RE: Good stuff on SQL techniques

He (Celko) used to have a column in a freebie trade magazine that's long
gone.  Every column included a problem.  A lot of the problems that were
difficult to solve with SQL were easy in a procedural language.  The
inference was pretty easy--the set based approach isn't a universal tool.
That's why Oracle has PL-SQL. <g>  

BTW, his column was the best thing I've ever seen in a freebie trade
magazine--I would have paid for it.  His picture at the top of the column
made him look like Anton LaVay.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Pluta [mailto:joepluta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 10:52 AM
> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
> Subject: RE: Good stuff on SQL techniques
> 
> 
> > From: Vern Hamberg
> >
> > Here is a webcast on SQL techniques. I think it's very helpful -
> > speaker was (is?) on ANSI standards committee for SQL. I believe
> > it can open your mind to new ways of doing things.
> 
> I also find it interesting that he specifically states that 
> SQL should not
> be used for row-at-a-time processing, or for complex calculations.  In
> effect, he's saying that SQL should be used to replace 
> procedural code.
> 
> Whiule there ARE things that benefit from set-based 
> approaches, that does
> not include all programming tasks.  And in particular, he 
> suggests that
> anything using a cursor is not a good use of SQL.  That's 
> almost heretical
> with the SQL-for-everything crowd.
> 
> Joe
> 
> 
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