SQL Saturdays one in Orange County, and the other in San Diego in the fall. By December I had bought myself a laptop and had decided to speak at FIVE events in 2013. It’s the end of March, and guess what? I’ve already spoken twice, I will be speaking again on Thursday, and then I finally get to speak at the Orange County SQL Saturday. I added up all the possible engagements and I have a possible NINE events for the year (4 User Group Meetings, 4 SQL Saturday Events, and if I’m a lucky ducky the coup de grace… PASS Summit). I’ve also just agreed to organize and moderate a Women’s In Technology (WIT) panel for the Orange County SQL Saturday. I’ve very excited to have a panel of women talk about how to get our youth involved in STEM programs (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics).

I’m addicted

I’ve enjoyed myself so much speaking at the events. Yes, I was nervous, but it is so gratifying to share knowledge, to help solve problems, and to watch the light bulb go on when they see how they can leverage their new found knowledge.

Where to find me this year

If you would like to hear me speak about SQL Server Reporting Services, you can find me at these events.

Category: Speaking, SQL Saturday, T-SQL | Tags: , ,
| March 3, 2013
5 comments

My Come Back From The Speaking Grave

I started my career in 1994 at a training company, QuickStart Technologies (now QuickStart Intelligence). I spent my first 2.5 years there as a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) teaching Visual Basic 3.0 and 4.0 amongst other classes. I was one of their best trainers and I can thank them for that. They didn’t just hand us our Microsoft curriculum and told us to “Make it so”. They invested time and money into us. We took classes each year from outside trainers on how to give presentations. They were some of the most helpful training I’ve ever had, boring as hell, but incredibly helpful.

In 2006 I helped start and become the president of The Southern California Glass Guild for LA and Orange Counties. The training I received at QuickStart paid off. I was able to lead the monthly meetings and occasionally present on a topic.

This last weekend I had the pleasure of presenting my first SQL Saturday Session (#177) up in Silicon Valley. My presentation was on the tablix controls (Table, Matrix, List) in Reporting Services and was entitled Tablix – The Rubik Cube of Reporting Services.

When I first finished the session, I thought I had done so poorly. I had technical difficulties with my monitor which meant I had to present with my back to my audience, which I hated. …. But then something happened. My students smiled at me. They thanked me. They asked questions. They didn’t leave in the middle of my presentation.  And my friends who attend my class told me I did well. So now when I’m asked how it went, my answer is it went great.

The biggest difference between being an MCT and a SQL Saturday trainer, is the materials that you teach from. As an MCT, my materials were created for me, even my demos.  As a SQL Saturday trainer, my materials were typed by my own fingers and my demos came from my own imagination. Which meant, I had to buy a laptop because I didn’t own one. I had to think up what I wanted to talk about it and how I would get my points across. I spent 2 months on and off preparing for my one hour session, probably about 30 hours of time.

What advice would I give to a new speaker?

I would actually give this advice to anyone who wants to improve their speaking.

  • Invest time into your presentation skills. I was lucky to take classes on speaking, but if cost is an issue, then there are other ways.
    • You can join local Toast Masters group.
    • You could also have an experienced speaker critique you and give you pointers.
  • Go watch other experienced speakers, even if you aren’t interested in their topics. You are there to watch how they present and how they engage their audience. I have three favorites and if you ever get an opportunity to watch them speak, take the time to do so.
    • Grant Fritchey (b|t) – He is lively, he LOVES questions, and he has great demos.
    • Kevin Kline (b|t) – He has the best voice which means he speaks clearly, he looks at home while speaking, and I swear he uses mind control to get the slides to change. You don’t even see his hand move.
    • Jason Strate (b|t) – Jason has the same attributes that Grant and Kevin have. The first time I took a class from him, I was so impressed that I changed my schedule to take the other two classes he was teaching that day. That wouldn’t have happened if he was a bad presenter.
  • Video tape one of your presentations (make sure to get permission first). I will warn you, you won’t like looking at it, but you need to.
    • Look at your posture. Are you standing up straight? Do you look like you want to be there?
    • Look at your clothes. Are they distracting? Are they neat and clean?
    • Listen to your speech. Are you loud and clear? Do you use filler words like “um” or “like”?
    • Look at the use of your mouse and/or pointer? Are you moving it so much that a cat would pounce on it?
  • Make sure you know how long you will be speaking. (For some reason I thought I had 90 min. Nope, I had 60 min.) Bring a clock. The one on your phone is fine. I wrote down the following times on my cheat sheet. That way I didn’t have to do math in my head between remembering the next step in my demo and changing slides.
    • The time the session Started
    • The half point time
    • 10 minutes before the session ended
    • The time the session ended.

