Itzik Ben-Gan - Database Geek of the Week
When it comes to SQL Server, I am really a bit of a T-SQL man. Sure, I use ADO.NET, and in a pinch can use related tools, but what I really enjoy is seeing what I can do with pure Transact SQL. That is way I was so excited to interview Itzik Ben-Gan, whose knowledge of SQL makes mine seem rather inadequate. From the interview:
Doug: When I interviewed Douglas McDowell, he said that you would be the person to whom I should ask the following question: There are a number of changes to T-SQL built into SQL Server 2005. What are you most excited about?
Itzik: My favorite one, by far, is the ROW_NUMBER() function. This function assigns sequential integers to rows of a resultset, based on a specified order, and optionally within partitions of rows. It sounds like a small thing, but the function has numerous practical applications beyond the obvious ones for ranking and scoring.
See the entire inteview here.