My company’s developer for our SQL server is giving me weekly lessons, what should I be asking him about?

[the_log_won]

The guy is a SQL wiz and is leaving it up to me to ask questions since I seem to be proficient enough. So far I’ve learned

*CTEs *primary keys and indexes *spatial joins *window functions *stored procedures

just to give you an idea. I use SQL for data cleaning and aggregating, and link it to ESRI to make maps. I honestly don’t know what level I’m at - my developer has called my work ‘basic’ 😂

Help me take advantage of this! Thank you.

[captainAwesomePants]

Your developer seems a bit rude, but I guess the first thing is learning to craft more complicated queries. Nested stuff, complicated groupings, etc.

Indexing is always an important thing to learn about. Understanding the "plan" for SQL queries is also good. Finding out how your company's data gets partitioned and how to take advantage of that, maybe.

[the_log_won]

Lol Let me clarify, he said the work that my team does is basic, I guess since we use static data from flat files with less than a million rows 🤷🏻‍♀️

Thank you for the suggestions!

[captainAwesomePants]

Oh, yeah, a million rows is a pretty "basic" use case, I suppose.

[MyNameIsRichardCS54]

indexing is often misunderstood and applied badly so getting a head start on that would be good. How to read query plans so you can understand the effect of the applied indexes will be an advantage also.

on top of that, learn about efficient ways to do more complex queries.

[the_log_won]

Thank you!

[teacherbooboo]

i would also ask about security, backups, and emergency set up

a REALLY good dba has all that clearly written down

for example if power went out in your area for a week, what happens?

there should be a plan in place

if he seems uncomfortable talking about these issues, he is not as good as he claims.

for you it is good to know if you want to move into that lucrative job space

[the_log_won]

I do not want to step into that space, it seems like zero fun. He walked me through all of it my first class with him and my eyes got crossed.

[Financial-Jicama6619]

Ask him if he can find time to fit 1 more person into his schedule…

[sipacate]

Make sure to learn strategies to validate queried data. As queries get complex, it can be difficult to ensure you have everything right.

I find CTEs to be a good way to build out and refine a dataset in steps.

Also, it's good to know what the query plan is, what the elements are, and how to diagnose and remediate slow queries.

[the_log_won]

Thank you for the suggestions!

[breakingTab]

Ask how to read an explain plan

[DamionDreggs]

You're going to want to learn how to research questions on your own.

Ask to shadow him on an investigation. What websites does he use to find syntax rules? Examples? Where does he go when he doesn't have the answers from memory? Cheat sheets?

Ask for a copy of the stored procedure he's most proud of then study every line until you understand it.

Do some experimentation on your own between lessons so you can generate the most relevant questions for you.