ok lets start again......here is some sample data that covers your possible permutation.....based on what I think I undestand so far.

if this is not correct, or there are other possibilites...please amend my code accordingly.

USE tempdb

GO

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS yourtable;

CREATE TABLE yourtable(

action_id INT NOT NULL

,creation_date DATETIME NOT NULL

,event_name VARCHAR(3) NOT NULL

,Emp_Num INT NOT NULL

,comments VARCHAR(25)

);

INSERT INTO yourtable(action_id,creation_date,event_name,Emp_Num,comments) VALUES

(1,'2016/07/21 10:37','IN',1,NULL)

,(2,'2016/07/21 11:37','OUT',1,NULL)

,(3,'2016/07/21 10:37','IN',2,'two entries on single day')

,(4,'2016/07/21 11:37','OUT',2,'two entries on single day')

,(5,'2016/07/21 15:37','IN',2,'two entries on single day')

,(6,'2016/07/21 16:37','OUT',2,'two entries on single day')

,(7,'2016/07/21 20:37','IN',3,'span over midnight')

,(8,'2016/07/22 02:37','OUT',3,'span over midnight')

,(9,'2016/07/21 10:37','IN',4,'span over days')

,(10,'2016/07/23 08:37','OUT',4,'span over days')

,(11,'2016/07/21 10:37','IN',5,'No OUT')

,(12,'2016/07/21 10:37','OUT',6,'No IN')

,(13,'2016/07/21 10:37','IN',7,'less than 1 hour')

,(14,'2016/07/21 10:47','OUT',7,'less than 1 hour');

SELECT * FROM yourtable

can I please ask you to provide a table of the results that you would expect for this sample data.....I mean by this actual figures, not just words explaining.