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• Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles – An Awesome Game for Linux and Windows

  - by Asian Angel

  Are you looking for a fun new game to add to your Linux or Windows systems? Then Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles could be just the game you are looking for. This awesome game comes with three distinct game modes (Story, Arcade, and Puzzle) to please the gamer within. You will need to select a language when Wind and Water starts up. Use your arrow keys to make your selection and press Enter. There will be a short intro video and then you can begin playing the game. There is a nice Tutorial Mode to help you become familiar with game play. Once you have entered your name you can choose the game mode that you want to play. Have fun as you work your way through the game! Note: Use the four Arrow Keys, the S Key, and the A Key to play Wind and Water. Wind and Water Homepage (Windows Version Download) Download the Linux Versions *Includes installation instructions for non-Ubuntu systems at bottom of the post. [via Ubuntu Vibes] Latest Features How-To Geek ETC Should You Delete Windows 7 Service Pack Backup Files to Save Space? What Can Super Mario Teach Us About Graphics Technology? Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is Released: But Should You Install It? How To Make Hundreds of Complex Photo Edits in Seconds With Photoshop Actions How to Enable User-Specific Wireless Networks in Windows 7 How to Use Google Chrome as Your Default PDF Reader (the Easy Way) Reclaim Vertical UI Space by Moving Your Tabs to the Side in Firefox Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles – An Awesome Game for Linux and Windows How Star Wars Changed the World [Infographic] Tabs Visual Manager Adds Thumbnailed Tab Switching to Chrome Daisies and Rye Swaying in the Summer Wind Wallpaper Read On Phone Pushes Data from Your Desktop to the Appropriate Android App

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• SQL SERVER – Solution – Puzzle – Challenge – Error While Converting Money to Decimal

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier I had posted quick puzzle and I had received wonderful response to the same. Today we will go over the solution. The puzzle was posted here: SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Challenge – Error While Converting Money to Decimal Run following code in SSMS: DECLARE @mymoney MONEY; SET @mymoney = 12345.67; SELECT CAST(@mymoney AS DECIMAL(5,2)) MoneyInt; GO Above code will give following error: Msg 8115, Level 16, State 8, Line 3 Arithmetic overflow error converting money to data type numeric. Why and what is the solution? Solution is as following: DECLARE @mymoney MONEY; SET @mymoney = 12345.67; SELECT CAST(@mymoney AS DECIMAL(7,2)) MoneyInt; GO There were more than 20 valid answers. Here is the reason. Decimal data type is defined as Decimal (Precision, Scale), in other words Decimal (Total digits, Digits after decimal point).. Precision includes Scale. So Decimal (5,2) actually means, we can have 3 digits before decimal and 2 digits after decimal. To accommodate 12345.67 one need higher precision. The correct answer would be DECIMAL (7,2) as it can hold all the seven digits. Here are the list of the experts who have got correct answer and I encourage all of you to read the same over hear. Fbncs Piyush Srivastava Dheeraj Abhishek Anil Gurjar Keval Patel Rajan Patel Himanshu Patel Anurodh Srivastava aasim abdullah Paulo R. Pereira Chintak Chhapia Scott Humphrey Alok Chandra Shahi Imran Mohammed SHIVSHANKER The very first answer was provided by Fbncs and Dheeraj had very interesting comment. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, Readers Contribution, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Technique to have screen independent grid based puzzle with sprite animation

  - by Yan Cheng CHEOK

  Hello all, let's say I have a fixed size grid puzzle game (8 x 10). I will be using sprites animation, when the "pieces" in the puzzle is moving from one grid to another grid. I was wondering, what is the technique to have this game being implemented as screen resolution independent. Here is what I plan to do. 1) The data structure coordinate will be represented using double, with 1.0 as max value. // Puzzle grid of 8 x 10 Environment { double width = 0.8; double height = 1.0; } // Location of Sprite at coordinate (1, 1) Sprite { double posX = 0.1; double posY = 0.1; double width = 0.1; double height = 0.1; } // scale = PYSICAL_SCREEN_SIZE drawBitmap ( sprite_image, sprite_image_rect, new Rect(sprite.posX * Scale, sprite.posY * Scale, (sprite.posX + sprite.width) * Scale, (sprite.posY + sprite.Height) * Scale), paint ); 2) A large size sprite image will be used (128x128). As sprite image shall look fine if we scale from large size down to small size, but not vice versa. Besides the above mentioned technique, is there any other consideration I had missed out?

