T-SQL Decommenter Part III (SQLServerCentral 11/20/2018)

[SQLServerCentral - www.sqlservercentral.com]( A community of more than 1,600,000 database professionals and growing Featured Contents - [T-SQL Decommenter Part III]( - [Luxembourg SQL User Group - The Reality of Migrating to SQL Azure]( - [Installing SQL Server 2019 CTP 2.0]( - [Bad Query Performance Tips Rebutted]( (From the SQLServerCentral Blogs) - [Reasons to Serve on the PASS Board of Directors]( (From the SQLServerCentral Blogs) The Voice of the DBA The Data Scribe There's [an interesting piece in the New Yorker]( about technology in the medical field from Atul Gawande. It talks about the love hate relationship doctors have with medical systems, and ruminates a bit about whether these new systems are making medicine better or worse. I think Dr. Gawande is a very interesting individual, and whose [Checklist Manifesto](sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1541457677&sr=8-2&keywords=checklist+manifesto) is a great look at improving processes. The article talks about the struggles of doctors with using various systems, but there is one interesting solution that some companies have tried: medical scribes. For these companies, rather than teach a doctor everything and have them do their own work and spend less time with a patient, the meetings are either recorded or witnessed by a scribe. The scribe handles the computer work, writing down observations, notes, orders, etc. The doctor later approves things, but this allows the doctor to focus more on patient care and get less caught up in technology. Years ago I worked in a company that had some extensive technology in some areas, but some older senior management. There were still secretaries that literally took dictation, handled schedules, and printed reports for the senior executives, who almost never used their computers. The might pull up some emails, but anything that required more than a few keystrokes was dictated to a secretary who wrote and sent the emails. At the time I thought this was wasteful, after all, couldn't an executive type a few emails themselves? I thought of that experience while reading the other story about doctors. Certainly the executives could type emails, but not as well as others, and was that a good use of their time? Certainly today, with far too much communication being sent, I might argue executives ought to have less access to email, not more. Certainly upper level execs do have assistants, but is it really a good use of time for directors and managers to be dealing with many of our computer applications? What about report tools like Power BI and Tableau? Is that a good use of anyone's time in finding data and assembling it into reports? The analysis is, but tracking down data, formatting it, and more feels like something that is a skill in and of itself. Perhaps we need data scribes in more industries. Not a single employee dedicated to one person, but a specialist in the gathering and cleaning of data, preparing it in tools that business people then use to perform their analysis, working for multiple people. Need more data? Ping your data scribe, someone that knows the structure, meaning, and location of data. Would you want that job? I know I've done this at times for people, finding the data they need and producing a report, often showing them how to do it themselves, but I wonder if that's a good idea. With data changing, new sources appearing, stronger access controls and more, perhaps this is a role that more companies ought to embrace to ensure that those with experience analyzing data aren't spending time fiddling with it. Steve Jones from [SQLServerCentral.com]( Join the debate, and [respond to today's editorial on the forums]( --------------------------------------------------------------- The Voice of the DBA Podcast Listen to the [MP3 Audio]( ( 4.7MB) podcast or subscribe to the feed at [iTunes]( and [Libsyn](. [feed]( The Voice of the DBA podcast features music by Everyday Jones. No relation, but I stumbled on to them and really like the music. ADVERTISEMENT [Webinar]( Creating a data culture can transform risk calculation for insurers James Boother from COEO will be joining us for a live video session to discuss the seven steps some organisations are already taking to predict future risks with even greater certainty and the opportunities Data Mastery presents insurers. 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[Download your free trial]( Featured Contents  [] [T-SQL Decommenter Part III]( Toby Ovod-Everett from [SQLServerCentral.com]() Detailed explanation of the recursive section of the T-SQL Decommenter.[More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] [Luxembourg SQL User Group - The Reality of Migrating to SQL Azure]( Press Release from [SQLServerCentral.com]() The next meeting is Nov 22, 2018.[More »](Groups/180328/) ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] [Installing SQL Server 2019 CTP 2.0]( Additional Articles from [Database Journal]() Greg Larsen offers detailed instructions on how to install SQL Server 2019 CTP 2.0.[More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - [Bad Query Performance Tips Rebutted]( Grant Fritchey from [SQLServerCentral Blogs]( Once upon a time, someone, somewhere, wrote a list of bad query performance tips and they’ve been copied all over...[More »]( ---------------------------------------------------------------  [] From the SQLServerCentral Blogs - [Reasons to Serve on the PASS Board of Directors]( Andy Warren from [SQLServerCentral Blogs]( A few weeks back I wrote Some Thoughts on How To Prepare to Serve on the PASS Board of Directors....[More »]( Question of the Day Today's Question (by Steve Jones): I want to query sys.dm_exec_text_query_plan for code inside of a query being run. This is a DMF, and some of the inputs are offsets. Where can I find the offsets of statements? Think you know the answer? [Click here](, and find out if you are right. --------------------------------------------------------------- We keep track of your score to give you bragging rights against your peers. This question is worth 1 point in this category: Execution Plan. We'd love to give you credit for your own question and answer. To submit a QOTD, simply log in to the [Contribution Center](. ADVERTISEMENT [Pro Power BI Desktop]( This book shows how to deliver eye-catching Business Intelligence with Microsoft Power BI Desktop. You can now take data from virtually any source and use it to produce stunning dashboards and compelling reports that will seize your audience’s attention. Slice and dice the data with remarkable ease then add metrics and KPIs to project the insights that create your competitive advantage. Yesterday's Question of the Day Yesterday's Question (by Steve Jones): Which of these functions are always deterministic? (choose 2) Answer: - FLOOR() - DAY() Explanation: Deterministic functions always return the same result when they are called with a specific set of inputs, given the same state of the database. This means that there are functions that can be always fit this definition, functions that sometimes fit it, and functions that don't fit it. FLOOR() and DAY() are deterministic. ISDATE() is sometimes deterministic. Ref: Deterministic and Nondeterministic functions - [click here]( --------------------------------------------------------------- [» Discuss this question and answer on the forums]( Database Pros Who Need Your Help Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. 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