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The Voice of the DBA
 

Why Not Use AI?

Erin Stellato, a program manager at Microsoft, asked a very interesting question on LinkedIn: "why do you *not* want a Copilot in SSMS?"

That got me to stop and think a minute. Why don't we want to use an AI to help us? It's a good question, given the hype and (maybe) potential of the technology. While it might not help you now, or with your specific thing, it might help others, so are there good reasons not to use AI technologies, like the GenAI LLMs?

Let me know today. What are you reasons for not using them (apart from cost or restrictions at work)?

I will say that I rarely use AI tech to get work done, or even in my home life. I just don't enough places where I think I need help outside of a search. I search a lot, but I haven't found AI to be faster than searching. Sometimes it is, but sometimes not and the unreliability of the tech bothers me. That being said, I do have a tag where I write about the AI things with which I am experimenting.

I think for many of us, AI is too amorphous and unclear. We don't quite know when it helps or doesn't. We don't know how to judge the quality of it. It's also not a habit or integrated into life. Most of the suggestions I see in various places aren't things I'd ask. The default page in my local mode has these suggestions:

  • tell me a fun fact
  • show me a code snippet of a website header
  • give me ideas for what to do with kids' art
  • help me study for a college entrance exam

That last one might be the only question I ask, not for college, but maybe for something like an MS exam. However, is the AI better than a search? Maybe, but I'd have to try it. Right now I'd be tempted to just search for a list of things to study. Maybe the AI helps me find those better, but really I'd want it to quiz me on different things.

The problem is I don't trust it to ask good, relevant questions, or necessarily give me the right answers if I asked it to quiz me.

I guess ultimately is I don't have enough "I think an AI is better" reasons over the do what I normally do. Without substantial evidence AI is better, I don't use it much. Do you feel the same way?

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums
 
  Featured Contents
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From the SQL Server Central Blogs - A Little Brainstorming with an AI

Steve Jones - SSC Editor from The Voice of the DBA

I was asked to do some a little thinking and brainstorming recently. Rather than send some emails or get on a call, I decided to ask my local AI...
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  Question of the Day

Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):
 

The Rank Window II
I have this table and data: 
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[SalesTracking] ( [SalesDate] [datetime] NULL, [SalesPersonID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NOT NULL, [PONumber] [varchar] (80) COLLATE SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS NULL, [paid] [bit] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GO CREATE CLUSTERED INDEX [SalesTrackingCDX] ON [dbo].[SalesTracking] ([SalesDate]) ON [PRIMARY] GO INSERT dbo.SalesTracking (SalesDate, SalesPersonID, CustomerID, PONumber, paid, total) VALUES ('2024-03-15 10:45:55.067', 1, 1,'PO965' ,1, 100), ('2023-09-24 10:45:55.067', 1, 2,'PO627' ,1, 200), ('2022-07-02 10:45:55.067', 1, 3,'PO6' ,1, 300), ('2022-11-03 10:45:55.067', 1, 4,'PO283' ,1, 400), ('2022-11-26 10:45:55.067', 1, 5,'PO735' ,1, 500), ('2023-04-28 10:45:55.067', 1, 6,'PO407' ,1, 600), ('2022-09-09 10:45:55.067', 1, 7,'PO484' ,1, 700), ('2024-03-13 10:45:55.067', 1, 8,'PO344' ,1, 700), ('2024-04-24 10:45:55.067', 1, 9,'PO254' ,1, 800), ('2022-06-19 10:45:55.067', 1, 10,'PO344',1, 800) GO
When I run this query, how many unique values are returned for the SaleRank column? 
SELECT st.SalesDate , st.SalesPersonID , st.total , DENSE_RANK () OVER (PARTITION BY st.SalesPersonID ORDER BY st.total desc) AS SaleRank FROM dbo.SalesTracking AS st;

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.
 

 

  Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor)

Partial Backups I

What is a partial backup for a read-only database?

Answer: a backup of the primary in a read only database

Explanation: A partial backup of a read-only database contains only the primary filegroup. Ref: Partial backups - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/backup-restore/partial-backups-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver16

Discuss this question and answer on the forums

 

 

 

Database Pros Who Need Your Help

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.
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T-SQL - Restore Database - Hey, I've previously used this or something like this: RESTORE DATABASE [DBNAME] FROM DISK = N'X:\Path\To\File\.bak' WITH FILE = 1 ,MOVE N'DBNAME' TO N'U:\Path\To\File\DBNAME.mdf' ,MOVE N'DBNAME_log' TO N'L:\Path\To\File\DBNAME_log.ldf' ,NOUNLOAD ,STATS = 5 But I've now encountered a DB with 27 data files (+1 log file). Is there a way to relocate the files on the […]
SQL Server 2019 - Development
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MSDTC not available on Windows 2022 clustered SQL 2019 CU30 - I connect to this clustered instance and run : begin distributed transaction Msg 8501, Level 16, State 3, Line 2 MSDTC on server 'ClusteredTargetServer\Instance' is unavailable. I have configured the clustered msdtc of this instance:   Test-Dtc -LocalComputerName $env:COMPUTERNAME -Verbose VERBOSE: ": Firewall rule for "RPC Endpoint Mapper" is enabled." VERBOSE: ": Firewall rule for […]
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Several Questions: Relationships and SSMS and Data Diagrams - I'm struggling setting relationships among tables.  I understand the one-to-many, many-to-one, many-to-many, and self-referential concepts.  It's implementing them that I find a bit vexing. I've used queries like this successfully: ALTER TABLE clan.parents ADD CONSTRAINT FK_FatherID_PeopleID FOREIGN KEY (parentsFatherId) REFERENCES clan.people (peopleID); How can I view relationships after I've completed queries like the above?  After […]
Time Outs Here - Several times in the last couple of days I've had submissions time out with a 504 error returned. After multiple submissions, I've eventually got my posts through.  I've learned to type the posts in a notepad from which they can be copied instead of having to retype them.
Data Diagrams: Data Types with Column Names - In the ss below I highlighted several rows in each block showing tables in diagram view to show where I think data type assignments could be displayed.  Is there a reason that SSMS doesn't display data types assigned to column names?  I've searched to see if there is a way to add them but came […]
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Data Diagrams: Data Types with Column Names - While this might not be an issue for those more knowledgeable and experienced than I am, I've come to wonder why the blocks that represent tables and contain the names of columns in those tables don't also include assigned data types in parentheses or brackets following column labels.  I highlighted the first 4 columns in […]
SQL Server 2022 - Administration
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SQL Server 2022 - Development
Convert stored procedure into a Table-valued function - <sorry, duplicate> =(  
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