Query Generates Winning Lottery Numbers!

As one of SQL Server Magazine’s most popular authors, Itzik Ben-Gan gets plenty of requests from readers to help them solve their T-SQL coding problems. But recently he got a request that was a little different.

“Dear Itzik: I’ve been a DBA for 10 years, and I love my job. But all my friends make a lot more money than me; they’re investment bankers or lawyers, or they sell stuff on eBay. I’ve had it with working harder than they do and having less to show for it. Since you’re a T-SQL expert, I thought you of all people could write a query to generate winning lottery numbers. If I had such a query, I’d never have to work again and would be the envy of my friends. Can you help me?”

As usual, Itzik came through and created the T-SQL query in Listing A (some code lines are wrapped in the print version). If it’s lottery numbers you want, this query delivers. See if you can figure out how it works!

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