More pointers

My mentor gave me some great advice before I gave my first presentation, and on Wednesday when we meet, I know he’ll have some more for me. I’ve also observed from other great instructors some tricks that I used that worked for me.

  • Make 3 backups of your slides and demos, including the databases you need. Store them 3 different places you’ll have access to.
  • Install ZoomIt by Microsoft and practice with it.
  • Be prepared if ZoomIt doesn’t work (that is what happened to me).
  • Practice with your screen resolution at 1024 by 768.
  • Have a cheat sheet with any special code or numbers that you will be typing in your demo. Allen White (b|t) uses notepad in the background so that he can copy and paste. I LOVE this technique. It worked great for me. Nobody wants to watch you type a formula out. They want you to explain the different parts of it.
  • Look and sound confident, even when you’re nervous.

Conclusion

I know there are things I need to work on, but there always are. I enjoyed coming back from the speaking grave and teaching other’s technical content that I use and they might need. I hope that someday you can attend one of my classes.

Category: Community, SQL Saturday | Tags: , , ,
| January 8, 2013
2 comments

T-SQL Tuesday #38 – There Is No Spoon

T-sql TuesdayJason Brimhall (B|T) is hosting this month’s T-SQL Tuesday blog party. (Thank you Jason!) The party was originally started by Adam Machanic (B|T) just over three years ago. The topic this month is “Standing Firm”. Jason had a great list of New Year’s words for this topic: Resolve, Resolution, and Resolute. I immediately thought of the word “Resolute” and how I am determined to have my blog be successful on my terms.

I have been given many talents, but writing “proper English” is not one of them. A simple blog post can take me hours not only to write but to reword, correct grammar and spelling, and make sure I’m consistent with my personal pronoun usage. But I am determined and Resolute about having a blog to share my knowledge and to proudly call my own. Thinking of my challenge I thought of Neo from The Matrix. He meets a prodigy at the Oracle’s home and she is bending spoons with her mind. Neo tries to bend the spoon by staring at it, but nothing happens. She tells him the secret is, “There is no spoon”. After he realizes she was correct, he is able to bend the spoon with his mind. Would he have been able to bend the spoon if he had never met her? Most likely not. He had to learn to see his reality differently so that he could achieve what he thought was impossible. Being able to write when it is not “my talent” can be approached the same way.

The first thing the “Resolute Writer” needs, is to determine where the weaknesses are and find tools to help overcome those weaknesses.

Tools For Planning

The first thing I do when I know what I’m going to write about, is I create a mind map. A mind map is a diagram that illustrates the ideas I have on a subject. All I need is a piece of paper and a pen, but since I’m a geeky girl…I use my iPad. I have this great program called Grafio. It allows me to create mind maps and save them as images. Here is the mind map for this blog post.

Mind Map T-SQL Tuesday 38

Since I love color as much as I love SQL, I color coded my mind map. The pink circle is my main topic, and the purple and aqua circles are used as my grouping mechanisms for the gray circles which contain the ideas.

Outlines are a great tool for working out the flow of a blog post. There are even products out there that turn mind maps into outlines, but I have not used them. Microsoft Word and simply numbering the circles on a mind map are other tools for creating outlines.

Ginger is a tool I use to correct not only my spelling, but also my grammar and word usage. However, it isn’t perfect. Technical languages like SQL can be challenging for Ginger, but overall I find Ginger to be a wonderful tool for me.

Help Beyond The Borders

When Neo was stuck in the train station in the third Matrix movie, he tried to will himself out just like he willed the spoon to bend. He found it difficult. I’m sure if he had been given more time, he could have willed himself out, but Trinity was willing to help get him out. Writing is no different. I can ask just about anyone in my life to proof read what I write, and sometimes I do. I had my husband Dan proof read my last blog post on Mentoring, and I had my daughter Victoria proof read this blog post.

Another way to improve my writing skills, is to write for someone else, because they will definitely have an opinion on my writing ability if it’s not up to par. For me, my first post for MS SQL Tips came out yesterday (Working With Multi-Select Parameters for SSRS Reports). I also try to visit different SQL forums to answer questions. This allows me to test my own knowledge as well as allow me to explain to someone else, with written words, how to fix their problems.

