I’ve Discovered that SQL is Fun…Really
I know that many of you won’t even understand what I’m talking about here (particularly the half-dozen of so who arrive here everyday searching for Silvia Browne…she’s a fake, give it up). Nevertheless, I have to share the thrill of learning a little bit more of SQL everyday. I’m not talking about simple “SELECT * FROM Table” queries…I’ve known those for years now. I’m talking about complex, multi-outer-inner joins with IFNULLs, CUROSRS and SUM / CASE with a sub-query and a side of potato wedges type queries…you know, the type that consume the entire screen on the SQL Query Analyzer. Man…those are fun! While spending some 20% time (OK, we don’t have that) at work, I’ve been building a nice little application and really getting in the trenches with database work. In all my years of web development, I’ve never fully understood the power and effectiveness of SQL until now.
Oracle, mySQL, or MSSQL? If oracle, I’ve discovered one of the coolest tricks in the book: BULK COLLECT. If you have nested cursor loops in PLSQL, when you use BULK COLLECT to grab the data instead it can speed up your script up to 70%! It grabs all the data at once instead of doing a context switch every go around. It’s so cool to be a nerd
Sounds good. I’m using MS SQL.