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• SQL SERVER – 3 Simple Puzzles – Need Your Suggestions

  - by pinaldave

  Last Month, I have posted three Simple Puzzles and I got very good response. I think there can be many interesting answers there. I would like to request all of you to take part the puzzles and provide your answer. I plant to consolidate answers and publish all the valid answers on this blog with due credit. SQL SERVER – Challenge – Puzzle – Usage of FAST Hint SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Challenge – Error While Converting Money to Decimal SQL SERVER – Challenge – Puzzle – Why does RIGHT JOIN Exists I am also thinking that after such a long time we should have word Database Developer (DBD) just like Database Administrator (DBA) in our dictionary. I have also created pole where I talk about this subject. SQL SERVER – Are you a Database Administrator or a Database Developer? ?Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• How can I ensure that when I shuffle my puzzle I still end up with an even permutation?

  - by Mithrax

  I'm interested making an implementation of the 14-15 puzzle: I'm creating an array with the values 0 - 15 in increasing order: S = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 } Now, what I want to do is shuffle them to create a new instance of the puzzle. However, I know that if I create a board with an "odd permutation" than it is unsolvable. Wikipedia says I need to create the puzzle with an even permutation. I believe this means that I simply have to do ensure I do an even number of swaps? How would I modify Fisher-Yates so I ensure I end up with an even permutation at the end? If I do a swap for every element in the array that would be 16 swaps which I believe would be an even permutation. However, do I need to be concerned about swapping with itself? Is there any other way to ensure I have a valid puzzle?

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• How do I intiailize the vector I have defined in my header file?

  - by FrankTheTank

  I have the following in my Puzzle.h class Puzzle { private: vector<int> puzzle; public: Puzzle() : puzzle (16) {} bool isSolved(); void shuffle(vector<int>& ); }; and then my Puzzle.cpp looks like: Puzzle::Puzzle() { // Initialize the puzzle (0,1,2,3,...,14,15) for(int i = 0; i <= puzzle.size(); i++) { puzzle[i] = i; } } // ... other methods Am I using the initiailizer list wrong in my header file? I would like to define a vector of ints and initialize its size to that of 16. How should I do this? G++ Output: Puzzle.cpp:16: error: expected unqualified-id before ')' token Puzzle.cpp: In constructor `Puzzle::Puzzle()': Puzzle.cpp:16: error: expected `)' at end of input Puzzle.cpp:16: error: expected `{' at end of input Puzzle.cpp: At global scope: Puzzle.cpp:24: error: redefinition of `Puzzle::Puzzle()' Puzzle.cpp:16: error: `Puzzle::Puzzle()' previously defined here

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• Database Security Puzzle Solving with IBM DB2 LUW Roles

  The task of keeping up with database security can sometimes be monumental! A major challenge when it comes to administering authorities and privileges is how to approach this puzzle in a sensible, time-saving, 'security robust' manner. There is no need for concern; we have a hint or two that will help solve this puzzler.

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• SQL SERVER – 2 T-SQL Puzzles and Win USD 50 worth Amazon Gift Card and 25 Other Prizes