Finally I have a goal to participate in as many T-SQL Tuesday’s as possible. This gives me two things:

  1. A topic that I didn’t have to think up.
  2. A time frame to write (1 week) with a deadline ( 2nd Tuesday) that is manageable.

Follow the White Rabbit

The best thing I can do for my writing, is to be true to myself. If I’m true to myself, and my SQL code is sound, then a couple of misspelled or badly placed words won’t matter to the readers. They will remember my posts for the content.

In the end, writing is as scary as deciding between the blue pill and the red pill, but I choose the red pill and I plan to see how far down the rabbit hole I can go.

Category: Community, T-SQL Tuesday | Tags: , , ,
| December 16, 2012
2 comments

WANTED: Mentor – Inquire Within – Recruiters Need Not Apply

Mentors

A mentor is someone you can ask questions so that you can accomplish your goals. They are a sounding board for your ideas so that you can feel more confident about the direction you are going to reach your goals. It’s not the mentor’s job to tell you what to do or how to do it, but to provide guidance so that you can go down your own path. The mentor should shine a light down the path, and not carry you. Usually these goals are related to furthering your career, but they can also be more specific as well.

Being Mentored

There are many ways to be mentored. You don’t have to use only one technique at a time either. Below are a few of the techniques that I have used in the past.

  • Blogs and Forums: With the internet you can ask anything that comes to mind and there are endless answers to those questions…But which is the correct answer for you? This is a great avenue to find answers quickly, or in the middle of the night, but I don’t think this your only way to achieve your goals. Why? The internet doesn’t ask YOU questions. The internet doesn’t remind you that you are straying away from your goals. The internet won’t congratulate you when you achieve your milestones. The internet IS a great place to do research so that you figure out what goals you want to achieve.
  • Teams: Another method that I have used is the team approach. I gathered several others who had similar goals so that we could share our ideas. This is a great way to hear several ideas at one time. The others in the group might ask questions you hadn’t thought of as well. I tried this technique when I was an artist. I gathered several other artists together and we met once a month to share ideas on how to sell our art. We all worked with different mediums and our ideas on how to sell and even display our art was as diverse as the mediums we worked with. The only drawback was we were all at the same place in our careers. Sometimes we didn’t have ideas on how to get to the next level, because none of us had been there. I see the SQL PASS User Groups fulfilling this type of mentorship in my life today. I found this technique very rewarding, because as I received help, I was also helping others.
  • One on One: The traditional way, is having a one on one relationship with someone. It doesn’t have to be a long-term relationship. It can be just a couple of weeks, a couple of months, or a life time. My first mentor was a colleague at my first job out of college. We were both MCTs. He was a great speaker and programmer, and I was very shy. We would meet for lunch every two weeks and I would ask him questions on how to present better and how to be more assertive. We would discuss my questions and set goals for our next discussion. Today, 18 years later, we are working at our 4th company together.

If you live in a remote area, don’t think you can’t have a mentor. You can be mentored through email, Skype, Webex, and half a dozen other formats. The important part is to have a set of goals and commitment from both sides to work towards those goals.

How Do You Know If You Need A Mentor?

  • If you know where you want your career to go, but you’re not sure of how to get there, you may need a mentor.
  • If you have too many goals and don’t know how to prioritize them, you may need a mentor.
  • If you are reading this article, you may need a mentor…OR you may need to BE a mentor.

WANTED: Mentor For Mickey Stuewe

Yup, I’m looking for a mentor to help with my goals. Why? Because I’m a proactive person and I like to talk things through. I want to bounce ideas off of someone on topics to speak on at conferences like SQL Saturday and SQL PASS. I want to talk to someone about the different Microsoft Certifications and whether they will help me in my career. I need advice on how to obtain my “dream job”. I’m looking for someone who is encouraging and supportive. Are you interested?

Category: Community | Tags: ,
| December 11, 2012
Comments Off on T-SQL Tuesday #37 – RIGHT JOIN, LEFT JOIN, raw, raw, raw

T-SQL Tuesday #37 – RIGHT JOIN, LEFT JOIN, raw, raw, raw

T-sql TuesdayThis months T-SQL Tuesday blog party is being hosted by Sebastian Meine, PhD (blog). The topic is on JOINS. I’ve chosen to blog about how to rewrite a RIGHT JOIN I found this week in a stored procedure.The query was simple, but it was difficult to read without creating a data model and understanding the relationships of the tables. I decided to rewrite it to make it easier to maintain in the future. I have created a sample data model to demonstrate the problem and the solution. The data model has a table for Sales Reps,a table for Regions which the Sales Reps belong to (optionally), a list of Clients, and a linking table which links the Clients and the Sales Reps.

