Month: May 2019

T-SQL Tuesday #114 Puzzle Party – Roundup

~ Matthew McGiffen ~ 1 Comment

Here’s my round-up for this month’s T-SQL Tuesday.

Thanks to everyone who contributed last week. It was great reading your posts and seeing the different ways you interpreted the puzzle theme.

We had real-life problems, we had SQL coding questions, we had puzzles, we had solutions, we had games, and we had the imaginarium.

Hopefully I’ve included all the posts, if I’ve missed any – please yell and it will be corrected soonest possible!

Without further ado, here are the contributions…

Real-life problems

Michal Poreba presents us with a real-life performance tuning issue he faced. Can you solve it? https://dbain.wales/2019/05/14/the-sql-puzzle-party/

Kevin Chant shares an issue he faced with a SQL Agent job using PowerShell. Can you find another way of fixing it? https://www.kevinrchant.com/2019/05/14/t-sql-tuesday-114-powershell-puzzle/

Eugene Meidinger shows a real-life SQL puzzle from his own demos with heaps that he’d love an answer to… https://www.sqlgene.com/2019/05/14/t-sql-tuesday-114-an-unsolved-sql-puzzle/

Coding Questions

Kathi Kellenberger tells us about a deceptively tricky SQL question posed at a family party… https://auntkathisql.com/2019/05/14/may-2019-t-sql-tuesday-puzzle/

Jon Shaulis gives us a problem he was posed in a recruitment scenario, along with a detailed solution that demonstrates how he approaches finding the best solution… https://jonshaulis.com/index.php/2019/05/14/t-sql-tuesday-114-puzzle-party/

Kenneth Fisher asks us to solve some query problems using older versions of SQL Server – so we can appreciate just how much easier our lives are these days… https://sqlstudies.com/2019/05/14/how-was-it-done-back-in-the-day-t-sql-tuesday-114/

Games and Puzzles

Nate Johnson challenges us to write a SQL solution to help evaluating your hand in the card game cribbage… https://natethedba.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/t-sql-tuesday-114-a-puzzle/

Jason Brimhall supplies his solution for solving Sudoku puzzles using T-SQL as well as details of a database he uses to provide daily trivia questions to those he mentors in learning SQL… http://jasonbrimhall.info/2019/05/14/puzzles-and-daily-trivia/

Shane O’Neill takes us on a Loller-Coaster ride… https://nocolumnname.blog/2019/05/14/t-sql-tuesday-114-puzzle-party/

Steve Jones shares some puzzle resources from SQL Server Central and other sources as well as presenting his T-SQL solution to a Christmas coding question… https://voiceofthedba.com/2019/05/14/puzzles-t-sql-tuesday-114/

Is Bert Wagner a video star? The magic 8-ball says “Without a doubt!” https://bertwagner.com/2019/05/14/sql-server-magic-8-ball/

Rob Farley presents puzzles he’s encountered and played with before and reminds us to never stop puzzling if we want to keep our minds sharp! http://blogs.lobsterpot.com.au/2019/05/14/puzzling-times/

The Imaginarium

Finally, in a category on his own, Todd Kleinhans talks about his SQL Imaginarium project. A VR experience for people new to SQL Server: https://toddkleinhans.wordpress.com/2019/05/14/project-sqlimaginarium-1-year-update/

Thanks again everyone and I look forward to next month’s episode of T-SQL Tuesday!

Got a problem or embarking on a SQL Server project and want some help and advice? I’m available for consulting – please get in touch or check out my services page to find out what I can do for you.

T-SQL Tuesday #114 – Puzzle Party

~ Matthew McGiffen ~ 20 Comments

A few years back I started running regular SQL workshops in my workplace. Teaching beginners the basics of querying databases with SQL, as well as more advanced topics for the more advanced.

During one session we were discussing the issue of knowledge acquired being quickly lost when people didn’t get the chance to regularly practice what they’d learnt. One of the attendees suggested that I should be assigning them homework.

I could see from the faces of everyone else present that the word “homework” struck an unpleasant chord. Perhaps reminding them of school days struggling to get boring bookwork done when they’d rather be at relaxation or play.

Okay, so homework maybe wasn’t going to go down well, but I figured everyone likes a good puzzle. So every Friday I started creating and sharing a puzzle to be solved using SQL. This went on for the best part of a year, then other things got in the way and gradually I stopped.

This is my invitation to you this T-SQL Tuesday. Write a blog post combining puzzles and T-SQL. There’s quite a few ways you could approach this, so hopefully no-one needs be left out for lack of ideas:

  • Present a puzzle to be solved in SQL and challenge your readers to solve it.
  • Or give us a puzzle or quiz about SQL or databases.
  • Show the SQL solution to a classic puzzle or game.
  • Provide a method for solving a classic sort of querying puzzle people face.
  • Show how newer features in SQL can be used to solve old puzzles in new ways.
  • Tell us about a time you solved a problem or overcame a technical challenge that was a real puzzle.
  • Or just make your own interpretation of “puzzle” and go for it!

There’s some great stuff out there already. Itzik Ben-Gan’s done a bunch of them. There’s Kenneth Fisher’s crosswords. The SQL Server Central questions of the day. Pinal Dave’s SQL Puzzles. And there’s a few on my blog too if you take a look back:

https://matthewmcgiffen.com/2017/06/07/sql-puzzle-1-magic-squares/

https://matthewmcgiffen.com/2017/07/19/sql-puzzle-2-eight-queens/

https://matthewmcgiffen.com/2017/08/22/sql-puzzle-3-knights-and-queens/

https://matthewmcgiffen.com/2017/11/08/sql-puzzle-4-the-beale-papers/

https://matthewmcgiffen.com/2017/12/19/sql-puzzle-5-prime-magic/

Let’s puzzle together, trying to solve the challenges each other sets, and make it a real puzzle party!

Have fun all 🙂

The Rules

  1. Your post must be published on Tuesday 14th May. This counts as long as it’s still Tuesday anywhere in the world.
  2. Include the T-SQL Tuesday Logo and make it link to this invitation post.
  3. Pingbacks should work, but to be sure, add a comment to this post with a link to your own so I know where to find it.
  4. Tweet about your post using the #tsql2sday hashtag

Got a problem or embarking on a SQL Server project and want some help and advice? I’m available for consulting – please get in touch or check out my services page to find out what I can do for you.