I see a lot of people suggest while loops instead of cursors in situations where row-based processing is required (or, at least, where folks think that row-based processing is required). Sometimes the justification is that constructing a while loop is simpler and more straightforward than constructing a cursor. Others suggest that a while loop is ...

This one is quite subjective, and I'm sure I will face plenty of opposition - not only because it's a preference thing and many people are married to their preferences, but also because it violates the strict interpretation of the standard. Personally, I'm more worried about the former than the latter - I have no concerns whatsoever that ...

I've come across quite a bit of code that uses date/time shorthand that can either be confusing or downright dangerous. There are two areas I want to focus on: shorthand for date arithmetic, and shorthand for date parts. Date Arithmetic This one I mentioned quite briefly in a previous ''Bad Habits to Kick'' post, but I see it in use enough ...

Yes, Adam is right: we've all written crap code (the topic of this month's T-SQL Tuesday Wednesday. Usually we have an excuse: tight deadline, short shelf life of the code, or didn't know any better. I'm sure if I perused my career codebase I'd find tons and tons of examples that I'd write differently today, because back then it fell under ...