Philosophy
The Zen of SQL
Introduction
Inspired by the Python equivalent (PEP20 - The Zen of Python), and also using it as a starting point, the TFSQL101 are the core guiding principles which are central to writing clean, clear, well-structured and easy to maintain data transformations in SQL. These are the guiding principles for all SQL code written by our functions and humans.
TFSQL10
- Readability counts.
- Explicit is better than implicit.
- Simple is better than complex.
- Complex is better than complicated.
- Flat is better than nested.
- Errors should never pass silently.
- Unless explicitly silenced.
- Predictable is better than flexible.
- Modular is better than monolithic.
- Common Table Expressions are a seriously great idea - let's do more of those!
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Whilst the Python PEP20 actually only contains 19 aphorisms, the Transformation Flow SQL 10 (TFSQL10) contains exactly 10. ↩