Everyone here knows what a nested loop join is, right? However, I am still willing to bet that if you ask three different people, you will get four subtly different answers.

I admire a person who can take a subject that has apparently been "done to death" and bring a new clarity to it. I think Stephane Faroult manages that with his video, SQL Joins, nested loops and all that in less than 6 minutes. His line in deadpan French humour appealed to me, and the "dance floor" analogy, with prospective dancers needing to choose suitably-sized partners, will stay with me the next time I'm asked to explain a merge join.

My first thought was that it would be great if we could bring this sort of clarity to some of the contentious topics of the day, such as cloud computing, MDX, entity framework, extended events and so on. Arguments are flaring up already and if we can get a short and clear explanation in early, it may save everyone a lot of pain.

Almost immediately, though, I realized the futility of this. What mileage is there in debating the intricacies of MDX until we can agree on something as fundamental as how date intervals work in SQL Server? It seems pointless to dissect complex internal structures of SQL Server until we can agree on how to pronounce SQL.

We need to unite behind a common understanding of some of the absolute basics of our trade. Otherwise how can we expect to be taken seriously? I propose that we compile a "top ten" list of questions to which we want straight answers.

Send in your topic suggestions, along with who you think could provide the guide. If you have a fresh way to present one of the endlessly-debated SQL Server topics, we'll do our utmost to persuade our current Geek of the Week, the famous cartoonist Larry Gonnick, to animate your script (as soon as he's finished work on his latest book!). It will then become the definitive 5-minute guide to which we will henceforth defer on Simple-Talk.

To get us started, I suggest the following candidate topics:

1. SQL: A definitive 5-minute guide to its pronunciation
2. What is NULL: The Final Answer
3. How date intervals work in SQL Server
4. The thinking person's guide to using cursors.
5. Table Variables. Their hidden purpose.
6. Should we be allowed to view Transaction logs?
7. At what level should we stop normalising databases?

We will get these videos made and, as usual, the best suggestions will receive a prize so add them as a comment to this blog!

Cheers,

Tony.