yes I see now.

The 'n' in the second to last CTE of the original query that I posted called Test(n) refers to the row_number values assigned to n column in the cte prior to that, and is also used by the DATEADD function to control the number of minutes to increment by.

so, if it is important that the first datetime stamp in the first row not increment at all, than the row_number in the first row needs to =0.

I figure at this rate of chugging through such problems, I will, at the age of 50, be a plausible thinker:Wow: To be the one to actually come up with these solutions would be awesome.