SQL Server Questions and Answers: The Movie My Grandma Asked For

SQL Server Questions and Answers started as a book, and the first copy I gave away went to my grandma. I wanted Grandma’s blessing before anyone else read it. I didn’t expect to leave that visit with a question I couldn’t answer.

November 3, 2011: A Visit to Grandma

The day our SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers book came out, I ran to Grandma’s place with a copy. Like every grandma, Grandma loved me without any conditions. Technology was never Grandma’s world, but that didn’t matter. Grandma loved the book anyway.

Grandma read the first few pages slowly. They were the pages about me, and then the pages about my co-author, Vinod Kumar. Then Grandma closed the book, looked at me and asked something I will never forget.

“When I was young we used to read books, now all those good books are converted into the movies, when do you think this book will be converted into a movie?”

Silence. A long, long silence.

I couldn’t answer. It was a simple question, from someone who had never written a line of code. Yet it went straight to the center of me, and I sat there stunned and speechless.

I went home that day with two things. One was Grandma’s blessing. The other was a thought I couldn’t put down: a movie from the book.

The Weeks in Between

Grandma and I used to talk all the time. After that visit, I didn’t call at all. Nupur called Grandma again and again, but I didn’t pick up the phone myself.

There was no reason for the silence, except one. I felt Grandma was with me all the time. The blessing was with me, and so was the question. It followed me through every day, and it kept pushing me forward.

January 24, 2012: The Phone Call

Early in the morning of January 24, I finally called. Grandma’s first questions were the same as always. How was I doing? And how was the great-granddaughter?

Then I said what I had waited weeks to say. Remember our last conversation, Grandma? There is a movie now, and it was inspired by the book.

Grandma wasn’t surprised at all. Grandma said Grandma had known this would happen, and had always been sure the book would reach its milestones. We talked for long hours that morning.

From a Book to a Movie

Our movie was a video course. The book inspired it, but we didn’t read the book aloud on camera. We took the broader idea and looked at it from a new angle.

Vinod and I thought about the format for a long time. We spent hours talking about how to make it different, so every learner would have a new experience. We wanted it light enough to digest, yet deep enough to satisfy anyone who is hungry to learn. Then came days of work on the content and the demos, until the course was real.

What the Course Covers

The course takes the common misconceptions about SQL Server and debunks them one by one. It explains each one clearly and proves it with a short demo, so you see how SQL Server works. It is for anyone who works with SQL Server and wants to understand it better.

Every topic follows the same shape. It starts with a question and ends with an answer, and the answer comes with a demo. Every question has its own exercise file, so you can try it yourself. The last session is all about tips and tricks in SQL Server Management Studio. These are the topics:

• Introduction
• Retrieving IDENTITY value using @@IDENTITY
• Concepts Related to Identity Values
• Difference between WHERE and HAVING
• Order in WHERE clause
• Concepts Around Temporary Tables and Table Variables
• Are stored procedures pre-compiled?
• UNIQUE INDEX and NULLs problem
• DELETE VS TRUNCATE
• Locks and Duration of Transactions
• Nested Transaction and Rollback
• Understanding Date/Time Datatypes
• Differences between VARCHAR and NVARCHAR datatypes
• Precedence of DENY and GRANT security permissions
• Identify Blocking Process
• NULLS usage with Dynamic SQL
• Appendix: Tips and Tricks with Tools

Eighty Days

The journey from the book to the training course took 80 days. It was a wonderful experience. And it started with one question from someone who loved me more than any book could.

Our elders ask simple questions. We hear them as small talk, and sometimes we miss what they carry. Grandma’s question carried a whole course inside it. Listen closely the next time someone who loves you asks you “when?”.

In the end, I want to thank you, my dear reader. You made this experience possible.

SQL Server Questions and Answers is not a plan that came true, it is a grandma’s question answered.

Published by Pinal Dave on SQLAuthority. More of my work at pinaldave.com.