The query that was created, returns all the Clients and any associated Sales Reps with their regions, even if the Sales Rep is not assigned to a region. The original programmer used a RIGHT JOIN  to join the SalesRep table to the ClientSalesRep table. They also put the predicate for the SalesRegion table after the SalesRep table. While the Optimizer has no problem reading this query, I had to stand on my head to figure it out.

SELECT
   c.ClientID
   ,c.ClientName
   ,sr.Region
   ,srep.FirstName
   ,srep.LastName
FROM
   dbo.Client AS c
   LEFT JOIN dbo.ClientSalesRep AS cus ON c.ClientID = cus.ClientID
   LEFT JOIN dbo.SalesRegion AS sr
   RIGHT JOIN dbo.SalesRep AS srep ON srep.SalesRegionID = sr.SalesRegionID
										ON cus.SalesRepID = srep.SalesRepID
GO

I rewrote the query using only LEFT JOINS and each table had its own predicate. I found the LEFT JOINS made it easier to read and didn’t give me a headache.

SELECT
   c.ClientID
   ,c.ClientName
   ,sr.Region
   ,srep.FirstName
   ,srep.LastName
FROM
   dbo.Client AS c
   LEFT JOIN dbo.ClientSalesRep AS cus ON c.ClientID = cus.ClientID
   LEFT JOIN dbo.SalesRep AS srep ON cus.SalesRepID = srep.SalesRepID
   LEFT JOIN dbo.SalesRegion AS sr ON srep.SalesRegionID = sr.SalesRegionID

GO

I populated the tables with a million rows to see if the Optimizer would treat these queries differently. It didn’t. They had the same query plan, the same number of reads, and the same statistics, but it was easier to read.

Thanks go to Sebastian for hosting T-SQL Tuesday this month. Check out Sebastian’s blog, because he is blogging about JOINS all month.

Category: JOINS, T-SQL, T-SQL Tuesday | Tags: , , , ,
| December 2, 2012
Comments Off on Moving The Hard Way

Moving The Hard Way

I recently moved my blog from WordPress.com to my current host. If you have experienced any problems with links. Please let me know. If you used to receive email notifications and you are no longer doing so, please resubmit your email.

Thank you for visiting my blog,
Mickey

Category: Uncategorized | Tags:
| November 13, 2012
Comments Off on T-SQL Tuesday #36 – What Community Means to a Newbie

T-SQL Tuesday #36 – What Community Means to a Newbie


The 4th quarter of 2012 has marked many firsts for me. I attended my first SQL Saturday and my first PASS Summit. I joined my first SQL User’s Group. I started a blog, and now I’m participating in T-SQL Tuesday. This month’s topic is about what community means to me. Since I have only recently found this amazing community, I’m blogging about the community from a Newbie’s perspective.

In the beginning…..

I knew no one in the SQL community outside of my IT department. The database side of my IT department has less than 5 people. I desperately searched for a local SQL Users group, but I couldn’t find an active one, so I widened my search criteria. I found I was half way between the LA SQL PASS chapter and San Diego SQL PASS Chapter, both of which are 50 miles away and a 1.5 to 2 hour drive on a Thursday night. What to do, what to do.

I lucked out. On Sept 15th, 2012 the San Diego SQL PASS Chapter (SDSQL) was hosting a SQL Saturday (#157).

It changed my life.

I drove down to San Diego (by myself) not expecting much. I took Jason Strate’s (B|T) session on Discovering the Plan Cache. His session was so good, that I changed my schedule and attended his other 2 sessions. By the end of the day, I was happy with the day, but I had hardly said two words to anyone. I had really wanted to network, but my shy side had stopped me (yes I do actually have a shy side. It’s very small, but it’s there). Phil Robinson, the president of the chapter, invited everyone to a local sports bar for dinner and I went.

This is where the magic happened.

Before I even went into the building I was greeted by someone from Quest. She happens to work in the building next to me. She introduced me to others and I finally began to network. As the night moved on, I met Phil Helmer (B|T) and everything really changed. He introduced me to other frequent members of the local chapter, as well as some of the speakers. We talked about the PASS Summit 2012, which I wasn’t going to be able to attend until 2013. After talking to Phil for a couple of hours, I decided I wanted to go this year, so I convinced my manager to let me go.

