A while back, I ranted that the design and implementation of Transact-SQL should be guided by a prime directive that guarantees no interference with the flow of set-based data in Transact-SQL.   That was primarily motivated by the fact that no such guarantee exists today in T-SQL. That is, when you move set-based data around in T-SQL, you ...

  “There can be no interference with the flow of set-based data in Transact-SQL.” – the Prime Directive for the design of Transact-SQL   No, this is not from Microsoft, and of course, I made it up.   If you ever watched the TV series Star Trek, you may know the so-called Prime Directive, which is Starfleet’s General Order ...