hey, thats MUCH easier! and more efficient 😀

thanks

my final code is as follows:

select IndividualCode,RecNum,codeTagPosition,DateReceived from (

select *

, ROW_NUMBER() over (partition by codeTagPosition,RecNum order by DateReceived,codeTagPosition) as myRowNum

from (

select

j.value('@id','integer') as codeTagPosition

, j.value('(./text())[1]','char(1)') as IndividualCode

, OriginalSchema.value('Form[1]/Header[1]/AssessmentNumber[1]','INT') as RecNum

, xm.DateReceived

from

table1 xm

cross apply xm.originalschema.nodes('Form/Codes/code') x(j)

where

xm.act = 1

and xm.state = 'Y'

and schema.value('Form[1]/Header[1]/ClientId[1]','INT') = @ClientId

)t

where

not t.IndividualCode is null

)t2

where t2.myRowNum = 1

i have put that code into a UDF and OUTER APPLYed it in another query.