Diagramming Tool For SQL Select Statements 156
alxtoth writes "Snowflake is a new BSD-licensed tool that parses SQL Select statements and generates a diagram. It shows parts of the underlying SQL directly in the diagram. For example: x=30, GROUP BY (year), SUM (sales), HAVING MIN (age) > 18. The primary reason for the tool was to avoid Cartesian joins and loops in SQL written by hand, with many joined tables. The database will execute such a statement, if syntactically correct, resulting in runaway queries that can bring the database down. If you sit close to the DBAs, you can hear them screaming... "
Re:Bring a database down? (Score:3, Funny)
Terrabyte? A planet byte?
In tablespace, no one can hear you scream... (Score:4, Funny)
I've noticed that when things go horribly wrong, you don't actaully have to sit that close. To be fair, as a Unix SA who has to deal with Windoze systems, I've done my fair share of screaming. :-)
I'm screaming from the summary. (Score:3, Funny)
Can we have that in English please? Possibly with a diagram?
Re:Bring a database down? (Score:4, Funny)
So, you don't put an untested query on a production server. Great. What happens when someone changes data in such a way that your query now explodes? :D
In the last case I had to deal with that, one boneheaded programmer had his code set to send him an email if it couldnt' find a good match in the DB. Someone changed the data, and with the amount of traffic, his code, spread across our web serving farm, had injected almost a million messages into the email queues. Programmers are awesome.
Re:Bring a database down? (Score:1, Funny)