Re: SQL Inspiration needed

I don't understand your point.

I could absolutely do this faster in RPG, as could just about anybody on the list. Jon asked for an SQL option, and I explained there were no good ones. Anything iterative that relies on data to determine the next iteration doesn't work well in SQL, as your example shows (like it or not).

Seriously, I am a big fan of SQL. As I am of most of the tools available on the i when used properly. This just isn't one of those cases.

Joe

Umm... It wasn't, was it?

Doubt all you like, Joe. There's a great deal of that going on here of late.

I realize this problem is not the same as one I previously solved in a similar manner. The challenge was to find out the size of the largest gap of numbers in a large table (circa 250M rows)... And to list the gaps that were larger than a particular size.

Two SQL statements. . About 10 minutes to develop and about 30 seconds to execute (as I recall). Those statements only had to go to three-level join (since that's all that's needed for such an answer). But still.

For a one-timer that we'd never have to do again, I would challenge you to provide a similar result in less than an hour, start to finish! If it were a permanent need, I might have done it differently. Or not.

There's too much "you're wrong because your way doesn't look like my way" being spread around here. Where's the open-mindedness? We've all gotten tough!
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Dennis