  - by pinaldave

  We all love brain teasers and interesting puzzles. Today I decided to come up with 2 interesting puzzles and winner of the contest will get USD 50 worth Amazon Gift Card. The puzzles are sponsored by NuoDB. Additionally, The first 25 individuals who download NuoDB Beta 8 by midnight Friday, Sept. 21 (EST) will automatically receive a $10 Amazon gift card. Puzzle 1: Why following code when executed in SSMS displays result as a * (Star)? SELECT CAST(634 AS VARCHAR(2)) Puzzle 2: Write the shortest code that produces results as 1 without using any numbers in the select statement. Bonus Q: How many different Operating System (OS) NuoDB support? Click here HINT If you can solve above puzzles you will be eligible for winning USD 50 Amazon Gift Card. However, you can always enroll yourself for following Bonus Prizes where if you have good chance of winning USD 10 Amazon Gift Card (if you are first 25 individual in specific time). Bonus Prizes: The first 25 individuals who download NuoDB Beta 8 by midnight Friday, Sept. 21 (EST) will automatically receive a $10 Amazon gift card. Rules: Please leave an answer in the comments section below. You can resubmit your answer multiple times, the latest entry will be considered valid. The winner will be announced on 1st October. Last day to participate in the puzzle is September 28th, 2012. All valid answer will be kept hidden till September 28th, 2012. Only One Winner will get USD 50 worth Amazon Gift Card. The first 25 individuals who download NuoDB Beta 8 by midnight Friday, Sept. 21 (EST) will automatically receive a $10 Amazon gift card. The winner will be selected using random algorithm. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: NuoDB

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• SQL SERVER – Puzzle to Win Print Book – Write T-SQL Self Join Without Using FIRST _VALUE and LAST_VALUE

  - by pinaldave

  Last week we asked a puzzle SQL SERVER – Puzzle to Win Print Book – Functions FIRST_VALUE and LAST_VALUE with OVER clause and ORDER BY . This puzzle got very interesting participation. The details of the winner is listed here. In this puzzle we received two very important feedback. This puzzle cleared the concepts of First_Value and Last_Value to the participants. As this was based on SQL Server 2012 many could not participate it as they have yet not installed SQL Server 2012. I really appreciate the feedback of user and decided to come up something as fun and helps learn new feature of SQL Server 2012. Please read yesterday’s blog post SQL SERVER – Introduction to LEAD and LAG – Analytic Functions Introduced in SQL Server 2012 before continuing this puzzle as it is based on yesterday’s post. Yesterday I ran following query which uses functions LEAD and LAG. USE AdventureWorks GO SELECT s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty, FIRST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) FstValue, LAST_VALUE(SalesOrderDetailID) OVER (ORDER BY SalesOrderDetailID) LstValue FROM Sales.SalesOrderDetail s WHERE SalesOrderID IN (43670, 43669, 43667, 43663) ORDER BY s.SalesOrderID,s.SalesOrderDetailID,s.OrderQty GO The above query will give us the following result: Puzzle: Now use T-SQL Self Join where same table is joined to itself and get the same result without using LEAD or LAG functions. Hint: Introduction to JOINs – Basic of JOINs Self Join A new analytic functions in SQL Server Denali CTP3 – LEAD() and LAG() Rules Leave a comment with your detailed answer by Nov 21's blog post. Open world-wide (where Amazon ships books) If you blog about puzzle’s solution and if you win, you win additional surprise gift as well. Prizes Print copy of my new book SQL Server Interview Questions Amazon|Flipkart If you already have this book, you can opt for any of my other books SQL Wait Stats [Amazon|Flipkart|Kindle] and SQL Programming [Amazon|Flipkart|Kindle]. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Query, SQL Scripts, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology

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• Corona SDK (Lua) vs Native Obj-C for iPhone only word puzzle type game [closed]

  - by dodgy_coder

  I am trying to decide on whether to use the Corona SDK & Lua versus native Objective-C to develop an iOS app. This will be the first game on any smartphone I have developed and so its not that ambitious - a single player word puzzle type game - something sort of like scrabble. The advantages of Corona I can see are: Lua is probably easier to learn than Obj-C (shorter learning curve) meaning a possibly quicker development time Possibility to port to Android once its finished Advantages of native Obj-C are: Access to all and latest features of iOS More / faster available libraries Has anyone made this decision before? Are there any major advantages or disadvantages I've missed or got wrong here? Thanks.

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• How can I generate Sudoku puzzles?

  - by user223150

  I'm trying to make a Sudoku puzzle generator. It's a lot harder than I expected and the more I get into it, the harder it gets! My current approach is to split the problem into 2 steps: Generate a complete (solved) Sudoku puzzle. Remove numbers until it's solveable and has only 1 solution. In step 1, since I'm using a brute force methods, I'm facing some run time issues. Is there an optimal way of filling in a complete Sudoku puzzle? In step 2, what kind of algorithm should I use to "puzzlize" a solved sudoku?

