Re: Re: Re: Re: How to structure applications using a RDBMS

[adamsj]

I don't disagree a bit with what you've said.

On the other hand, I think a developer shouldn't have to be told more than twice that:

SELECT DISTINCT(item)
FROM a.table

can eat up a couple hundred gig of spool without blinking, but that

SELECT item
FROM a.table
GROUP BY item

goes by in the blink of an eye. You'd think that wouldn't be a major paradigm shift for them--but it is (okay, in one case I've been dwelling on lately). And it'd be even nicer to be heard the first time.

(This is an oversimplified example--the point being DISTINCT versus GROUP BY.)

adamsj

They laughed at Joan of Arc, but she went right ahead and built it. --Gracie Allen