Re: How to be nice to customers and junior programmers (was: SQL to retrieve min value of the combination )

"Daniel Morgan" <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message news:1073576789.331819_at_yasure...
| Turkbear wrote:
|
| > "Mark C. Stock" <mcstockX_at_Xenquery .com> wrote:
| >
| >
| >>"Turkbear" <john.g_at_dot.spamfree.com> wrote in message
| >>news:v5kovv4ifip3c7v8teaojjv2fooe3si28l_at_4ax.com...
| >>| harve_projects_at_yahoo.com (HRR) wrote:
| >>|
| >>| >Hi,
| >>| >
| >>| >I have the following table
| >>| >
| >>| >1001 2 3
| >>| >1001 3 5
| >>| >1001 5 7
| >>| >1002 5 4
| >>| >1002 6 2
| >>| >
| >>| >I need to get a result
| >>| >
| >>| >1001 2 3
| >>| >1002 6 2
| >>| >
| >>| >How is it possible ?
| >>| Column names would have helped..assume a, b and c
| >>|
| >>| Select a,min(b),min(c) from sometable
| >>| group by a;
| >>|
| >>|
| >>
| >>not exactly -- your query returns
| >>
| >>1001 2 3
| >>1002 5 2
| >>
| >>either there's a typo by the OP, or, if OP really wants the row with the
| >>minimum value of 'c', you need to do a pairwise compare with a subquery
(see
| >>my reply to the same OP in comp.databases.oracle)
| >>
| >>-- mcs
| >>
| >
| > Yep..
| > ( The results from my query are, in fact, the MIns for both b and c for
each a, but not the row that has the min c value -
| > because it does not have the min b)
| > I'm not sure if it is a typo, but if not, then the logic is a little
strange:
| > Get the minimum b and minimum c when a = 1001 but Max(b),Min(c) when
1002????
| > I assumed ( yes, I know) then the OP only cared about the values not the
rows the values were in.
|
| How can you guys be proposing solutions when the OP never defined the
| problem? Reminds me of the Dilbert cartoon where the boss says start
| coding while I go get the requirements.
|
| --
| Daniel Morgan
| http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/oad/oad_crs.asp
| http://www.outreach.washington.edu/ext/certificates/aoa/aoa_crs.asp
| damorgan_at_x.washington.edu
| (replace 'x' with a 'u' to reply)
|

simple -- this is how real-world scenarios often work

assuming there were no typos, the 'customer's' requirements could be easily extrapolated (more easily than berating the OP and providing an admittedly useless sample)
then, a solution is proposed, with assumptions clearly stated -- just like we do in the real world to move projects forward efficiently while not taking unacceptable risks, and facilitating discussions with the customer (who can now respond 'yeah, that looks right' or 'no, that's not what i meant' instead of 'sheesh! why are you IT guys so touchy!')

• mcs