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• AceCypher is an Addictive Cypher Slide Puzzle Game

  - by Akemi Iwaya

  Are you ready for a game that will test your logical thinking skills while providing hours of fun? Then you may want to have a look at this awesome cypher slide puzzler! AceCypher is great puzzle game for those times when you only have a few minutes to play or want a fun way to pass the time while relaxing. The overall premise and style of game play for AceCypher is simple. You move individual rows (left, right) or columns (up, down) one space at a time in order to shift the positions of numbers on the game board through ’round-a-bout’ trading. The goal is to make the four numbers in the red square match the code shown in the upper right corner (including positions). Sounds simple so far, right? But the challenge comes from the random boards you will be given to work with…some will not be too hard to solve while others will tax your brain (and patience!) quite well.     

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• SQL SERVER – Puzzle to Win Print Book and Free 30 Days Online Training Material

  - by pinaldave

  Yesterday I had asked a simple question SQL SERVER – Puzzle to Win Print Book – Write T-SQL Self Join Without Using LEAD and LAG with keeping two simple intention. We can all learn about new feature of SQL Server 2012 We can learn new feature of SQL Server 2012 while practicing on earlier version of SQL Server. While I was creating question due to copy-paste error the question was not correctly created. In simple word – I made a mistake. This created some confusion and I feel bad about this. Here is what we will do. Please read the question again and attempt to answer the question which I have asked in the blog post. Yesterday the give away was my SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers book. As the question was corrected after a while, the give away are now got sweeter. SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers book – 2 Copy 30 Days Online Training Material of Pluralsight. They have excellent learning resources – I have written my 6 hour learning experience over Learning SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services) Online in 6 Hours. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQL Training, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• Solving the puzzle in javascript [on hold]

  - by Gandalf StormCrow

  I've recently try to brush up my javascript skills, so I have a friend who gives me puzzles from time to time to solve. Yesterday I got this : function testFun() { f = {}; for( var i=0 ; i<3 : i++ ) { f[i] = function() { alert("sum='+i+f.length); } } return f; } Expected Results: testFun()[0]() should alert “sum=0” testFun()[1]() should alert “sum=2” testFun()[2]() should alert “sum=4” I did this which does like requested above: function testFun() { var i, f = {}; for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) { f[i] = (function(number) { return function() { alert("sum=" + (number * 2)); } }(i)); } return f; } Today I got new puzzle : Name everything wrong with this javascript code, then tell how you would re-write it. function testFun(fInput) { f = fInput || {}; // append three functions for( var i=0 ; i<3 : i++ ) { f[i] = function() { alert("sum='+i+f.length); } } return f; } // Sample Expected Results (do not change) myvar = testFun(); myvar[0](); // should alert “sum=0” myvar[1](); // should alert “sum=2” testFun(['a'])[2](); // should alert “sum=5”`enter code here How do I accomplish the third case testFun(['a'])[2]()? Also could my answer from yesterday be written better and what can be improved if so?

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• The Freemium-Premium Puzzle

  The more time I spend thinking about the value of information, the more I found that digitalizing information significantly changed the 'information markets', potentially in an irreversible manner. The graph at the bottom outlines my current view. The existing business models tend to be the same in the digital and analogue information world, i.e. revenue is derived from a combination of consumers' payments and advertisement. Even monetizing 'meta-information' such as search engines isn't new. Just think of the once popular 'Who'sWho'. What really changed is the price-value ratio. The curve is pushed down, closer to the axis. You pay less for the same, or often even get more for less. If you recall the capabilities I described in relevance of information you will see that there are many additional features available for digital content compared to analogue content. I think this is a good 'blue ocean strategy' by combining existing capabilities in a new way. (Kim W.C. & Mauborgne, R. (2005) Blue Ocean Strategies. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.). In addition the different channels of digital information distribution significantly change the value of information. I will touch on this in one of my next blogs. Right now, many information providers started to offer 'freemium' content through digital channels, hoping to get a premium for the 'full' content. No freemium seems to take them out of business, because they are apparently no longer visible in today's most relevant channels of information consumption. But, the more freemium is provided, the lower the premium gets; a truly puzzling situation. To make it worse, channel providers increasingly regard information as a value adding and differentiating activity. Maybe new types of exclusive, strategic alliances will solve the puzzle, introducing new types of 'gate-keepers', which - to me - somehow does not match the spirit of the WWW and the generation Y's perception of information consumption and exchange.

