• Erin Ramsay (10/4/2013)

    More ideas.

    Normalize your data and then you aren't fighting this. Honestly the biggest challenge you are facing is the lack of normalization.

    That being said you have a real challenge here. You might be able to use the logic from today's article about grouping islands of contiguous dates. I am pretty swamped at the moment but if nobody else jumps in to help I can try to take a look at this early next week.

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/71550/[/url]

    _______________________________________________________________

    Need help? Help us help you.

    Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

    Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/