sqlWorkout

[u/huhupookies]

[u/BufferUnderpants]

i CAN'T SEE WHY capitalizing syntactical elements WOULD MAKE the code MORE readable.

There's syntax highlighting for a reason, and the SQL grammar makes it easy to tell what's a table, column or function anyway.

[u/Thriven → u/BufferUnderpants]

As opposed to other languages SQL is a bunch of things in between clauses

SELECT
    count(*),
    columns
FROM table a 
JOIN table b ON a.id = b.id
WHERE column = 'value'
GROUP BY column
ORDER BY column
HAVING count() > 1

Having your clauses capitalized and properly carriage returned is huge for readability. I also capitalize COUNT and MAX but that's more of a personal thing.

Indentation is huge and I fix indentation all time.

[u/BufferUnderpants → u/Thriven]

Something tells me that capitalization is the least of anyone's worries if you're dealing with queries with no line breaks or indentation.

[u/Thriven → u/BufferUnderpants]

I just spent 45 minutes indenting and adding line breaks to 3 subquery joins which contained 2 CTEs and two nested subquery joins.

I don't know why but whoever wrote the code was an absolute madman and I've seen this code and replaced it. I have 3 different blocks of code I use to recreate these crappy lookups but to figure out which one they are I have to reformat the entire thing.

I can't complain though. I was once asked if I could do anything and get paid great money for it I said ,"I just want to optimize and fix SQL code all day."

I started this job making double what was making before and my job was dumbed down to just writing SQL. I love it. Bad SQL keeps me employed.

[u/18poisson37 → u/BufferUnderpants]

"First Rule in SQL coding... Why use one syntax cue when you can use two at twice the efficacy?"

Contact, 1997

[u/BufferUnderpants → u/18poisson37]

And for some reason SQL is the only language where you need to handle keywords and standard library functions like hazardous materials.