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• SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Statistics are not Updated but are Created Once

  - by pinaldave

  After having excellent response to my quiz – Why SELECT * throws an error but SELECT COUNT(*) does not?I have decided to ask another puzzling question to all of you. I am running this test on SQL Server 2008 R2. Here is the quick scenario about my setup. Create Table Insert 1000 Records Check the Statistics Now insert 10 times more 10,000 indexes Check the Statistics – it will be NOT updated Note: Auto Update Statistics and Auto Create Statistics for database is TRUE Expected Result – Statistics should be updated – SQL SERVER – When are Statistics Updated – What triggers Statistics to Update Now the question is why the statistics are not updated? The common answer is – we can update the statistics ourselves using UPDATE STATISTICS TableName WITH FULLSCAN, ALL However, the solution I am looking is where statistics should be updated automatically based on algorithm mentioned here. Now the solution is to ____________________. Vinod Kumar is not allowed to take participate over here as he is the one who has helped me to build this puzzle. I will publish the solution on next week. Please leave a comment and if your comment consist valid answer, I will publish with due credit. Here is the script to reproduce the scenario which I mentioned. -- Execution Plans Difference -- Create Sample Database CREATE DATABASE SampleDB GO USE SampleDB GO -- Create Table CREATE TABLE ExecTable (ID INT, FirstName VARCHAR(100), LastName VARCHAR(100), City VARCHAR(100)) GO -- Insert One Thousand Records -- INSERT 1 INSERT INTO ExecTable (ID,FirstName,LastName,City) SELECT TOP 1000 ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name) RowID, 'Bob', CASE WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%2 = 1 THEN 'Smith' ELSE 'Brown' END, CASE WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 1 THEN 'New York' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 5 THEN 'San Marino' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 3 THEN 'Los Angeles' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 7 THEN 'La Cinega' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 13 THEN 'San Diego' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 17 THEN 'Las Vegas' ELSE 'Houston' END FROM sys.all_objects a CROSS JOIN sys.all_objects b GO -- Display statistics of the table - none listed sp_helpstats N'ExecTable', 'ALL' GO -- Select Statement SELECT FirstName, LastName, City FROM ExecTable WHERE City  = 'New York' GO -- Display statistics of the table sp_helpstats N'ExecTable', 'ALL' GO -- Replace your Statistics over here -- NOTE: Replace your _WA_Sys with stats from above query DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS('ExecTable', _WA_Sys_00000004_7D78A4E7); GO -------------------------------------------------------------- -- Round 2 -- Insert Ten Thousand Records -- INSERT 2 INSERT INTO ExecTable (ID,FirstName,LastName,City) SELECT TOP 10000 ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name) RowID, 'Bob', CASE WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%2 = 1 THEN 'Smith' ELSE 'Brown' END, CASE WHEN ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 1 THEN 'New York' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 5 THEN 'San Marino' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 3 THEN 'Los Angeles' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 7 THEN 'La Cinega' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 13 THEN 'San Diego' WHEN  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.name)%20 = 17 THEN 'Las Vegas' ELSE 'Houston' END FROM sys.all_objects a CROSS JOIN sys.all_objects b GO -- Select Statement SELECT FirstName, LastName, City FROM ExecTable WHERE City  = 'New York' GO -- Display statistics of the table sp_helpstats N'ExecTable', 'ALL' GO -- Replace your Statistics over here -- NOTE: Replace your _WA_Sys with stats from above query DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS('ExecTable', _WA_Sys_00000004_7D78A4E7); GO -- You will notice that Statistics are still updated with 1000 rows -- Clean up Database DROP TABLE ExecTable GO USE MASTER GO ALTER DATABASE SampleDB SET SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE; GO DROP DATABASE SampleDB GO Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Index, SQL Performance, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: SQL Statistics, Statistics

