There’s been some work to close out items in Connect that aren’t going to be fixed. I don’t know exactly if these are items that aren’t good ideas, are dropped because of a lack of resources, or because no one wants to figure that out.
However, I had three items closed as Won’t Fix in the last couple days. None are what I’d consider critical, but they were ideas I had to make the product work smoother. I won’t resubmit them, unless I get some feedback that people find them important. Here were my items:
The last one is the one that I think made the most sense. Not as something that’s critical, but something that might help smooth the way that people work with SQL Server, and help them build better software.
In a talk recently with some people I had someone note that the always chose to use explicit conversions on data types to prevent any unforeseen issues. That’s what I’d recommend as well. I have seen code in production function for years using implicit conversions, only to start failing when someone finally entered an invalid character in a row.
How does that happen? Usually when someone is using character data types to store data that can be represented as character data, even though the data must be dealt with in it’s native format. An example of this is storing a date as a varchar(10) or sticking numerical quantities in a character field to preserve formatting notations like dollar signs, or commas.
That kind of code can work , pass a QA process, and live for years in a production system. However sooner or later someone will enter data that will break a query and return an error. Depending on your error handling system, this can be problematic to track down because it’s very data dependent. The code might work for some data sets but not for others.
The best advice I can give is to store data in the proper data types whenever possible, and use explicit conversions when comparing data that might be of disparate types. Don’t always expect ’09/01/2001′ to compare to getdate(), and don’t expect ‘1’ to equal 1 in your code. At some point bad data will get into the system and those comparisons will error out.
Well, not everywhere, but as long as Prometric sites meet some security requirements, they can offer the MCM tests. I got a note from Joe Sack after someone asked me the question about when the MCM would be offered outside the US. From what he sent me, it’s in these countries:
Australia
Canada
Germany
India
Japan
Malaysia
Philippines
South Africa
UK
And the US, where I took my exam.
Check with Prometric in your area to see if there’s a site near you.
The SQL Server Connections spring conference is coming up in a few weeks in Orlando, FL. This is a part of the DevConnections multi-technology conference and this event is the chance to get some great SQL knowledge and inspiration from experts in a fantastic location. Once again SQLServerCentral is sponsoring a track at the conference; Brad McGehee and myself will be down there, looking forward to meeting a few of you.
I think that conferences are a great way to take a break from work, recharge, and get some excitement back in your job. The speakers at these events teach me about SQL Server, and inspire me to come back and try some new feature or technique in my own environment. I might get the solution to a problem, and usually find that the work is just a little more fun when I return. To me, that’s an ROI that’s hard to argue against .
DevConnections puts on a great conference event, recognizing that while people want to come learn, they also want to do it in a nice location. This event is in Orlando, with great weather, at a place you can bring your family for a mini-vacation before or after the event. There’s no shortage of things to do in Florida, and it’s a relatively inexpensive place to visit. The conference hotel even offers complimentary transportation to many popular attractions. Who knows, we might even end up sitting by the pool and talking high availability or Resource Governor in the late afternoons. That’s more interesting to me than discussing things in a conference hallway.
So many people are hybrid IT workers, using more than one technology, and this conference reflects that. The last time I went to a DevConnections event, I attended mostly SQL Server sessions, but did manage to see an ASP.NET session and a couple Sharepoint presentations. Becoming more rounded in my IT knowledge has paid off for me in the past, and the DevConnection events give you the chance to grow skills in a variety of areas.
Hopefully I’ll meet a few of you at SQL Server Connections this spring and share a few drinks while we talk about SQL Server. I should be easy to find in the Hawaiian shirt and cowboy hat.
Steve Jones
Save $200 with the “DevCon1” code when you register.
Voice of the DBA 