Tsql2sday #161, the writeup

This month, I hosted the Tsql2sday where I asked you to write about the most funny things you did with T-Sql. I’ll happily admit it was a bit of a cheesy subject but you came out in numbers to write! Thanks for that.

Before I dive into the blogs I found, send me a message if I missed yours.

First up, Rob Farley. In this post Rob writes about creating puzzles with SQL Server. A really fun challenge to hone your skills a bit. He then continues to write about using special techniques that need a comment to explain what’s happening, like an inverse predicate.

Next up, Kevin Chant. In this post Kevin first writes about having a lot of fun creating a video for the Festive Tech Calendar community event. He then continues that not only the making of the video was fun, but he had to create both the gift and naughty lists.

Then John McCormack. In this post John writes about trying to find the limit of the STUFF function. These are the really funny things to look into and now I sort of want to see where the limit is. I might just let a VM go nuts on that one some day.

Now Taiob Ali. In this post he gives us to neat scripts (unattributed but he’s looking for the person who wrote them) to find out who’s a member of a server role and who might be abusing the SQL instance. not only nicely named but these can become useful as well.

It has been some time since I read something from Shane O’Neill so this was a very pleasant surprise. In this post He just builds a Wordle ‘cheater’. The fun part is not only converting PowerShell code SQL, but also highlighting the very important point that we, as IT people, need to relax, unwind and play games.

Then something I was hoping to achieve, a blogger I hadn’t read from before. In this post Chad Callihan writes about his love for comic books and the site he used to maintain. He now uses another site to rebuild and maintain his collection of read comics.

The final contribution this month is by Brian Bønk. In this post he goes back in time when he had to write queries on a SSRS database. Again something that must have been fun to write and has a useful application as well. Coincidentally, I’ve been digging into the SSRS database today as well, but I had to get a list of used tables from all the reports.

Thank you all for your wonderful contributions to this month’s invitation.

Hosting tsql2sday was a fun experience. From thinking of a topic, running it by Steve Jones to make sure there’s no overlap with other invitations to writing the invitation and seeing the responses coming in. Many thanks to Steve for continuing the work of Adam Machanic.

If you’d like to host, get in touch with Steve and he’ll set you up.

Thanks for reading!