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• SQL SERVER – Question to You – When to use Function and When to use Stored Procedure

  - by pinaldave

  This week has been very interesting week. I have asked few questions to users and have received remarkable participation on the subject. Q1) SQL SERVER – Puzzle – SELECT * vs SELECT COUNT(*) Q2) SQL SERVER – Puzzle – Statistics are not Updated but are Created Once Keeping the same spirit up, I am asking the third question over here. Q3) When to use User Defined Function and when to use Stored Procedure in your development? Personally, I believe that they are both different things - they cannot be compared. I can say, it will be like comparing apples and oranges. Each has its own unique use. However, they can be used interchangeably at many times and in real life (i.e., production environment). I have personally seen both of these being used interchangeably many times. This is the precise reason for asking this question. When do you use Function and when do you use Stored Procedure? What are Pros and Cons of each of them when used instead of each other? If you are going to answer that ‘To avoid repeating code, you use Function’ - please think harder! Stored procedure can do the same. In SQL Server Denali, even the stored procedure can return the result just like Function in SELECT statement; so if you are going to answer with ‘Function can be used in SELECT, whereas Stored Procedure cannot be used’ - again think harder! (link). Now, what do you say? I will post the answers of all the three questions with due credit next week. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: Pinal Dave, PostADay, Readers Question, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Function, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Stored Procedure, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology

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• Generating all unique combinations for "drive ya nuts" puzzle

  - by Yuval A

  A while back I wrote a simple python program to brute-force the single solution for the drive ya nuts puzzle. The puzzle consists of 7 hexagons with the numbers 1-6 on them, and all pieces must be aligned so that each number is adjacent to the same number on the next piece. The puzzle has ~1.4G non-unique possibilities: you have 7! options to sort the pieces by order (for example, center=0, top=1, continuing in clockwise order...). After you sorted the pieces, you can rotate each piece in 6 ways (each piece is a hexagon), so you get 6**7 possible rotations for a given permutation of the 7 pieces. Totalling: 7!*(6**7)=~1.4G possibilities. The following python code generates these possible solutions: def rotations(p): for i in range(len(p)): yield p[i:] + p[:i] def permutations(l): if len(l)<=1: yield l else: for perm in permutations(l[1:]): for i in range(len(perm)+1): yield perm[:i] + l[0:1] + perm[i:] def constructs(l): for p in permutations(l): for c in product(*(rotations(x) for x in p)): yield c However, note that the puzzle has only ~0.2G unique possible solutions, as you must divide the total number of possibilities by 6 since each possible solution is equivalent to 5 other solutions (simply rotate the entire puzzle by 1/6 a turn). Is there a better way to generate only the unique possibilities for this puzzle?

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• How can I solve the Log Pile wooden puzzle with a computer program?

  - by craig1410

  Can anyone suggest how to solve the Log Pile wooden puzzle using a computer program? See here to visualise the puzzle: http://www.puzzlethis.co.uk/products/madcow/the_log_pile.htm The picture only shows some of the pieces. The full set of 10 pieces are configured as follows with 1 representing a peg, -1 representing a hole and 0 representing neither a peg nor a hole. -1,1,0,-1,0 1,0,1,0,0 1,-1,1,0,0 -1,-1,0,0,-1 -1,1,0,1,0 0,1,0,0,1 1,0,-1,0,-1 0,-1,0,1,0 0,0,-1,1,-1 1,0,-1,0,0 The pieces can be interlocked in two layers of 5 pieces each with the top layer at 90 degrees to the bottom layer as shown in the above link. I have already created a solution to this problem myself using Java but I feel that it was a clumsy solution and I am interested to see some more sophisticated solutions. Feel free to either suggest a general approach or to provide a working program in the language of your choice. My approach was to use the numeric notation above to create an array of "Logs". I then used a combination/permutation generator to try all possible arrangements of the Logs until a solution was found where all the intersections equated to zero (ie. Peg to Hole, Hole to Peg or Blank to Blank). I used some speed-ups to detect the first failed intersection for a given permutation and move on to the next permutation. I hope you find this as interesting as I have. Thanks, Craig.

