SQL Induced Brain Death part 2

I've seen the light at the end of the tunnel, and thankfully this time it wasn't an oncoming train.

I've finally managed to get the correct data out in a usable format and generate the reports that our accounts department required (reconciling the net number of newspapers sold, grouped by route to market and taking into account discounts and returning the correct revenues). The SQL query used is a bit of a beast (and takes half-an-hour to run) but it at least returns the correct result set.

Now I can sit down quietly and have a head-ache!

SQL Induced Brain Death

It isn't too often I find myself praising Microsoft's software, but when it comes to SQL, Microsoft's admin tools reign supreme (although MySQL's tools are catching up).

Sadly, today I've been using Sybase's SQL server, which although it is a good database product, it stinks big time when it comes to the management tools.

So this afternoon has felt a bit like stepping back in time ten years, to a time when all SQL code was written by hand instead of dragging links in a graphical environment, and testing the results meant exporting a text file for another program to deal with.

Sigh.

This makes dealing with complex queries more of a hassle than it needs to be, and accounts for the feeling of brain death that I'm now enjoying.