if i ever get to debug / performance tune something that is written by someone else that is as simple as

update table1

set field1 = value1

, field2 = value2

then i will be truly amazed.

however, i get complicated selects with ridiculous joins that i have to work out why on earth they've done it (and every time they'll have left the company before i get called in).

so i have to spend ages trying to work out what they are trying to achieve just from what their code does - which may not even be correct.

if they'd only given me a few clues i could have not wasted my time and the company's money guessing!

one of the ones recently i had to do included "where isnull(column1, '') = value1" and value1 could never be an empty length string.