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• How can I use TDD to solve a puzzle with an unknown answer?

  - by matthewsteele

  Recently I wrote a Ruby program to determine solutions to a "Scramble Squares" tile puzzle: I used TDD to implement most of it, leading to tests that looked like this: it "has top, bottom, left, right" do c = Cards.new card = c.cards[0] card.top.should == :CT card.bottom.should == :WB card.left.should == :MT card.right.should == :BT end This worked well for the lower-level "helper" methods: identifying the "sides" of a tile, determining if a tile can be validly placed in the grid, etc. But I ran into a problem when coding the actual algorithm to solve the puzzle. Since I didn't know valid possible solutions to the problem, I didn't know how to write a test first. I ended up writing a pretty ugly, untested, algorithm to solve it: def play_game working_states = [] after_1 = step_1 i = 0 after_1.each do |state_1| step_2(state_1).each do |state_2| step_3(state_2).each do |state_3| step_4(state_3).each do |state_4| step_5(state_4).each do |state_5| step_6(state_5).each do |state_6| step_7(state_6).each do |state_7| step_8(state_7).each do |state_8| step_9(state_8).each do |state_9| working_states << state_9[0] end end end end end end end end end So my question is: how do you use TDD to write a method when you don't already know the valid outputs? If you're interested, the code's on GitHub: Tests: https://github.com/mattdsteele/scramblesquares-solver/blob/master/golf-creator-spec.rb Production code: https://github.com/mattdsteele/scramblesquares-solver/blob/master/game.rb

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• SQL SERVER – Solution – 2 T-SQL Puzzles – Display Star and Shortest Code to Display 1

  - by pinaldave

  Earlier on this blog we had asked two puzzles. The response from all of you is nothing but Amazing. I have received 350+ responses. Many are valid and many were indeed something I had not thought about it. I strongly suggest you read all the puzzles and their answers here - trust me if you start reading the comments you will not stop till you read every single comment. Seriously trust me on it. Personally I have learned a lot from it. Let us recap the puzzles here quickly. Puzzle 1: Why following code when executed in SSMS displays result as a * (Star)? SELECT CAST(634 AS VARCHAR(2)) Puzzle 2: Write the shortest code that produces results as 1 without using any numbers in the select statement. Bonus Q: How many different Operating System (OS) NuoDB support? As I mentioned earlier the participation was nothing but Amazing. I will write about the winners and the best answers in short time. Meanwhile I will give to the point answers to above puzzles. Solution 1: When you convert character or binary expressions (char, nchar, nvarchar, varchar,binary, or varbinary) to an expression of a different data type, data can be truncated, only partially displayed, or an error is returned because the result is too short to display. Conversions to char, varchar, nchar, nvarchar, binary, and varbinary are truncated, except for the conversions shown in the following table. Reference of the text and table from MSDN. Solution 2: The shortest code to produce answer 1 : SELECT EXP($) or SELECT COS($) or SELECT DAY($) When SELECT $ it gives us the result as 0.00 and the EXP of the same is 1. I believe it is pretty neat. There were plenty other answers but this was the shortest. Another shorter answer would be PRINT EXP($) but no one has proposed that as in original Question I have explicitly mentioned SELECT in the original question. Bonus Answer: 5 OS: Windows, MacOS, Linux, Solaris, Joyent SmartOS Reference Please do read every single comment here. Do leave a comment which one do you think is the best comment out of all the comments. Meanwhile if there is a better solution and I have missed it do let me know as we still have time to correct it. I will be selecting the winner before the weekend as I am going through each and every of 350 comment. I will be selecting the best comments along with the winning comment. If our selection matches – one of you may still win something cool.  Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com) Filed under: PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, SQLServer, T SQL, Technology Tagged: NuoDB

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• Creating a programming crossword puzzle

  Most programming-related crossword puzzles are generated by computer programs, and consequently lack the design and wordplay which makes New York Times-style crossword puzzles interesting. I decided that I could do better.

