Ask MetaFilter posts by Civil_Disobedient

A query connundrum.

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 05:51:38 -0800

Attention SQL gurus. This has me completely stumped. How can I find the index (position) of a row in a table without querying the entire set? Here is the situation:

I have a web application that has some ajaxified tables on many of the pages. These tables show various slices of data. Most of the tables are about 10 rows per page, so for example, if the table was a list of all Customers, and you've got 10,000 customers, that would be 1,000 pages of customers.

To initially show the table, I have to do two queries: one is the initial 10 rows that are to be displayed, the other is a count(*) to get the total amount of rows.

Here is the problem:

I have a particular customer ID in my hand. I'd like the webtable to take this ID and jump to the correct page that will show that customer. Naturally, it has to take into account sorting.

Hypothetical simplified example:

ID    NAME

1102  C_D's Tavern

1294  Bob's Discount Dairy

1299  Chico's House of Wicker

...

9309  Larry's Llama Emporium

If I sort by ID (natural order), the index of Bob's Discount Dairy would be 2, Chico's Hosue of Wicker would be 3, etc. If I'm displaying "page 1", that means the first 10 indexes, so I know those two would be on the first page. "OK, so what page is ID# 5129 on?" That's the problem.

What I want to know is if there's a way to figure out the index of a particular ID without having to query the entire dataset. Or if I do have to query the entire dataset, I'd like it to be as painless as possible. Another important note: some of these queries are being run off of VIEWs, which could complicate things.

This is on Microsoft SQL Server 2000.

Help translate this message.

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 14:32:05 -0800

Please help me translate this message into as many languages as possible: "This is an important notice. Please have it translated." These are the languages I've already got--if any native speakers (or resident polyglots) happen to notice any mistakes, please let me know. Hopefully the unicode will post correctly, otherwise I'll do a follow-up.

This is an important notice. Please have it translated.

Ogeysiiskan waa mid muhiim ah. Fadlan, soo turjum.

这是一件很重要的通知, 请翻译戓中文.

Man ngec ma pire tek. Tim ber gony i leb Acholi.

Este es un aviso importante. Por favor asegure que se traduce.

Это очень важное сообщєние. Пожалуйста имейте иметь его быть переведенным.

Đây là một thông cáo quan trọng. Xin vui lòng cho dịch lại thông cáo âý.

Este é um aviso importante. Queira mandá-lo traduzir.

Ceci est important. Veuillez faire traduire.

Help me identify old TV programs.

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 04:51:31 -0800

TVFilter: I'm trying to identify two TV shows. Both are from the early 90s (IIRC). The first features a teen who secretly works for a spy agency. The second is a gritty film-noir-style detective show that takes place in the 40s-50s. I don't remember much about either show, sadly, so there's not much more to offer. I recall the first show's teen protagonist had a really cute girl interested in him, and there was a lot of hijinks where she'd "almost" discover his identity. In one episode, she sees him kissing a guy (I think), gets upset, and he later finally tells her his job (I'm probably screwing up some details).

The second show was very "pulp" feeling, featured a 50s James Dean type character who was a rookie detective (I think). What I remember most about the show was that it had a really exagerated the film-noir style, took place in either the 40s or 50s (I think the 50s), and possibly in L.A.

These two shows have been teasing my memories for the past decade, and seeing as how you lot are good at answering these kinds of questions, I thought I'd give AskMe a try.

Spider Identification, please?

Civil_Disobedient — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 07:14:36 -0800

Here are two pictures of a kind of rather large (1" long body), nasty spider that I'm finding all over my apartment [scary pictures warning]. Please help me identify it. Geographic info: I'm in the woods in Maine, not far from the coast. I know they say there are something like a million spiders for every square mile on earth, but I think we've got at least that many just in the garage. I want to know my enemy better, so any help would be appreciated.

Additional bounced check fees? I deposited a

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 08:30:03 -0800

Additional bounced check fees? I deposited a check that ended up bouncing. Before I figured this out, I wrote a check on the account that subsequently bounced. So, I get a $25.00 fee for the deposited check, another $25.00 fee for the check I wrote, but now the institution I wrote the check to wants to tack on an additional $25.00 fee. Can they do this?

A question for any male gay mefi members -- or

Civil_Disobedient — Sun, 09 May 2004 23:54:42 -0800

A question for any male gay mefi members -- or those in the know. It's my understanding that a good percentage of gay men are either exclusively "tops" or "bottoms". My question is this: how can you tell? Are the stereotypical gay mannerisms in fact just a subtle form of communicating this preference? Do you come straight out and ask? Or do you wait until the moment is upon you and hope for the best?