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Donny Bahama
Starting Member

13 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-23 : 18:12:11
1. Why is it that EM sometimes changes "al.field" ("al" = alias) to "al .field" after I run a query? (This seems to happen mostly on subqueries/derived tables.)

2. Is there any functional difference between the following?
SELECT e.LastName, d.Dept
FROM Employees e INNER JOIN
Departments d ON e.DeptID = d.ID

SELECT e.LastName, d.Dept
FROM Employees e INNER JOIN
Departments d ON d.ID = e.DeptID
Actually let me clarify - I know that both seem to work all the time; is there ever a time when the sequence of the JOIN criteria matters?


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I'm the guy who's not afraid to ask the painfully stupid questions!

tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess

38200 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-23 : 18:19:48
There is no functional difference between the two. I prefer the first one. Kristen prefers the second.

You should be using Query Analyzer instead of Enterprise Manager for your query building.

Tara Kizer
aka tduggan
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Donny Bahama
Starting Member

13 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-23 : 18:34:51
Thank you, Almighty SQL Goddess! :)

I don't actually "build" my queries in EM... I right click on a table > Open Table > Return all rows, then I click the SQL button in the toolbar and craft all my SQL manually. May seem like a strange M.O. but I've learned so much more about SQL that way. When EM displays the results, there are certain behaviors it has that I prefer to QA's behaviors. For example, I can click and drag to select all columns then double-click between two columns to auto-size all columns. I also like that I can directly edit records. I can select entire rows and even multiple rows, and the highlighting helps to differentiate one or more specific rows from the rest. Lastly, I much prefer the font and text size in EM's displayed results.


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I'm the guy who's not afraid to ask the painfully stupid questions!
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derrickleggett
Pointy Haired Yak DBA

4184 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-23 : 21:39:50
You can change the font and text size in QA by going to Tools/Options and selecting the font tab. You can also use the object explorer to drag/drop columns for tables, auto-script things out, etc. Do you really edit the data directly in EM??? If so, you shouldn't unless you're just a one man shop.

MeanOldDBA
derrickleggett@hotmail.com

When life gives you a lemon, fire the DBA.
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Donny Bahama
Starting Member

13 Posts

Posted - 2006-06-25 : 11:27:38
I really do. Yes, I'm a one man shop. I'm not a DBA, but rather a QA Manager for a small branch of a large software company. I built my QA department from the ground up. This database and the associated ASP pages for data entry and reporting of QA test results was a means of making my employees self-sufficient...

They see a matrix with rows of test cases and columns of supported platforms; with cells that report either the latest result for that test case on that platform OR "UNTESTED". The test cases are weighted using a formula with 6 factors and presented in weight order from top to bottom. No "assignments" are necessary - they simply find the highest "UNTESTED" cell and click on it to enter test results. If we run out of time before all tests have been executed, the untested areas are those with the lowest priority (because the code is unchnaged and/or resides in a historically stable section of the product and/or is not heavily used by the majority of our customer base, etc.) The test cases at the top are executed multiple times over numerous builds, yielding a high confidence rating in those areas.

This was also a great way for me to learn SQL and ASP (and I have learned A LOT.) The site has continued to evolve as my QA engineers say, "It would be great if..." as well as when my superiors say, "we need to know..." But even now, I remain the only person who maintains the database and/or edits the ASP pages.

Sorry for the verbose answer, but I'm quite proud of what I've achieved here - we're the #1 QA department in our division due to unique methodologies based on a better infrastructure.


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I'm the guy who's not afraid to ask the painfully stupid questions!
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