[Matthias1]

I'd argue the example given in the article is bad not because it doesn't repeat itself, but because it only concats strings. Using more advanced language features, or perhaps a ORM, I think you could easily come up with a solution that doesn't involve repeating parts of SQL queries but is still readable.

[merarischroeder]

It might not be the best, but until a better one comes up, it's the best. It's all relative.