All categories/Data and analysis
Data extraction and SQL · Level Advanced · SQL Definitions Reconcile
Definition map: one word, two algorithms
Ops and finance define GMV differently, and the reports fight every month.
Prompt
You state the question before choosing tables. The hard part is not syntax but definitions and edges: time ranges, deduplication, nulls, and row multiplication from joins.
Task: Ops and finance define GMV differently, and the reports fight every month.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- how each team calculates it
- the difference and a typical case
- which basis to disclose
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- state both formulas and sources
- walk one order through both
- compute the gap and its share
- recommend one external basis and how both coexist internally
[Process]
1. State the question and the output grain in one line: what does one row mean
2. Confirm table structure, keys and cardinality before joining
3. Write the SQL with a comment on the business meaning of each filter
4. Self-check: dedup, time boundaries, nulls, denominator
5. Give a validation: which known total should match
[Output]
Approach and grain first, then the SQL, then a validation query.
[Do not]
- No SELECT *
- Do not wrap indexed columns in functions without saying so
- Never assume LEFT JOIN preserves row count
- Check the data dictionary rather than guessing a field's meaningWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- how each team calculates it
- the difference and a typical case
- which basis to disclose
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- state both formulas and sources
- walk one order through both
- compute the gap and its share
- recommend one external basis and how both coexist internally