SQL_Variant.. Finally a use for it...
The “object” type of SQL Server is hardly used and with good reason. RDBMS are meant to be “strongly typed“.. it is the foundation of the domain/type concept.
RDBMS : “What are you INSERTing Dave?”
Dave: “I don't know!“
RDBMS : “Get stuffed!”
Anyway I am knocking out a stored proc that returns “Quick Stats” to the client. Basically just UNIONing..
USE PUBSGOSELECT 'Sales Count' as Stat, COUNT(*) as ScoreFROM salesUNION ALLSELECT 'Title Count', COUNT(*) FROM titles
Too easy...But a request comes to include a “Last Date” statistic...
SELECT 'Sales Count' as Stat, COUNT(*) as ScoreFROM salesUNION ALLSELECT 'Last Published', MAX(pubdate) FROM titles
“So we sold...