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• SQL – Contest to Get The Date – Win USD 50 Amazon Gift Cards and Cool Gift

  - by Pinal Dave

  If you are a regular reader of this blog – you will find no issue at all in resolving this puzzle. This contest is based on my experience with NuoDB. If you are not familiar with NuoDB, here are few pointers for you. Step by Step Guide to Download and Install NuoDB – Getting Started with NuoDB Quick Start with Admin Sections of NuoDB – Manage NuoDB Database Quick Start with Explorer Sections of NuoDB – Query NuoDB Database In today’s contest you have to answer following questions: Q 1: Precision of NOW() What is the precision of the NuoDB’s NOW() function, which returns current date time? Hint: Run following script on NuoDB Console Explorer section: SELECT NOW() AS CurrentTime FROM dual; Here is the image. I have masked the area where the time precision is displayed. Q 2: Executing Date and Time Script When I execute following script - SELECT 'today' AS Today, 'tomorrow' AS Tomorrow, 'yesterday' AS Yesterday FROM dual; I will get the following result:   NOW – What will be the answer when we execute following script? and WHY? SELECT CAST('today' AS DATE) AS Today, CAST('tomorrow' AS DATE) AS Tomorrow, CAST('yesterday'AS DATE) AS Yesterday FROM dual; HINT: Install NuoDB (it takes 90 seconds). Prizes: 2 Amazon Gifts 2 Limited Edition Hoodies (US resident only)   Rules: Please leave an answer in the comments section below. You must answer both the questions together in a single comment. US resident who wants to qualify to win NuoDB apparel please mention your country in the comment. You can resubmit your answer multiple times, the latest entry will be considered valid. Last day to participate in the puzzle is June 24, 2013. All valid answer will be kept hidden till June 24, 2013. The winner will be announced on June 25, 2013. Two Winners will get USD 25 worth Amazon Gift Card. (Total Value = 25 x 2 = 50 USD) The winner will be selected using a random algorithm from all the valid answers. Anybody with a valid email address can take part in the contest. Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: Big Data, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Puzzle, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: NuoDB

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• SQL – Crossword Puzzle Based on Course Building Successful High Traffic Profitable Blog

  - by Pinal Dave

  Do you like Crossword Puzzles? I personally love it. Everytime I open the newspaper, I try to resolve at least one crossword or sudoku. It is just fun to tease a brain little and stretch its limits. Regular readers of the blogs are aware that I have recently published two courses on how to build successful high traffic profitable blog. Here are the links to watch both the courses: Course 1, Course 2. Do watch them in order as both the courses have unique content, which can help you build a better blog. On my birthday July 30th, there was an interesting blog post posted on Pluralsight blog. It was a crossword build from my two courses. I encourage you try to solve the crossword which I have built. Giveaway: There is a cool gift for the winner – it is melting clock. Do not confuse this as a dummy or not working clock. This looks like melting but it always shows accurate time and it is perfectly balanced to hang off of any flat surface. How to Participate: Well, it is very simple, you just have to complete the crossword and send it to me at pinal at sqlauthority.com with all valid answers. The deadline is that you must send it before Monday August 5, 2013 or before the valid answer keys are posted on Pluralsight blog. Hints: Though the crossword is very easy and intuitive, if you ever get stuck anywhere here are two hints: Hint 1, Hint 2. Login to Pluralsight courses and watch both the courses. Watching the course will not only help you to easily complete crossword but there are hidden gems and secrets to build a high traffic profitable blog. Here is the link to download the crossword: Download Crossword. Alternatively you can download the image displayed below and print it as well.   Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.sqlauthority.com) Filed under: About Me, PostADay, SQL, SQL Authority, SQL Query, SQL Server, SQL Tips and Tricks, T SQL, Technology Tagged: Blogging

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• Mind Puzzle Game in C#

  This is a simple game written in C# in which user presses Up, Down, Left, Right arrow keys to play this game.

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