Phil was also the one who convinced me to set up a Twitter account, which I’m now an active member of. Twitter has provided me a way to stay in touch with the SQL community. It has also provided a way to help others with SQL questions.

That night I also struck up a conversation with Benjamin Nevarez (B|T). I told him how I use to be a Microsoft Certified Trainer and I wanted to start speaking on SQL topics in a year or two. He thought that goal was too far away and that I should speak at the next Huntington Beach SQL Saturday coming up in early 2013. He was very encouraging and has convinced me to submit a proposal.

But it gets better.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks prior to SQL PASS Summit 2012. I received an email from Joe Fleming (T). He was to be my mentor for Summit 2012. He was so helpful, answering all my questions and making sure I met people at the Summit. He’s not the only one either. Before the Summit even started, I had met new people on Twitter who would be attending the conference. Once I arrived at the Summit, I didn’t sit still for a week. I met so many fabulous people, and they accepted me, just the way I am. I never felt like the ugly stepsister. I never felt like the eccentric artist. I was never shut out because I’m Christian. I was accepted.

I was part of the SQL community.

Update: After reading the other T-SQL Tuesday #36 blog posts. I realized that I hadn’t thanked the host, Chris Yates (B|T) for hosting this month’s SQL blog party. Thank you Chris.

Category: Community, SQL PASS, T-SQL Tuesday | Tags: , , , ,
| October 28, 2012
Comments Off on The ROW_NUMBER Function As An Alternate To The MAX Function

The ROW_NUMBER Function As An Alternate To The MAX Function

It has taken a month to fuss over my new blog, but I finally made my first SQL entry. Since I’m excited about the upcoming SQL Pass conference, I thought I would show a fictitious problem about employees and their interests in SQL Conferences.

Problem: You are given two tables. The first table contains employees. The second table contains all the SQL Conferences each employee has been interested in along with the date they showed interest in the conference and whether or not they are still interested. You are asked to find the last SQL Conference that was added for each employee. Only conferences the employees are still interested in should be included, and only one conference per employee should be listed. The returned data should be ordered by the employee’s last name and first name.

Employee and Interest Data Model

The first solution that came to mind, was to use the MAX function on the InterestAddDate field to find the last added interest. There are two issues with this approach though.

1. In order to get the activity field returned, the Interest table has to be joined a second time on the MAX(InerestAddDate).
2. Multiple rows will be returned if the employee had an interest in two SQL conferences on the same date. While this could be a valid result set, in this case only one activity should be returned.


WITH CTE_InterestsByMax
AS
(
      SELECT
         EmployeeID
         ,MAX(InterestAddDate) AS LastInterestAdDate
      FROM
            dbo.Interest AS i
      WHERE
            isActive = 1
      GROUP BY
            EmployeeID
)
SELECT
      e.FirstName + ‘ ‘ + e.LastName AS EmployeeName
      ,i.InterestAddDate
      ,i.Activity
FROM
      CTE_InterestsByMax AS im
      JOIN dbo.Interest AS i ON im.LastInterestAdDate = i.InterestAddDate
                                                AND im.EmployeeID = i.EmployeeID
      JOIN dbo.Employee AS e ON im.EmployeeID = e.EmployeeID
ORDER BY
      e.LastName
      ,e.FirstName

Solution: To address these two issues, I used a Common Table Express (CTE)  and the ROW_NUMBER function. This function will number each row with a unique sequential number based on the OVER clause. Inside the OVER clause, I will order the data by the InterestAddDate field in descending order. Since I want to find the last SQL Conference of interest for each employee, I’m going to add the PARTITION statement on the EmployeeID field to the OVER clause. This will cause the ROW_NUMBER function to start over for each EmployeeID. Since I’m not using an aggregate function, I can return all the data from the Interest table that I need.

In the next part of the query , I join the CTE to the Employee table and add a WHERE clause. Since I ordered each partition in descending order, I know that the first row of each partition will have a rowindex of 1. I can now filter my data by rowindex = 1.

