I have been programming in c-based languages for more than 10 years now. Lately i have spent quite a bit of time in SQLtopia and learned a couple of techniques that are quite different from what i was used to.

Let me explain with an example: The boss comes in and asks for a report that contains all the days on which i have worked this year. As a typical c# programmer i come up with the following solution: Iterate over all the days in the year and skip the days i was out on holidays:

IEnumerable<DateTime> FindWorkingDays()
{
 var begin = new DateTime(2010, 01, 01);
 var end = new DateTime(2010, 12, 31);

 var holidays = new[]
 {
  new Holiday { Begin = new DateTime(2010, 07, 01), End = new DateTime(2010, 07, 31) }, 
  new Holiday { Begin = new DateTime(2010, 09, 01), End = new DateTime(2010, 09, 15) }
 };             

 for (var date = begin; date <= end; date = date.AddDays(1))
 {
  if(holidays.Any(holiday => holiday.Begin <= date && date <= holiday.End)) continue;
  yield return date;
 }
}

In SQLtopia it is recommended to use set-based solutions instead of loops so we need a radically different solution.

Here is how we generate rows:

WITH 
    [Nums1] AS ( SELECT 1 AS [Value] UNION SELECT 2 AS [Value] )
  , [Nums2] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums1] AS A, [Nums1] AS B, [Nums1] AS C)
  , [Nums3] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums2] AS A, [Nums2] AS B, [Nums2] AS C)
  , [Nums4] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums3] AS A, [Nums3] AS B )
SELECT * FROM [Nums4];

With rows we can generate numbers:

DECLARE @count INT = 1000;

WITH 
    [Nums1] AS ( SELECT 1 AS [Value] UNION SELECT 2 AS [Value] )
  , [Nums2] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums1] AS A, [Nums1] AS B, [Nums1] AS C)
  , [Nums3] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums2] AS A, [Nums2] AS B, [Nums2] AS C)
  , [Nums4] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums3] AS A, [Nums3] AS B )
  , [Numbers] AS ( SELECT TOP(@count) -1 + ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY [Value]) AS [Value] FROM[Nums4] ) 
SELECT * FROM [Numbers];

And with numbers we can generate dates:

DECLARE @begin DATETIME =  '2010-01-01';
DECLARE @end DATETIME =  '2010-12-31';
DECLARE @count INT = DATEDIFF(DAY, @begin, @end) + 1;

WITH 
    [Nums1] AS ( SELECT 1 AS [Value] UNION SELECT 2 AS [Value] )
  , [Nums2] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums1] AS A, [Nums1] AS B, [Nums1] AS C)
  , [Nums3] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums2] AS A, [Nums2] AS B, [Nums2] AS C)
  , [Nums4] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums3] AS A, [Nums3] AS B )
  , [Numbers] AS ( SELECT TOP(@count) -1 + ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY [Value]) AS [Value] FROM[Nums4] )
  , [Dates] AS ( SELECT DATEADD(DAY, [Value], @begin) AS [Date] FROM [Numbers] )    
SELECT * FROM [Dates];

With dates we can build the dates on which we were out on holidays:

DECLARE @begin DATETIME =  '2010-01-01';
DECLARE @end DATETIME =  '2010-12-31';
DECLARE @count INT = DATEDIFF(DAY, @begin, @end) + 1;

WITH 
    [Nums1] AS ( SELECT 1 AS [Value] UNION SELECT 2 AS [Value] )
  , [Nums2] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums1] AS A, [Nums1] AS B, [Nums1] AS C)
  , [Nums3] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums2] AS A, [Nums2] AS B, [Nums2] AS C)
  , [Nums4] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums3] AS A, [Nums3] AS B )
  , [Numbers] AS ( SELECT TOP(@count) -1 + ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY [Value]) AS [Value] FROM[Nums4] )
  , [Dates] AS ( SELECT DATEADD(DAY, [Value], @begin) AS [Date] FROM [Numbers] )    
  , [Holidays] AS ( SELECT '2010-07-01' AS [Begin], '2010-07-31' AS [End]
                    UNION
                    SELECT '2010-09-01' AS [Begin], '2010-09-15' AS [End]
                  )
SELECT [Date] FROM [Holidays],[Dates] WHERE [Date] BETWEEN [Begin] AND [End] ORDER BY [Date];

And now we can easily select the dates that are not holiday dates:

DECLARE @begin DATETIME =  '2010-01-01';
DECLARE @end DATETIME =  '2010-12-31';
DECLARE @count INT = DATEDIFF(DAY, @begin, @end) + 1;

WITH 
	[Nums1] AS ( SELECT 1 AS [Value] UNION SELECT 2 AS [Value] )
  , [Nums2] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums1] AS A, [Nums1] AS B, [Nums1] AS C)
  , [Nums3] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums2] AS A, [Nums2] AS B, [Nums2] AS C)
  , [Nums4] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums3] AS A, [Nums3] AS B )
  , [Numbers] AS ( SELECT TOP(@count) -1 + ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY [Value]) AS [Value] FROM[Nums4] )
  , [Dates] AS ( SELECT DATEADD(DAY, [Value], @begin) AS [Date] FROM [Numbers] WHERE [Value] <= DATEDIFF(DAY, @begin, @end))    
  , [Holidays] AS ( SELECT '2010-07-01' AS [Begin], '2010-07-31' AS [End]
                    UNION
                    SELECT '2010-09-01' AS [Begin], '2010-09-15' AS [End]
                  )
  , [HolidayDates] AS (SELECT [Date] FROM [Holidays],[Dates] WHERE [Date] BETWEEN [Begin] AND [End] )
                  
SELECT [Dates].[Date] FROM [Dates] 
					  LEFT OUTER JOIN [HolidayDates] ON [Dates].[Date] = [HolidayDates].[Date]
					  WHERE [HolidayDates].[Date] IS NULL;

Look Ma, no loops!

Here is a sample query that allows you to explore the behavior of various aggregate window functions:

WITH 
    [Nums1] AS ( SELECT 1 AS [Value] UNION SELECT 2 AS [Value] )
  , [Nums2] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums1] AS A, [Nums1] AS B, [Nums1] AS C)
  , [Nums3] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums2] AS A, [Nums2] AS B, [Nums2] AS C)
  , [Nums4] AS ( SELECT A.* FROM [Nums3] AS A, [Nums3] AS B )
  -- Build numbers from 1 to 1000
  , [Numbers] AS ( SELECT TOP(1000) ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY [Value]) AS [Value] FROM[Nums4] )
SELECT 
    [Value]
  , ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY [Value] / 100 ORDER BY [Value] % 10) AS [RowNumber]
  , RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY [Value] / 100 ORDER BY [Value] % 10) AS [Rank]
  , DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY [Value] / 100 ORDER BY [Value] % 10) AS [DenseRank]
  , NTILE(4) OVER (PARTITION BY [Value] / 100 ORDER BY [Value] % 10) AS [Tile100]
FROM	
    [Numbers]
ORDER BY 
    [Value];