[dba-SQLServer] SQL Server - Turning comparisons into Booleans

Arthur,

>Let's pick it apart tad by tad, beginning with your denigrating use of
"infamous". This is a "famous" error, not an infamous error. For references
to infamous errors, their numbers are 533 and 601.

I have no way of knowing whether this is a famous error or not.  However...

Infamous - ill-famed: having an exceedingly bad reputation; "a notorious
gangster"; "the tenderloin district was notorious for vice" 

How about "fuc**ng useless!!!  Will that do?  

"ERROR SOMEWHERE in the vicinity of...."

Oh yea, that fits the word infamous in my book.  It also fits FUC**ING
useless as far as I am concerned! 

EBKAC is equally helpful, and only a tad more insulting.

>Step 2: Why is there no space between the value and the operator? I shall
assume that it's the fault of the translator.

Perhaps it is because that is the 47th attempt at putting things in and
taking things out, NONE of which gave me any results other than the INFAMOUS
"Error somewhere in the vicinity of Hudson NC".

>Step 3: lose the "AS" part and run the query and see what happens. You
probably won't get this far, since Steps 1 and 2 ought to fix the problem,
but JIC (just in case).

AS is the clause that defines the alias.  You can't lose that.  Even I know
that.

>Step 4: when none of the above works, re-do the query in Management Studio.
Then compare the syntax. 

And this is my problem with you Arthur.  If I told you "if that fails, just
rebuild the space shuttle" what would you tell me?  If I told you that in
EVERY EMAIL what would you tell me?  Such helpful suggestions are so useless
that I would expect you to someday cease and desisted in issuing them.
Alas....

I tried using Management Studio.  It is vastly different from Access' qbd
window and requires more than a passing knowledge of the intricacies of SQL
Server's brand of SQL.  If you had been paying attention for the last few
months you would understand that to be the root of my problem.  I also tried
poking and prodding, and Googling and looking up various phrases in my
books, trying to solve the problem without assistance.

Not to worry, James Barash actually solved my problem by providing the (or
a) syntax needed to do comparisons in SQL Server.  I have to guess that it
took him all of three minutes to type it into an email, and it took me all
of three minutes to type it in and verify that it works.

Thanks James!

John W. Colby
Colby Consulting
www.ColbyConsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com
[mailto:dba-sqlserver-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Arthur
Fuller
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 1:35 PM
To: dba-sqlserver at databaseadvisors.com
Subject: Re: [dba-SQLServer] SQL Server - Turning comparisons into Booleans

Let's pick it apart tad by tad, beginning with your denigrating use of
"infamous". This is a "famous" error, not an infamous error. For references
to infamous errors, their numbers are 533 and 601.

Now. Let's go step by step.AFAIK S2k5 has no issues with square brackets, in
fact I use them frequently, but begin by removing them.

Step 2: Why is there no space between the value and the operator? I shall
assume that it's the fault of the translator.

Step 3: lose the "AS" part and run the query and see what happens. You
probably won't get this far, since Steps 1 and 2 ought to fix the problem,
but JIC (just in case).

Step 4: when none of the above works, re-do the query in Management Studio.
Then compare the syntax.

A,