WITH CTE_InterestsByRow_Number
AS
(
      SELECT
         i.EmployeeID
         ,i.InterestAddDate
         ,i.Activity
         ,ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY i.EmployeeID ORDER BY i.InterestAddDate DESC) AS RowIndex
      FROM
         dbo.Interest AS i
      WHERE
         i.IsActive = 1
 )
SELECT
      e.FirstName + ‘ ‘ + e.LastName AS EmployeeName
      ,i.InterestAddDate
      ,i.Activity
FROM
      CTE_InterestsByRow_Number AS i
      JOIN dbo.Employee AS e ON i.EmployeeID = e.EmployeeID
WHERE
      rowindex = 1
ORDER BY
      e.LastName
      ,e.FirstName

When I looked at the logical reads for these two separate queries, the query using the MAX function had twice as many logical reads as the query with the ROW_NUMBER function. When I looked at the Execution Plan for both queries, I found the query using the MAX function had a higher Query Cost relative to the batch. My first run with the data, I used 20 Employees and 40 Interests. For the second run, I used 1000 employees and 4000 interests. I found that the Query Cost for the query using the MAX function increased with the larger datasets.

Execution Plan

Category: SQL Functions | Tags: , , , , ,
| October 20, 2012
Comments Off on Pimping My SQL Saturday T-Shirt

Pimping My SQL Saturday T-Shirt

I’m very excited about attending my first SQL Pass Summit in Seattle in a few weeks. I haven’t even attended yet and I’m so impressed with the schedule, extracurricular events, and the mentors they assign first-timers like myself.

One of the events they have schedule is on Wednesday. They want everyone to wear their SQL Saturday t-shirts. There is only one problem…..mine makes me look like a house. I absolutely refuse to where a men’s t-shirt that makes me look like that. So I tapped into the right side of my brain and pimped my t-shirt out. Now not only do I look like a girl, but a stylish one.

20121020-154000.jpg
Not looking too great.
20121020-154459.jpg 20121020-154014.jpg
Look out how happy I look. Now I look like a SQL girl.

Growing up my grandmothers taught me crocheting and sewing. (My maternal grandmother taught me in Spanish. ) Now a days, I just go to Google or You-Tube and search for the technique I want to learn. I found out how to alter a neckline and how to add a hoodie. Here are the steps I went through.

Step 1. I researched all the techniques I needed to learn in order to feel comfortable making the changes to my precious SQL Saturday t-shirt. I answered questions like…

  • What kind of needle should I use?
  • Do I need special thread?
  • Do I need any special notions like binding? (Notions are all the little extras you use for sewing, like grommets for the hoodie, clasps, binding,… The stores have whole walls for notions.)
  • How do you sew a hoodie?

Here are the sites I found most helpful based on the sewing skills I already posses. If you have never sewn, I would suggest looking for some YouTube videos on the subject as well.

Step 2. I figured out what aspects of my SQL Saturday t-shirt I wanted to alter

  • Neckline – I prefer a scoop neck or v neck. (Next time I will make a v neck.)
  • Shoulders – The shoulder seams needed to be moved up to my shoulders. I think this, out of all the issues with my t-shirt, made me look the boxiest. By moving the seams up to the edge of my shoulder where they belonged, I improved the look of my t-shirt immensely.
  • Sleeves – I’m only 5’6, so my sleeves needed to be shorter. Since I had an extra t-shirt that was in a contrasting color, I used it to change the color of my sleeves.
  • Length – I shortened the t-shirt so that it sat on my hips properly
  • Hoodie – Because I just needed it.


Step 3. I marked up my t-shirt so that I knew where I needed to cut it. While the video tutorials talked about using scissors to cut the t-shirt up, I found using my rotary cutter much easier. I folded my t-shirt in half, making sure there were no wrinkles, then I cut the sides, arms, and neckline out. Since I folded the t-shirt in half, I knew my t-shirt would remain symmetric.

20121020-161202.jpg 20121020-161210.jpg
Clocks and plates make
great templates for cutting circles.

Step 4. I created a pattern for the hoodie based on my favorite hoodie in my closet. I did buy some red t-shirt material for the hoodie, but I could have used another t-shirt. Since Red Gate is my absolute favorite toolset, I cut their logo out of a second t-shirt I had and put it in my hood. I used that same t-shirt for my sleeves and the rest of the hoodie.

Step 5. I sewed the hoodie together.

Step 6. I sewed the sides and the sleeves.

Step 7. I attached the hoodie to the neckline. I did this by finding the center line of the back of the t-shirt, and the center line of the hoodie. I started sewing from there so that I knew my t-shirt would be symmetric. since the hood will be down more than up, I have the seam facing out.

Step 8. I used my twin needle and a contrasting color thread to sew the neckline. I used the same twin needle to sew the hem as well.

20121020-161235.jpg 20121020-161228.jpg
20121020-161243.jpg
Category: SQL Arts and Crafts | Tags: , , ,
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »
%d bloggers like this: